The Adidas project and the Smartbird.
A couple of years ago we had been contacted by TBWA Argentina. They loved our flying solutions and thought this was a fresh and exciting idea to offer to their client Adidas for their upcoming event at the Copa America. We discussed the possibilities with their creative department and narrowed it down to this: the flying concept for this event must be an idea around a ball or soccer boots or both. These were the objects associated with soccer that could be converted with high realism.
TBWA then came back with the great idea of an Adidas soccer ball flying back and forth over traffic between two high rise buildings which have been fitted with huge die cuts of famous soccer stars. Back and forth between the agency and us, the scale and details were adjusted until we had an idea that was convertible. Adidas loved the concept and we had a deal. However, the hard part was to actually get permits to do such an action. TBWA quickly hit the wall with safety minded city administrations in Venezuela. The concept was finally converted in front of the stadium in Maracaibo where the semis and the final took place. Four huge billboards with die cuts of Messi and Kaka were erected and we provided the flying Adidas balls along with a specially developed outdoor security system. The balls flew back and forth between the soccer boots of the players over a crossing.
The Flying Bumblebee Camaro attracted masses at the Chevrolet booth.
If you think car shows in China are crowded, you don't know the Seoul Motor Show. Happening every two years, there must have been millions of visitors or at least it felt that way. For this year's mega event Airstage has designed a Flying Camaro for Chevrolet's large booth featuring a bunch of new models.
The Flying Car had the same iconic design, yellow with black stripes, as the famous Bumblebee in the movie Transformers. If there would have been a price for the most photographed object at the car show the Flying Camaro would have outright won it.
We (air-)staged 10 choreographed flights per event day and filled Chevrolet's booth time after time. Operating over such large crowds comes always along with a good portion of suspense for us. The Airstage pilot team had to proceed with utmost concentration to maneuver the Flying Camaro in greater distances around the large stand avoiding obstacles and maintaining a safe height above hundreds of heads consistently. You can find a video of all the action here.
Design study of the SmartBird and a test video.
You will recall the drawings of Leonardo DaVinci's flying machines trying to copy the bird flight from nature. It took more than 500 years for his vision to be realized: in 2011 finally the Festo SmartBird has arrived.
Airstage, part of Festo's Bionic Learning Network, has designed the SmartBird for Festo's trade shows and event activities. Airstage has played a major role in the development of this ingenious flying robot from the early design sketches by our engineers to its actual production in our facility. Before, nobody has gotten any farther than elementary models with simple flapping wing technology.
The SmartBird is inspired by a seagull and its design and flying capabilities are so true to nature that it can be easily mistaken for a real bird.
The SmartBird wings don't only beat up and down, but tilt at specific angels controlled by an intelligent micro-controller monitoring continuously all data and parameters during flight and making automatically real-time adjustments. The control of flight direction is achieved with a turning head and tail, just like real birds do it when they maneuver themselves through airspace!
Our previous experience with developments for Festo, especially the AirRay and AirPenguin, helped immensely to take things a giant step further in realizing the ambitious idea of a robot bird. The SmartBird was designed to prove and convey fresh ideas regarding the potential of greater energy efficiency in aviation. The SmartBird design has reached an unprecedented energy efficiency of staggering 80%. It's extremely light weight with a minimal use of components, materials and an ingenious drive technology made this stunning invention possible.
The Flying Sonic at the Chevrolet stand.
Chevrolet Detroit utilized for the first time the Flying Sonic at this year's International Auto Show in Atlanta. The Airstage Flying Car performed to perfection and was commented the most exciting attraction at this event. The project was conducted in cooperation with Jack Morton Worldwide, who developed the concept of the Chevrolet booth at this exhibition.
The Atlanta International Auto Show is not the largest car show around, but has a unique co
sy atmosphere, perfect to take an Airstage Flying Car to the air. The Flying Chevy Sonic was executed to perfection and its realistic design with a high level of detail made many in the crowd believe this is a real car taking off. For once there was plenty of space and the Flying Sonic cruised over the whole Chevrolet stand much to the enjoyment of the Chevy product managers and models. Of course they were a bit scared at first by such a large object flying close to them overhead. Our explanations that an Airstage Flying Car weighs only 5kg, is based on lighter-than-air technology and therefore can't fall out of the sky reassured all staff and they played around with this surprising show during their car presentations. In fact, Chevrolet was the only car brand at this motor show that offered it's visitors some exciting entertainment. No wonder, the Chevrolet stand was comparatively well attended (what happened to car shows in the US by the way?). Especially the kids were very ecstatic and danced along under the Flying Chevy Sonic all the way. You can watch a video here.
The new Youtube Live feature.
This new Youtube service should be an extremely interesting feature for event planners and their clientele. It's called Youtube Live and has been long anticipated in the event industry.
However, it seems to be still beta and the information Youtube publishes about it is more than cryptic. At present, all looks like a gradual launch to us which has been made first available to selected partners or high profile events. You need to become a Youtube partner to use the Live feature.
Youtube announced that they plan to make the service available to all partners in 2011. There is a lot of misleading information about how to become a Youtube partner on the web. This program is really an advertising program to place ads in videos and channels enabling Youtube partners (and of course Youtube itself) to make money. If you want to use Youtube Live, then there is no way around signing up for it.
Here is how it works:
There are a few things you need to know. Follow the below instructions and await a reply from Youtube.
- You need to apply first in the Youtube partner section. Please note that you cannot apply in all countries. If Youtube determines via your IP address you're not located in one of the countries in their list, trying to access the partner page only will link back to the Youtube home page without any further information why that has happened.
- Whether you will be approved as a partner or rejected depends on a couple of vague criteria: You need to have a Youtube Channel with decent traffic. Some tutorials mention a total view count of 200.000 and up. Don't forget that it is absolutely beneficial to use the provided toolbox to design and brand your channel. Users love a decent look!
The Flying Chevy Spark at an Azteca TV show.
For the recent launch of the Chevrolet Spark in Mexico Airstage has designed and produced two flying versions of the car model. It has been the first time an Airstage flying car has been utilized in this market. A series of events and guerrilla marketing actions were planned during the 201
0 Fifa World Cup, developed and arranged by GM Mexico's lead advertising agency McCann-Erickson. In cooperation with McCanns we devised a series of suitable applications for the Flying Sparks in line with the overall launch strategy.
For a period of nearly two weeks a series of events took place at a variety of locations. One Airstage team toured in Mexico City from shopping mall to shopping mall and surprised the shoppers with a flying presentation of the Chevy Spark. In similar style the other Airstage team operated twice at the Mexico City international airport in terminal 2. We hope sincerely nobody missed a flight!
The Flying Chevrolet Spark on Mexican TV: the buzz began
The most exciting part of this project was to fly one Spark in several high-profile Mexican TV shows of broadcasting networks such as Azteca and Telemundo. The TV shows were partly live and partly recorded. The live television programs have been of course the rather suspenseful gigs and the Airstage team piloted the flying car to perfection, but not without a few drops of sweat here and there. The word of the Flying Chevrolet Spark has spread quickly hereafter and a few other networks like MTV showed up, to get their footage of the 'talk of the town'. We would say, General Motors has made the most out of their advertising budget with this highly successful campaign and we had a lot of fun being part of its conversion. Actually the Spark launch became sort of a reference project for us, when we need to explain to our clients how to get the most value and impact out of our flying solutions. The events and actions have been so cleverly linked up that the buzz in the city reached quickly incredible levels. Youtube, like always, tells us the story.