When London ad agency 18 Feet & Rising conceived Project Ocean in conjunction with Selfridges, who wanted to take a proactive role in protecting endangered fish stocks, over 20 environmental and conservation groups, including the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) joined forces with the retailer to celebrate the beauty of the ocean and highlight these issues.
In order to encourage donations and engage passers-by they commissioned digital specialists Clusta to develop a number of digital touch points for the campaign including a dynamic website, iPhone App and interactive digital ocean. A custom physics engine was built to animate the fish.
The main 4m x 2m interactive window – supported by a giant slogan asking ‘No more fish in the sea?’ – is based on a solution engineered by Paradigm AV, to support a 2 x 2 dnp (2,800 x 2,100 resolution) rear projection wall matrix. It is the highlight of a number of features that adorn the department store-front. Elsewhere, campaigner chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his Fish Fight have a window highlighting the wasteful madness of discards.
But it is the main window on the corner of Oxford Street and Duke Street which catches the eye. Aside from the four 80” dnp cross-prism screens, which make up the media display, the combination of custom software and Visual Planet foil, supplied by Paradigm and operating in real time, provides an advanced integrated solution. Users are able to engage with the ocean scene at street level, text donations and watch their fish being born in real-time as their donation is received.
Co-founded by Matt Clugston in 1997, Clusta has worked on other interactive in-store promotions and specializes in digital advertising and iPhone apps such as this. Needing to drive both the website and digital window from a common database — and to create this realism at the concept planning stage — they trawled the internet until they found Paradigm
“This was the first time we had worked with Paradigm and they supported the project throughout,” said Clugston. During that time the window spec was upscaled, and the original 10K projectors upgraded to the higher output Panasonic PT-D12000 SXGA+ 12K devices, fitted with 0.8:1 fixed-focus short-throw lens.
Paradigm also supplied the projection towers, projector mounts and mullion and screen frames for the display — as well as set-up and installation — and prior to commissioning helped arrange brightness and rig tests.
The company also installed portable units to cope with the heat kicked out by the four projectors.
Situated in the window gantry along with a webcam, the system’s PC’s can be remotely accessed by both Paradigm and Clusta, and system healthchecks, diagnostics and reprogramming carried out accordingly.
The launch campaign will last for five weeks following its official opening by HRH Prince Charles, supported by above the line advertising and billboard/poster sites. Meanwhile, the concept designers can be satisfied in the knowledge that the website, iPhone App and interactive window are all contributing significantly to the volume of money being donated to the campaign.
