ImagemakerSpring 2016

Wherever there is an Audience, there is a Mission for Total Brand Activation.

In this issue:Singapore: Inside Out The Future of Us Mercedes-Benz GLC Driving Event Bahrain PlayStation Gaming Experience Wanders into the Flow of Literature: The Chinese Calligraphy of Law Ching Bor BMW Masters Dow Japan Innovation Day

Singapore: Inside Out Beijing, London, New York and Singapore

Singapore: Inside Out (SG:IO) was a travelling showcase featuring a collection of multi-sensory experiences designed by creative talents from the city drawn from a huge spectrum of disciplines – architecture, food, fashion, film, music, literature, design and the visual arts. Each of these talents came together in this exciting experiential feast for the senses.

Travelling to four world cities – Beijing, London, New York and Singapore – the showcase had a number of goals to fulfil. First and foremost, the showcase sought to raise the profile of Singapore as a vibrant and creative city – expanding international perceptions beyond the city’s well-known reputation as a clean, safe economic powerhouse, and showing the world that Singapore also possesses a wealth of creative talent.

SG:IO promoted Singapore’s diverse creative talents by giving them international exposure and local recognition; the intention being to broaden their audiences and facilitate collaboration and partnerships around the world.

Finally, the exhibition acted as an open invitation to local and overseas ‘fans and friends of Singapore’, encouraging them to enjoy the exhibition as a way of participating in the SG50 Golden Jubilee celebrations.

Pico provided a turnkey event management services for SG:IO at every stop of the tour, helping to ensure its successful delivery to a cumulative audience of almost 50,000 people around the world. We were responsible for ensuring that the show’s eye-catching main structure, which featured a 30m-by-25m modular scaffolding illuminated by LED lights at night, was safely put up and taken down.

The showcase’s massive scale presented several logistical challenges in terms of freight, materials sourcing, artist management and local regulations. As usual, our teams of experts in each city provided timely and creative solutions to these problems, ensuring the exciting and successful delivery of each showcase.

The Future of Us Singapore

The Future of Us exhibition was a one-of-a-kind immersive, multi-sensory experiential exhibition which offered a glimpse into how Singaporeans could live, work, play, care and learn in the future. Rounding off a year-long series of SG50 celebrations, the exhibition called on Singaporeans to share their hopes and dreams for themselves, their families and the nation, and encouraged them to participate in steering Singapore safely into the future.

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Pico was involved in this inspirational project from start to finish, participating first in content development and the design process and then proceeding to create and materialise the experience through fabrication, multimedia and operations services.

Running for 97 days between December 2015 and March 2016, The Future of Us was set up in the green heart of Singapore, at the Gardens by the Bay. The exhibition pavilion was made up of four massive domes that transported visitors into the year 2030 through an amazing ‘showcase of possibilities’, realised through innovative exhibition techniques like a giant 360-degree dome projection, 270-degree wraparound LED show walls with projection model mapping, holograms, transparent screen technology and many others.

Pico’s primary task was to create an integrated multi-sensory environment that was inspiring, memorable and impactful. The overall design of the exhibition needed to convey a clear and compelling story, and be presented in a refreshing, creative way. We succeeded in meeting these objective on so many levels.

This was an exceptionally ambitious undertaking which involved input from 15,000 Singaporeans aged between 4 and 90 and coming from all walks of life. After months of work conducting and curating their input, the five main experiences of The Future of Us were devised. The first was seven minute, 360-degree dome video created and narrated specially for the event and combining live actors with an entirely computer-generated environment. The second experience was a photo-realistic immersive video depicting what it might be like to live in the future, broadcast on a vast 25m x 3m LED screen stretching around a large room, at the centre of which lay a future master plan of Singapore video-mapped onto a special model table.

The third experience was an imaginative journey into a futuristic Singapore, giving the visitor a fascinating walk through and peek into ‘the windows of our future’, to see how Singaporeans might live, work, play and care in the year 2030. The fourth experience involved reaching out to each visitor through a high-tech ‘wishing well’ which collected and collated the wishes of the visitors, while the fifth and final experience saw visitors playing together to power their dreams.

The storyline and flow of information presented in the Future of Us Pavilion was critical to engaging visitors. Pico harnessed the power of cutting-edge audio visual presentations, interactive installations, videos, visuals, infographics, simulations, illustrations, charts and graphs to distil and present complex information; ensuring that every concept was easily understood and not too ‘text-heavy’. In terms of the structure, the pavilion’s striking mosaic-like façade design, made of over 11,000 unique lattice panels, left a lasting impression on visitors and its attractive, modern and iconic design became a talking – and photo – point throughout the duration of the exhibition.

The preparation and hard work of the Pico team and our partners resulted in massive exposure and success for The Future of Us. Visitor numbers were extremely impressive – over 4,000 visitors arrived on the first day alone and a total of close to 400,000 visitors over the 97 days. The exhibition’s Facebook page attracted 36,000 ‘likes’, while Channel News Asia aired a 30-minute documentary called ‘Creating The Future of Us’, which heavily featured the Pico Singapore team.

“It has been my absolute honour to serve with what I think has to be the crème de la crème, the Justice League of Pico at the top of your game. An impossible project when we started with barely just over 9 months in CNY 2015 and then running a full-fledged ops from 1 Dec became not only possible but enjoyable on many many occasions. Thank you for bearing with us and our demands and constantly responding with so much lightning speed and flexibility.” - Gene Tan, Creative Director, The Future of Us, Centre for Liveable Cities. Ministry of National Development.

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Mercedes-Benz GLC Driving Event Hong Kong

In early November, Mercedes-Benz held a totally unique and spectacular off-road private driving event at Hong Kong’s Central Harbourfront. Raising brand awareness, particularly of their SUV models, was their primary goal with Mercedes-Benz wanting to provide their elite customers with an advanced driving experience which reinforced their brand values of safety, comfort and driving dynamics.

Guided by professional drivers, guests got to personally experience the high performance and superior driving dynamics of the brand’s different SUV models as they passed through checkpoints on a specially-designed course stretching over an eye-popping 36,000 sq. m. The Central Harbourfront was transformed into a cross-country track and divided into two massive test driving zones. The ‘drifting zone’ allowed attendees to skid into specially-arranged sharp turns; while in the ‘off-road zone’, various checkpoints simulated features which would be found in real off-road areas – steep hills, muddy swamps, logs and gravel patches, each providing different levels of camber. A total of one media session and nine customer sessions were held, with Pico providing creative design, production, site operation and event management services throughout the event.

Pico also focused extra attention on boosting brand awareness in the immediate area. The team designed immersive venue decorations to capture the attention of the many pedestrians passing through Central’s crowded streets and buildings during the daytime. We branded the client’s logo on top of the 15.5m wide, 50m long and 5.7m high hospitality marquee, and surrounded the venue with 60m long promotional fence banners.

Our branding efforts did not stop when the sun set. We designed and created a gigantic 21.8m lightbox displaying Mercedes-Benz’s iconic three-point logo which lit up the centre of the venue, adding to the breath-taking night view of Victoria Harbour and the city’s skyline. This lightbox was easily visible from Central’s crowded pedestrian walkways and buildings like IFC and the AIA Centre.

In addition to the lightbox, our team created an eye-catching arch entrance complemented by exterior branded fencing banners and flags. All key visuals at the venue, from the merchandising area to the off-road signage and guest passes, were also designed by our experts. We built an LED wall in the briefing room, which showed a promotional video, producing a stunning visual experience for the attendees. Our team also strategically designed the layout of the F&B area and the inside of the marquee, creating a luxurious yet comfortable environment for all the guests.

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Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Limited imports and distributes the brand’s comprehensive range of luxury passenger cars and commercial vehicles in Hong Kong and Macau. They actively perform sales and after-sales activities to further cement Mercedes-Benz’s growth in the region, while remaining dedicated to reinforcing their core values through different public and private events.

To add a social dimension to the event, we arranged an “Instaphoto” service to capture guests enjoying their exclusive experience. These photos were shared on multiple social media platforms, further intensifying the brand’s exposure.

The five-day event attracted a huge number of reporters and guests, receiving great write-ups and favourable feedback.

As this was the first time anyone had held a driving event in the very centre of Hong Kong, there were no existing precedents for the permits required or the logistics involved in the set up. Our team had to approach and negotiate with numerous different government departments, and then leverage our years of experience to manage and execute the complex logistics for the large-scale setup, which included a 50m long marquee and the huge branding logo lightbox, all within three days!

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Pico created a complete gaming environment in the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre, replete with consoles, kiosks and tables for every imaginable game. Divided into themed areas based on different Sony PlayStation games, the 3-day Experience was also an opportunity for developers and retailers to unveil some of the new and exciting gaming products from Sony PlayStation.

The Bahrain Gaming Experience was a huge success and will be even bigger and better next year.

Bahrain PlayStation Gaming Experience Manama

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The objective of the Bahrain PlayStation Gaming Experience, part of the Manama Capital of Gulf Tourism 2016, is to drive awareness on the newest and latest trends and developments in the gaming world and bring together all computer gamers and enthusiasts from around the region.

Wanders into the Flow of Literature: The Chinese Calligraphy of Law Ching Bor Hong Kong

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Organised by the Yuen Long District Arts Committee, Wanders into the Flow of Literature: The Chinese Calligraphy of Law Ching Bor was held at the Hong Kong Central Library in mid-February 2016. Pico was intimately involved in this stylish, modern exhibition, delivering design and build, event management and public relations services – from strategy to execution, truly 360 degree integrated services.

Displaying 110 pieces of timeless calligraphy, including rubbings from stone inscription, poetry, verse and devotions by Masters from the Spring and Autumn and the Warring Period to the modern era, the exhibition was divided into five sections which helped organise and make sense of the many works on display: showing Mr Law’s three most celebrated works from the 90s; displaying textbooks on calligraphy which are based on selected Chinese literary masterpieces; presenting creative free designs using the five calligraphic styles; blending Chinese and Western calligraphy; and going down the memory lane of Mr Law on how he used rubbings of several ancient calligraphy masters’ works as models to develop his own calligraphy.

At the opening ceremony, Mr Law improvised some innovative calligraphy. Accompanied by music, he recreated the military general of the Song Dynasty, Yue Fei’s most celebrated Chinese ci poem, ‘Man Jiang Hong’. This prestigious exhibition was attended by the chairman of the Yuen Long District Arts Committee and other government officials.

Under Pico’s expert guidance, the event was more successful than the client hoped: over 5,000 people attended the exhibition over its three-day run, a record for the Central Library and far exceeding the client’s target for attendance. Some 80 separate media coverage have been stretched from pre- to post-exhibition, let alone on-site media attendance. The exhibition was pronounced by a library representative as “the first-ever and best Chinese calligraphy exhibition in Hong Kong by a single calligraphy master”.

Please visit www.pico.com for more information.

Edited, coordinated, designed and published by Pico Group. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including photocopying and recording without the written permission of the publisher.

The photos shown in this newsletter were taken by photographers and cameramen commissioned by Pico, courtesy of our direct and indirect clients, and were chosen to highlight Pico’s part in our clients’ projects and to place it in context. While care has been taken to select the most appropriate photos, no implication is intended that all elements in the projects shown were done by Pico.

For information, please contact us at Pico House, 4 Dai Fu Street, Tai Po Industrial Estate, NT, Hong Kong SAR, or call us at 852 2665 0990, or email to corp.info@hk.pico.com.

BMW Masters Shanghai

BMW, globally famous as one of the world’s most iconic motoring brands, is known for much more than its superior quality automobiles. For years, BMW has been an active player in the sporting world, sponsoring motorsport events and high-level golf tournaments in Europe and beyond. The brand is also known for its commitment to preserving the environment. In late 2015, Pico proudly helped activate the latest addition to the BMW golf tournament family – the BMW Masters.

First held in 2012 at the stunning Lake Malaren Golf Club in Luodian, Shanghai, the BMW Masters is now an annual fixture on the European tour. The 2015 event saw Europe’s top players battle it out on the course, competing for a total purse of seven million USD.

Pico participated in the event on multiple levels, creating a stunning, cutting-edge design for the eco-friendly temporary structures at the venue, and delivering outstanding build and maintenance services throughout the tournament. Going above and beyond to make the event as sustainable as possible, all materials used in the structures and were completely recyclable – further strengthening the green reputation of the event and the BMW brand.

Dow Japan Innovation Day Tokyo

Japan Innovation Day was recently held in Shangri-La Hotel, Tokyo. With the theme of ‘collaborative innovation’, the event highlighted Dow’s most recent and most exciting innovations. The participants were joined by Dow’s executive leadership, including the company’s vice chairman and COO, and prominent guest speakers from leading companies in the industry, making this Innovation Day Dow’s biggest and most successful event yet.

Pico provided branding for the event, the design and construction of the stage, the exhibition and the reception area, as well as stage operation management and printing. Our team received excellent feedback from both Dow’s representatives and the event guests. Innovation Day was an outstanding event all around, as well as a wonderful day for Pico.