The Grand National is one of the nation’s most
iconic and historic sporting events and takes place every April at Aintree. To capture the excitement of this year’s
race, Coral let us loose in Liverpool to stage our own aquatic version of the
Grand National, featuring a team of highly skilled flyboarders, dressed as
jockeys with model horses…what could go wrong?
This was a project of two halves. Firstly, we needed to produce all of the
components to hold the race and then we needed a PR plan to ensure that we
maximized all opportunities to publicise our client Coral.
We had approximately three months to produce the
race so that we could film it for the press and social media. We needed to source the flyboarders, find a
Liverpool location, costume designer, model makers for the horses’ heads,
photographer, film crew and drone operator.
We also needed to pray for good weather; fog,
wind or rain would have delayed proceedings considerably.
The race deadline was April 3rd, the
day we were set to stage Coral’s Grand Splashional at the Liverpool Water
Sports Centre. The weather was on our side,
a crisp morning with stunning sunshine and a breathtaking backdrop of some of
Liverpool’s most recognisable landmarks.
The setting was perfect for us to re-enact the
Grand National in our own epic style. We
filmed the tension of the build up to the event, the jostling for position at
the start, the excitement of the 300m race and the euphoria of flying over the
finish line.
With the filming in the
can, the job was only half done - we had great content, it was now time to
share it with the press. Our efforts
were not in vain, on the morning of April 5th we woke up to three
half-page spreads in The Sun, The Express and The Daily Star as well as
widespread coverage in the regionals and online in several of the nationals and
the video received nearly 80,000 views on social media. The project came in on time, on budget and
delivered great press and social coverage.
Hats off to Aquatic
Jetpacks who provided the team of flyboarders and to the film crew who were out
on the water too – the sun may have been shining but apparently that water was
cold and they were in there ALL day!
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