Mobile Scratchy Proves “Huge Success”

Pride In Print media release (May 18, 2011)

Mobile Scratchy Proves “Huge Success”

A ground-breaking promotional campaign involving a bus adorned with printed Instant Kiwi tickets touring the country’s main centres has proved a major hit for New Zealand Lotteries.

The Scratchy Bus Road Trip is understood to be a world-first promotion and is also thought to be the first time a printer has been required to produce scratchy tickets for large-format outdoor use.

DDB New Zealand producer Andy Robilliard says the concept was developed by subsidiary Mango to celebrate new and improved Instant Kiwi tickets.

“The experience gave Kiiws the chance to change their day in an instant via an interactive and engaging event, toured around the country,” he says.

“Everyone who scratched the bus was in the running for cash prizes -- up to $10,000 -- and Instant Kiwi tickets. The experience connected the public with the Instant Kiwi brand and tickets in an unforgettable way.

“The project was an overwhelming success. The PR generated by the road trip -- 14 cities in 28 days -- ensured an extremely efficient marketing campaign that delivered a large increase in ticket sales for New Zealand Lotteries.”

Mr Robilliard says the project is likely to be re-run next year in a further evolved form, utilising the same printing industry specialists, Impressions International and Omnigraphics

“They are both long-time suppliers of the DDB Group, who have partnered with us on many innovative marketing projects over the years. Impressions’ Bill and Dale Bamford and their team regularly push the boundaries for us and we believe them to be the regional leaders in the label printing market.”

Impressions managing director Bill Bamford says the project required a high level of planning.

“We first printed some A4 scratch panels, deployed them outside and subjected them to a variety of tests including being struck with a fire hose at various strengths to simulate the bus being cleaned and heavy rain,” he says.

“We then applied to a billboard fabric and let that get good exposure to the wind and sun to see if its movement as a ‘flag’ would cause the scratch silver to crack or come off .This was repeated over four to six weeks until we were confident it would stand up on the billboard and bus, yet still scratch off reasonably easily.

“Then we had to think through the application to the bus and billboard and instigate a system of applying the panels in the correct places. We could not see what prizes were on each as they were covered up by the scratch panel and in the case of the billboard we had to put a ‘blocker’ in the panel we were printing so it could not be read from behind when mounted.

“This was another exciting label application. We like to be challenged and it makes working in our field so interesting -- especially when it is successful and the client is appreciative of all our efforts.”

The Instant Kiwi Bus and Billboard Scratchy work has been entered in the Innovation Category of this year’s Pride In Print Awards, being held at the Wellington TSB Bank Arena on Friday May 20.

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