Constellation Wines & Blondie at Kenwood House, London

Only in this green and pleasant land might you get to sample some of the world’s finest wines while toe-tapping in your deck chair to a gig from the Queen of Punk herself, Debbie Harry.

More likely to be associated with New York dive club CBGB’s than the beautiful landscaped parkland of Hampstead Heath, Blondie was found this summer playing a set in the grounds of one of the most magnificent visitor attractions in London, Kenwood House. They were among a number of performers including Rufus Wainwright, Diana Krall, Will Young and Jamie Cullum, headlining throughout the summer as part of the English Heritage Picnic Concerts held annually at Kenwood House.

Of course Drive Productions were there too.

Constellation Wines, purveyors of fine wines from around the world, were invited to attend. The series of ‘picnic’ events run through the summer by English Heritage attracts the ideal demographic for sampling the Constellation range and Drive were asked by Frank PR to create the ideal stand, something that exudes class, sophistication and individuality but also functions flawlessly on a practical and ergonomical level to encourage visitors to try a quality tipple in style.

Our solution was an inflatable 4m x 4m marquee with branded zip-in panels and a custom designed counter and valance finished with a vinyl floor, ‘feather’ flags, pop-up stands, furniture, a fridge and bright weatherproof LED lighting.

 Very quick to assemble, the marquee inflates to create a rigid pyramidal shape, the interchangeable side wall panels allow us to swap out the branding according the sampling requirements of each gig.

 Blondie at Kenwood was attended by 8000 fans who enjoyed sitting under the sun with their picnics on a beautiful hot sunny day. The Constellation stand was one of the most popular on site.

Constellation Brands have their own heritage to celebrate. Founded in 1945 as a small, family-owned wine company in Canandaigua, New York, they are known today as a world-leader in the industry, achieving global success with an admirable portfolio of premium products across the wine, beer and spirits categories. Named brands include Robert Mondavi, Hardys, Clos du Bois, Blackstone, Arbor Mist, Estancia, Ravenswood, Jackson-Triggs, Kim Crawford, Corona Extra, Black Velvet Canadian Whisky and SVEDKA Vodka.

In 2010 Constellation was ranked the No. 7 biggest brand owner in the world. Bottoms Up.

Drive-in get interior

Razorfish may refer to a common name used for three unrelated groups of fish. But it’s more commonly known as the global agency that helps companies build great brands and then engineers engaging experiences for their consumers anywhere in the digital world.

Recently bought by Publicis, the worlds’ third-largest advertising group, they moved offices to the Charlotte St. home of Saatchi and Saatchi. Clearly needed to keep up with the Jones’.

Hence Drive Productions were invited to redesign their new reception area.

We brainstormed with the client for theme ideas and our starting point became mid- century-modern. Lost? Call it ‘Madmen’ vs ‘The Age of Hope’. Let’s face it, we all need a bit of that. Still lost? Just take a look at the pictures (link??).

The client wanted us to create an inspiring space where visitors and clients would feel comfortable and want to return to follow up their business. So that’s exactly what they got.

We efficiently dispensed with unnecessary walls. Increased the space and created the discreet storage required by the reception area. An Iroko-clad feature wall brought warmth and character into the room whilst winking at the wooden cladding popular in the 50s. The reception desk itself calmly announces: ’50′s trailer park / Airstream vibe’, with its ‘bumper’ design Iroko cladding matching the feature wall and Macassar ebony desktop. With only a 4-week lead time, achieving the fabrication of this desk for the deadline was impressive.

A bespoke-built whopping great 20 foot grey-wool weave sofa, specifically designed to fit the shape of the room now provides Razorfish with numerous reconfiguration options. One: a comfortable but open presentation area where their Microsoft surface table (enclosed in a mid-century modern surround and veneered in Zebrano) can take precedence. Two: a day bed for clients lulled into a false sense of security. Three: any other business.

Soft curves, inspired by 1950‘s-60’s living rooms, juxtaposed with desirable designer contemporary items: the Johnny Egg ‘flocked’ Daphne teal table lamp from Heals. Habitat’s tripod floor lamp with Empire-style metallic bronzed foil interior shade.
Sanderson’s Dandelion Clocks fabric-covered chair. A cow skull carved from walnut adding a touch of the wild west.

Shall we go on? Or leave you languishing in a state of luxurious envy?

For more information on how Drive-in can transform your space go here

Sustainable timber guaranteed.

Drive win pitch for the Seve Ballesteros Foundation

Drive recently won the pitch to design and produce Viva la Vida, Cancer Research UK’s new annual fundraiser inspired and hosted by one of the world’s most famous and charismatic sports stars, Seve Ballesteros.

Sophie Cannon of CRUK Supporter Partnerships Executive gives the new collaboration an enthusiastic response: ‘We are very excited to be working with Drive Productions on Viva La Vida. This is such a special event and we needed a very creative and professional production company to really bring it to life. After being presented with an especially tough brief, they have produced fabulous ideas for the event and I truly believe they will ensure the whole evening will be a once in a lifetime experience!’
The event will be held at one of Drive’s favourite London fundraiser venues, Battersea Evolution and promises to be a spectacular evening. 500 VIP guests will join celebrities from the worlds of sport, music and screen for a night of fantastic food, great entertainment – and, of course, a celebration of the precision game of club-and-ball known as golf. An award ceremony will be held, with Seve joined by special guests & golfing colleagues, past and present.

Imogen Hammond, Creative Director of Drive Productions is reluctant to let any secrets slip regarding the theme of the extravaganza but was prevailed upon to admit that Drive’s winning creative theme is called ‘Passion for Life’ and will be based around the celebration of the energy and passion behind the foundation’s pioneer and his glorious game: ‘We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to present this to the Seve Ballesteros Foundation and Cancer Research UK and to make this a fabulous and successful event which forges a link between golf’s underlying principle of fairness and the right each person has to live a long and healthy life’.

Don’t miss one of the most exciting fundraising events of the season. All net proceeds from this event will go directly towards Cancer Research UK’s brain cancer research. A table of 10 can be yours for £5,000. Booking information here.

Turn up the heat at High Voltage Festival & the UK finals

For all those who’ve been waiting for the release of this crucial date, your time has come. Never mind the World Cup – the Official UK Air Guitar Championships for 2010 are coming up – set to take place on Friday 6 August at London’s 02 Academy Islington.

You are now free plan your summer holidays with no qualms about missing the rock event of the year. But don’t leave it too long, this elemental movement is growing and tickets will be snapped up quick, so book yours here and now.

Drive Productions will for the fifth glorious year running be pulling out all the stops to produce another jaw-dropping spectacular for Air Guitar UK, http://www.airguitaruk.com who once again call on guitar gods of all ages to surrender their souls. Abuse your right as a mere mortal to pay homage to these instrument-free disciples to the invisible gods of rock and you won’t regret it.

Not only are Drive producing this awesome event but are also honoured to be holding a new official Championship heat at the rocking High Voltage Festival http://www.highvoltagefestival.com/
on the 24th & 25th July in London’s Victoria Park. As a run up to the final, the Air O’smiths Air Band will be in effect, standing shoulder to shoulder with rock giants such as ZZ Top, Foreigner and Marillion. Our crack team of judges will be giving festival hopefuls some critical feedback as contenders play to win the High Voltage crown and a free ticket to the Official UK Air Guitar Championships in August.

Zac Monro, aka ‘The Magnet’ and Director of Air Guitar UK takes a moment to remind us all: ‘These are difficult times and never has the need for salvation been greater. It hasn’t been easy, but our following is strong and we are thrilled to be able to confirm the dates for the UK Air Guitar Championship Final. For the initiated it is a yearly fix necessary for their frail mental health; for the rest it is always revelation…a life-changing experience for me: it will be for you!’

Go on. Do something useful in August. See you there.

http://www.airguitarworldchampionships.com

Drive – down under for the World Cup

Must say, this was one of the more surreal PR stunts we’ve done. Our objective was as follows: to get an Australian Socceroo fan over to Germany so that he could to string up a washing-line hung with giant-sized branded underpants outside Berlin’s key architectural monuments.

The underpants in question are vivid yellow y-fronts.

This came to us courtesy of the World Cup via our old friends Frank PR. They’ve been working alongside BMF, orchestrators of the ‘Lucky Undies’ campaign for Schweppes Australia – you know the one, the campaign that encourages fans to get behind Australia’s national team, the Socceroos, by donning a pair of bright yellow ‘Solo Lucky Undies’. Apparently it’s going very well.

Solo, a big seller for the heavy-weight drinks manufacturer, is the market leader of lemon soft drinks in Australia and is positioned as ‘a very masculine drink’. Its many TV commercials play to its overtly male image, the latest being “Game On” – since joining the Football Federation of Australia. When it turned out that Australia’s first game in the tournament was against Germany – well, everyone started getting really excited.

Drive Productions produced the stunt in Germany, creating a buzz around the World Cup in Berlin and simultaneously letting the German team know what they were up against. After ex-Germany player Paul Breitner’s comment about the national team knowing nothing about the Socceroos or the individual players, it’s just as well.

Now you’ve been primed you can see the footage for yourself on You Tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehUCflJsAfE

The results were beyond expectations. The Brandenberg Gate is a former city gate and one of the main symbols of Berlin and Germany, along with the other key locations chosen for the stunt: the Reichtag building, the notorious Checkpoint Charlie, the (remnants of the) Berlin wall and Alexander Platz in the old East part of the city. Needless to say, all these cultural bastions are extremely high security so getting the underpants in place was a considerable achievement. It’s not the sort of thing you get permission for in Germany.

The activity produced some seriously funny footage, some great press-worthy photographs and an overload of hilarious vox pops. Des Clarke, man of the moment, on the steps of the Reichstag wearing nothing but his scrungies made it all worth while.

He said: ‘I came to Germany to show them who the Socceroos are. Lets hope the Germans know their balls from their Undies’.

We said: 4 – 0

Drive – on the ball for England!

Has to be said: if England had won the World Cup we might have needed more than a KitKat to celebrate. But knowing what we do now, all we can say is that we did what we could: put our energies behind the KitKat World Cup campaign by encouraging the British public to cross their fingers for the England team and to send them to victory this summer.

And who better to officially launch the campaign than legendary footballer Sir Geoff Hurst, who came out of nowhere to make his mark in World Cup history as the only player to have scored a hat trick in a World Cup final. His three goals came in the 1966 final for England in their 4-2 win over West Germany at the old Wembley. Nice one!

A number of high-profile patriotic celebrities are up there helping give the thumbs up to our boys over in South Africa, including England cricketers and Twenty20 winners Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson. The TV ad

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89MsXbQVfWY&feature=email)

promoting the campaign & currently on air focuses on real fans and real football personalities, featuring a cameo appearance from the invincible football star Sol Campbell. All will be wishing England good luck by crossing their fingers.

As part of the campaign – and this is where Drive Productions comes in – a Pledge-O-Meter truck is touring the UK encouraging the general public to get involved and pledge their support for the team. Members of the public are approached by our promotional staff with hand-held PCs, who then take their picture and pledge information, transmitting it wirelessly to the big screen for all to see – a 7m square truck-mounted LED screen we rigged specifically for the event. Displaying content provided by KitKat, the coverage is interspersed with a website-style interface showing the ‘Pledge-o-meter’ stats as they come in from around the country. Participating celebrities, more than keen to stand behind Fabio’s lads, joined us at various locations throughout including actress Jennifer Ellison, star footballer turned TV pundit Gary Pallister and World Cup champion Norman Hunter who is quoted as saying ‘I know how much it means to have the nation’s support behind you.’ He should know, he was there in 1966.

The total number of pledges now stands at over 15,000. So come on. It’s your turn now. Pledge your support for England at

http://kitkat.co.uk/Flash/#/promotions/cross-your-fingers

It seems to be working so far!

Couch potatoes driven to get busy by tortilla titans

Drive think Big. We let nothing stand in our way. That’s why we set World Records for it.

Proud holders of the Guinness World Record for the Largest Cardboard Box Sculpture (Starsky & Hutch, Empire Games), contenders for the World’s longest Bar (Budweiser) and the largest ever Wedding Cake (Abbey Re-Brand) we decided to run for the World’s Largest Lounge Sofa.

Marking the finale of their ‘King of the Ads’ campaign, Doritos invited budding film-makers to create their own amateur Doritos adverts – with the finalist films to be shown on ‘a big screen’ and the chance to win a £200,000. The tortilla titans needed somewhere to chow down and watch the films – what better than the World’s Biggest Living Room, brought to you courtesy of Drive Productions with our long-standing partners Frank PR.

And ‘Lo. A giant sofa, table and lamp appear miraculously in London. Dwarfing Tower Bridge, shadowing Potters Fields and towering over Canary Wharf. Want the stats? The ‘sofa’ measured 9.760m wide by 3.658m deep by 3.66m high, and was constructed using staging platforms, scenic flats and finished with carpet. The ‘coffee table’ measured 7.32m wide x 2.44m deep x 1.68m high, built from trilite display truss, scenic flats, ply cladding and finished with ‘Doritos blue’ carpet. For the ‘TV screen’ we used a Barco 7m2 outdoor screen on a trailer unit that we clad and dressed to resemble a domestic TV cabinet. The ‘lamp’ was constructed using 31cm ‘A’ type truss on a baseplate strapped to stage decks and weighted down with 350kg of stage weights. The truss was clad with a 5m tube and the ‘shade’ was added to finish it off. The lamp stood at a height of 6.2m, with a 2m diameter ‘shade’. To finish the set we had a giant ‘TV remote control’ and ‘coffee mugs’ made by Model Makers in Bristol. The props were poly-carved and finished with Jesmonite.

All in a days work.

Featured in the Metro, the Daily Telegraph and on TV channel ITN the set was not short of admirers. With 2,500 film submissions, double the entries and half a mill recorded Doritos site-users this was a PR shakedown we’re proud to be part of.