12/03/07

Londonstani Graffiti & Film

So, the final post on this campaign. (Read the background here, here and here)

The plan was that we would to do something wild, something that totally circumnavigated the mainstream media (the very same media that had had the knives out and so very sharp for the book when it was published in hardback).

We agreed the strategy - which was to use channels we could communicate through (i.e. MySpace and 100,000 hand-distributed samplers of the first 80 pages of the book) to get the content of the book into the hands of the target audience so they could make up their own minds about whether to read it or not.

But we still wanted to do something really attention grabbing.

What we suggested was taking over (i.e. buying) all the media space at one of the three Hounslow tube stations. And going in there with a team of graffiti artists and bombing the whole station. All the 48 sheets, the other media space, the adshels, the waiting rooms - everything. (Hounslow - where the book is set - is on the Heathrow line so as well as the district line traffic anyone coming into London on the underground would see what we would do. We also figured the media might be interested in it if it did come off.)

The client loved the idea, the author loved the idea, the media buying agency loved the idea. But, coming just after Christmas when some other people got there first (possibly without paying for the media space) LRT / TFL put their foot down. Nope.

It was a pretty firm no, too.

The upshot has been that rather than doing a live graffiti piece, in situ, we agreed to do all the posters (on some hastily bought media space) using the team we had lined up to work on the piece anyway. Now, weeks later, the artwork has been produced, and printed, and the ads hit London in a couple of weeks. There will be some 48 sheet numbers in Hounslow (although, still, TFL won’t touch em) as well as a load of other sites around London. All in all it looks good, the client is delighted - even if it is very different from what was first presented.

We made a short film about the artist, a guy called Remi (who also goes by the name of Rough, and is the frontman for a band called reptiles currently getting quite a name for themselves on the live circuit in London). The film is about how he works, and we see him putting together the ideas for the poster. As with our other recent films, the music is by Linkwood. Let us know what you think, here or on YouTube - we’d love to know.