Over across the pond they've recently come up with some pretty awesome ways to stand out and turn advertising into one memorable experience.
The Lightsaber of Zeus
To mark the release of "Star Wars: The Complete Saga" on Blu-ray, the famous London BT Tower was transformed into the World's Largest Lightsaber. Now, coming from someone who watched the original trilogy about 50 times and may or may not still have all of his Star Wars action figures locked away in his closet, this is one of the coolest things I have ever seen as a fan of Star Wars or as a person on this planet. Personally, I think whoever realized that the BT Tower looked like a Lightsaber handle was a complete genius because if there was any way to grab the attention of every person in sight of the London skyline, this was it..
There to kick off the event was Anthony Daniels, otherwise known as C-3PO, who launched the release by pressing a massive power switch that was following with the classic roar of the Lightsaber ignition. Then, the state-of-the-art lighting projected a beam of light 200m into the air from the top of the 189m tower. More than 60 4,500W lights (standing 1.3 m high and each weighing 124kg) combined to produce a parallel blue ray of light.
Off in the distance, platoons of cosplay Stormtroopers and one very convincing Darth Vader gathered with fans for photo ops to keep the celebration going. You've seen the cliché shots of people holding up the Leaning Tower of Piza or pinching the point at the top of the Taj Mahal, but holding a giant Lightsaber from off in the distance has to take the cake on this one; even though Darth Vader's Lightsaber was red.. what's up with that??
The Wizarding World of.. Hong Kong?
Over across the other pond, Hong Kong advertisers transformed the Times Square Mall on Lantau Island into a little taste of the Harry Potter experience as part of the promotion for the summer release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. I was actually in Hong Kong to see this exhibit in person (I didn't go just to see it mind you), but it was pretty spectacular nonetheless. The HK Metro stops right under the mall, which was perfectly fitting for the fact that the famous Platform 9 3/4 along with the Hogwarts Express was parked right outside of the Station. Then you walk into the mall, which has a big open area in the center and quite fitting for the replica of the Wizard shopping district of Diagon Alley..
Did you wanna get your own wand? Ollivander's had you covered. Maybe you could pick up a copy of the Daily Prophet to read up on your Magical news stories. Books? Flourish and Blotts, the bookstore, was there too. Even a Pet-shop to buy your own fake pet owl! I'm not much of a Harry Potter reader myself, but this definitely grabbed my interest and I actually felt like a child for the short time I spent exploring this little exhibit. The movie soundtrack was even playing through the corridors and you actually felt like you were in this magical world.
In terms of advertising; this was a home run. I can't think of a better way to attract people to watch the movie than putting the viewer in the movie themselves! I'm sure even non-fans went and bought a ticket after getting a taste of this little wonderland, I know I did..
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