BP Share Launch Banner
When BP launched their share issue in 1987, event and publicity company, Impact, wanted to make the country stop and take notice. What followed was the conception of a big ideas – a 100m x 35m banner emblazoned with the company logo and the share price at launch displayed in giant numbers.
Working alongside Buro Happold and Impact, Architen Landrell manufactured the vast banner in seven separate strips of PVC coated polyester mesh. The logo was hand painted onto the panels in order to ensure that when they hung alongside each other to reveal the whole picture.
After printing, the manufacturing team sewed three giant, digital figures of eight onto the panels – the share price was kept so secret that the numbers were only adapted into the final price the night before the launch!
In order to keep the information as secret as possible, and to attract maximum publicity, the numbers were kept hidden until the moment of revelation! The banner was hung during the early hours of the morning, and at the moment of truth six abseiling marine commandoes released a series of covers to reveal the share price!!
The publicity stunt proved a memorable and newsworthy event with national coverage – it really did make the Impact which its planners intended!
