Taking Care of Garnier

Posted by bkisbigblog on

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Client: Garnier (L’Oreal)

Agency:  oOh!media

Brief: Centrepiece of Garnier Shopping Centre Activation

The fish seem happy with the purity of the product...

For Garnier’s recent promotional spend, oOh!media asked Big Kahuna to create four jumbo-sized Garnier shampoo bottles to serve as the centerpiece of the beauty brand’s shopping centre activation currently winding its way through Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Working with Melbourne-based aquarium manufacturer Aquatic Creations, Big Kahuna convinced oOh!media that, whilst cheaper, vac-forming the bottles would present an inferior product not worthy of the client’s delicately-powerful product.

To vac-form the bottles would have created a seamy, bubble-magnetic, hollow bottle  requiring a coat of translucent spray paint, whereas moulding the bottles allowed us to achieve a much smoother, more realistic end result. Although this method of pouring resin for such a large object is fraught with danger due to extremely high exotherms and distortion risks, Big Kahuna devised and tested a unique formulation of premium, water-clear polyurethane resin specifically for this application.

And when we say “devised and tested”, we did exactly that. Our initial expectation that the very mould-friendly, lozenge-shaped object would be relatively easy to de-mould from a fibreglass hard mould turned out to not be the best course of action. This method would have been fine if the temperature of the high volume of resin curing hadn’t exceeded the fibreglass’ heat deflection causing the two to fuse in parts. For a one-off mould, we could have simply sanded out any imperfections but with four, perfect reproductions required, we reverted to the safety of platinum-cured silicone.

Researching techniques on-the-fly is a mainstay of Big Kahuna’s high-demand, time-critical supply ability. First-class technician Steve Reid again led the Big Kahuna team to a very successful result as Will had promised.

Bringing the whole activation together, the bottles were mounted into a custom-built fish tank by Aquatic Creations for a spectacular effect.

So, what did the client think of the job? 

“The bottles are fantastic. They exceed our expectations and we couldn’t be happier with the finish. Thanks for your hard work and professionalism. Your attention to detail is evident in the final product.”

—  Hannah Murphy, Campaign Manager oOh!media, Melbourne

More pictures…

DO-ing the Lenovo DO Machine

Posted by bkisbigblog on with 1 Comment

len1_large

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whovJTL_vF8&w=560&h=349]

The Lenovo DO Machine was realised in the Big Kahuna workshop.

Much of the TVC was filmed in and around our workshop in Rozelle, NSW.

Client:     Lenovo (in partnership with Intel)

Agency:   Play Communication

Brief:       Bring to fruition the suped-up motorbike of Play and Lenovo’s dreams for “The Dream Realisation Project”

Successive winner of experiential marketing awards Play Communication and their client, tech-giant Lenovo (in partnership with Intel) imagined a new marketing campaign built around the idea of DO-ing what you’ve always dreamt of, in conjunction with Lenovo’s global brand re-launch “Lenovo, For Those Who Do”.

They carefully cast the handsome, chiselled pract-ocrat to be the face of the Lenovo campaign. He was to build the motorbike of his dreams — cue Big Kahuna Imagineering: as both the builders of the motorbike and the DO-er’s workshop — backdrop of the campaign (becoming the fifth time we’ve proudly had our workshop used in a campaign as the set and environment!).

With brief in hand, Big Kahuna set to work transforming two heavy, old, powerful bikes into “dream machines” — monster motorbikes with not one but six, fully-functioning Lenovo computers built-in. We stripped them down, scrubbed them clean and blasted them with a new coat of menacing, militaria-like dusky-grey primer akin to an “Air fix” scale model.

Motorbike with sidecar before a dose of the Big Kahuna brand magic…
Primed and ready

The all over dusky-grey colour was implemented tactically during WWII, rendering assistance to discreet messenger runs by reducing the enemy’s retinal contrast ratio detection ability, at dusk, when colour perception to distant objects by the cones in the foveal or focusing vision became impaired with the onset of nightfall, yet there was just enough light for a rider to negotiate a route without a headlamp.

Once fresh and clean, we caked on the fake mud and smearing fabricated bugs across the front to give the impression they have survived the rigors of driving all over Australia while cradling Lenovo’s precious cargo.

The “Dream” of the “Dream Realisation project” really took root here (visually) with Play’s art direction. Thereafter, Lenovo’s cache of new display models with superior PC features like impact-tolerant TFT screens and their fully-flat opening laptop hinge could take its XM stage.

Final realisation

As a brand display, the wicked set of computing tools sell themselves on the blanched, yet magnetic construct of the bikes — a case study of just ONE man’s dream!! Surely the punters can’t deny themselves the demonstrated offer that implies a Lenovo DO thingy* will help deliver their DO-able dreams too! *Albeit, a Giga-whiz-tech-bit, supported by Intel’s latest and greatest tiptotanium-coated, über-splankiferous, critico-nerd squishing technology.

Technology – it’s all in the application. Everyone computes.  Lenovo effects, for the DO-ing kind.  “Do you DO?”, this activation posits.  Experiential prop designs usually involve exaggerating the distinctive features or wholes of what’s for sale in the stores, so the ‘shelf-pick’ is compelled – easy. This below-the-line campaign piece is brilliantly personal at its core.  Very pervasive, yet subversively persuasive.

Currently greeting domestic travelers disembarking in Melbourne, the Lenovo DO Machine will soon be found in Brisbane, Sydney and Auckland domestic Virgin terminals.

More pictures of the making of Lenovo’s DO Machines…

Similar installations and promotional devices propelled by the Big Kahuna brand…

Pledging to Quit

Posted by bkisbigblog on

Client:      Naked Communications

Brief:       Build attention-grabbing experiential props to help Nicabate® deliver their ‘Pledge to Quit’ message on World No Tobacco Day (31 May)

Fashion designer Alex Perry, the 2011 World No Tobacco Day ambassador, standing with the Pledge to Quit hand realised in the Big Kahuna workshop. (Photos courtesy of the Pledge to Quit Facebook page).

In the lead up to World No Tobacco Day, Nicabate® developed Pledge to Quit, a campaign which attempted to set an Australian Record for the largest number of people pledging to quit smoking. To help convey Nicabate’s message, the innovative and imaginative team at Naked Communications asked Big Kahuna to build call-to-action props that would capture the attention of passing city-dwellers.

For the hero prop, we crafted a towering, 3D hand with the well-recognised ‘Pledge to Quit’ band around the two smoking fingers. To create this very photographic (and photographed) piece we sculpted the basic form from polystyrene before fibreglassing it (a stinky job we left for Jim) to make it tough as nails. Then, we gave it a two-pack automotive ‘royal’ paint treatment before extruded block form lettering was stood-off via stainless steel sheathed posts emanating from the structure’s internal armature. To keep the 3-metre hand standing steady in the winter wind, we incorporated a 160kg concrete block which slipped into a cavity in the wrist.

Here’s a quick look at the evolution of the 3D hand…

To complement the big hand, Big Kahuna also built two pop-up hands which were CNC routed out of lightweight, durable Sign-ex (or, as we like to call it, Fart-board in honour of the lovely aroma it lets off when you cut it – pun intended). These additional hands stood about 2-metres tall with the message applied to the palm via acrylic lettering in relief.

On World No Tobacco Day, the Big Kahuna team carefully installed the 3D hand in Wynyard Park, Sydney, while the two flat hands made their way to Melbourne and Brisbane.

Check photos — Facebook.

Click Nicabate — more info.

Good luck quitting!

Lap 1 of Memory Lane

Posted by bkisbigblog on

When Big Kahuna Imagineering turned 11 this year, we did a little jaunt down memory lane. Here’s our first lap:

TRULY OFF-THE-WALL BRAND PROMINENCE DEVICES

Custom-designed and fabricated mirrorball for Motorola’s Good Charlotte gig, 2007

Motorola Mirrorball for Good Charlotte Gig

Paddington Town Hall, 2007

The Big Kahuna team got the chance to flex our artistic muscles when Motorola gave us full creative license to come up with something that would wow guests at the Good Charlotte performance they sponsored in 2007. We answered their request with a one-of-a-kind, internally-lit, 1.2m disco ball decorated with Motorola phones and CDs.

Hung from the ceiling of Paddington Town Hall with care, that glowing mirrorball was the shining centrepiece to the event. The value in this project was not so much in its commercial viability but its WOW factor and the contribution it made to the overall atmosphere of the event.

VIDEO CLIP of Good Charlotte & our mirrorball…

BKI’s Motorola Mirrorball hung from the ceiling of Paddington Town Hall

_________________________________________________

Cascade Propellor

Prop for TVC

This behemoth of a propellor is “off-the-wall” because it didn’t scream, “CASCADE! CASCADE! CASCADE!” but still had everyone talking about, well, Cascade.

The Brief: To create a replica of an oversized propellor that would be used as the centrepiece of Cascade’s next TVC. The commercial spun the tale of Tasmanians planning to propel their chunk of Australia away from the mainland to save their delicious beer from greedy mainlanders. When we took on this project with only five days to finish, an industry compatriot of 25 years experience told us we were… well, let’s just say the word he used started with an “f” and ended with a “d”.

Ignoring the doubters and in true Big Kahuna fashion, we rose to the challenge and pulled off the project to an impeccable standard. The best part? Being able to stand in front of this propellor with its artistically-rendered exterior and let the visual deception convince you that it has survived five decades of hard service on the seas instead of five days in the Big Kahuna workshop.

VIDEO CLIP of Cascade TVC…

On the set of Cascade TVC

_________________________________________________

STX Shipbuilding Company TVC

This project was high-risk because so much had to be left to the last minute. The South Korean shipbuilding company STX asked Big Kahuna to create a scale model of an ice sheet that would realistically crush and break apart as a replica of an icebreaker ship forced its way through it.

With no opportunity for a trial run, the one-day shoot was pressure enough. But, of course, it kicked up a few thousand notches when on the day the motor propelling the ship wasn’t powerful enough to trigger the separation of the faux-ice jigsaw we had created. We sourced and couriered motor after motor until we eventually found and installed the one that worked. When we finally got that perfect shot, the room full of 40 over-excited Koreans erupted in what we could only assume was a cacophony of delight.

Planning the jigsaw
Jigsaw mechanism designed by Big Kahuna (left) and the jigsaw on set of STX TVC
STX TVC set

Other past projects…