Tropicana heralds a new dawn in Trafalgar Square

A team of agencies led by Freud Communications, for Tropicana, lit up Trafalgar Square 2 hours ahead of schedule, on Monday 22nd January, to brighten a wintry morning for early starters, in a stunt that was created for Pepsico’s juice brand Tropicana. The activity was part of Tropicana’s drive for ‘Brighter Mornings’.

The light source was a giant artificial sun that is the work of the appropriately named art collective Greyworld. Taking over six months to create, the Trafalgar Sun is 30,000 times bigger than a football, has a surface area of 200m2 and weighs over 2,500kgs. Its internal light source produces the equivalent of 60,000 lightbulbs, 4-million lumens of light. A video showing the night time build is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0BmS-Lo1I4&feature=youtu.be

Tropicana spokesperson, Pete Charles, said: “Sunlight is something many of us crave mid-winter. We hope that this stunning art installation will both amaze and enthuse those who see it, whilst brightening their mornings on a miserable January day. We hope people will be able to come down, relax in our deckchairs and enjoy a glass of Tropicana whilst watching the spectacular sunrise. The perfect start to a January day.’

The Tropicana sun was also brought back into action in the evening of the same day.

The recent stunt was a creative extension of a highly popular experiential campaign that was delivered by Tropicana in which the brand brought the relief of light to a part of arctic Canada during their sunless winter. (the campaign is already regarded as a seminal exercise in experiential marketing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxcB-yMJveQ&feature=fvst.

The Trafalgar sun combined the PR stunt with brand experience and sampling. Agency INITIALS Marketing delivered various aspects of the sampling and the conversation with passers-by and commuters. Chris Wareham director and head of INITIALS Experience told Fieldmarketing.com: “INITIALS Marketing form part of the Tropicana all agency team and worked closely with the wider team on the Brighter Mornings campaign. Our specific remit was to ensure the Tropicana brand was amplified in the live environment and the Brighter Mornings campaign activated. Whilst the sun installation was live our brand ambassador teams distributed over 35,000 cartons and bottles of Tropicana in Trafalgar Square and the surrounding area. Consumers were encouraged to take the best photos from designated ‘perfect photo points’ throughout the square. Many people soaked up the sun from the comfort of Tropicana deckchairs and were given branded sunglasses and blankets to keep them warm on the crisp winter’s day. INITIALS also delivered complimentary Tropicana juice to 100 targeted local offices to drive awareness of the activity in Trafalgar Square and brighten Londoner’s mornings.”

The agency responsibilities on this campaign were as follows:

Freud Communications – Creative concept generation, content generation, social media engagement and PR

Greyworld – Creators and Production

INITIALS Experience – Brand amplification and sampling

TRA –  Facebook ad website management

OMD – Media planning