For several years, Columbus, OH-based Nationwide Insurance has executed a humorous TV-, billboard- and print-ad campaign that features the company’s slogan, “Life Comes at You Fast,” that humorously depicted long-term changes happening instantly to underscore the need to plan and adapt insurance coverage. Last year, Nationwide enlisted Irving, TX-based t:m, the advertising firm that developed the creative content for the campaign’s other formats, and Orange Barrel Media (Columbus), a billboard-sales company that brought fabrication inhouse, to develop a wallscape for a building that faces High and Spring streets, two primary Columbus thoroughfares. Their initial wallscape featured a romance-novel theme, but Nationwide wished to push the envelope.
“We wanted to create a flashy, interactive landscape that expanded beyond the wall surface,” Leigh Sander, t:m’s creative director, said. “We considered a projection screen, which would have been brilliant at night, but instead chose a format that would be prominent throughout the day.”
Using the photographer’s original image files, t:m used Photoshop® to subtly manipulate the image before sending it to Orange Barrel, which punctuated the design with 100 gallons of paint (PMS-matched to the wallscape’s paint shade) that drenched the wall, parking lot and several prop vehicles below. All told, the spectacular’s area encompassed 15,000 sq. ft. According to Pete Scantland, Orange Barrel’s general manager, eight employees worked on the project for one week. The company output the wrap with 13-oz., mesh material on a |2324| 5300 solvent-ink printer. He said the project, which will remain in place for approximately six months, would generate approximately 1.5 million impressions monthly. Scantland said, “Motorists are getting out of their cars to see if it’s real. The buzz it creates yields a win-win-win situation for the client, t:m and Orange Barrel Media.”