Leap Wild
Formats: OOH / Special Build / Waterloo Domination
Date: October 2023
Leap Wild are a part of New England Seafood Incorporated (NESI) alongside Fish Said Fred. Shortly after completing a bus campaign for Fish Said, Leap revealed their outrageous new TV advert featuring Big Mouth Billy Bass. For those who don't know, Big Mouth Billy Bass is an iconic novelty toy created by Gemmi Toy Company; A rubber fish mounted on a wall plaque which sings and flaps to music. Leap wanted Global to create and deliver an outdoor campaign around the new TV ad which can be seen here.
The TV ad was so strong, with its bespoke rewrite of "Be Our Guest" sung by Billy Bass that ideas initially we did not stray too far off the line of using images from the commercial. We discussed using the multiple sites of the Waterloo corridor site in the fashion of a storyboard for the advert. However, the more I watched the commercial, the more I questioned the sense in having a rubber fish as the hero of a brand which sells wild caught fish, not farmed. The video has a vintage feel, the decor was retro and dark; a stark contrast to Leap's clean, light image. I had to know more!
Take the Leeeeeeeeeeeap! musical score design
Offering Leap as an alternative to the typical rubbery farmed fish.
96 sheet musical score designs
Bon appetit 48 sheet musical notation designs
Portrait T16 static format and the 3d build design.
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Working along side Anthony Riley, Donna Fisk and Nicola Goulder from Global, we spoke to the creative director at Lola in Spain, the video company who made the TV ad. They told me that Billy was the villain in the scenario. He represented the rubbery farmed fish. The style of the furnishing chosen in the video represents "bad taste", this is written into the song in the end line which says "Go on and take the Leap, don't eat a fish like me, just take the leap, take the leap, take the LEEEEEEEEEAP!".
The marketing team at Leap were obviously very keen to pull the TV commercial into this large outdoor campaign as much as possible. Putting Billy Bass on ice for the moment, for the first set of designs I explored ideas around how to pull the TV advert into the static designs. I loved the idea of using "Take the Leap!" as a call to action on the print designs, referring to both selecting Leap as a product and making the switch from farmed to wild fish. I took the musical score from Be our guest, and wrote the notation around various lines from the Leap Wild version of the song as a visual cue to the song.
"I am proud to say This is one of the first fully automated animatronic 3D Billboards in the U.K."
In-situ designs showing various groupings and placements
The Billy bass special build in-situ with 6 sheet product focused footers
96 sheet lyrics on site 7 linking to the lyrics on site 1's 48 sheet.
Creating intrigue and linking to the TV ad via QR code.
Site 12 in-situ in the foreground with site 15 behind.
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True, the TV advert is totally unforgettable. A real ear worm delivered straight from the mouth of an iconic fish. However, with Leap being a new brand which was fairly new to the market, I felt we were in danger of finding ourselves in murky water around the look and feel of the brand in the long-term on the outdoor campaign, whilst using the dark imagery from the video in the short term. However, Billy was a great intrigue feature which we wanted exploit to drive the audience to view the new TV commercial so the third set of designs featured Billy Bass and the simple call to action of "Watch the Full story", with a QR code where Health and Safety limitations would allow.
To top this off, we utilised the location of the Waterloo station, where we had access to a power supply and a large viewing area, to have a huge 3D, animatronic Big Mouth Billy Bass made by the team who build large 3D models for Disney World, which would move and and sing lines from the commercial to London's commuters every 3 minutes. I am proud to say This is one of the first fully automated animatronic 3D Billboards in the U.K.
The Waterloo corridor, is a set of 16 billboards around Waterloo station. We used all of them to tell the story of Leap Wild. We plotted out the site, the likely routes to and from the station and based on our findings, split the 16 sites into 5 groupings. These groups consisted of 3 or 4 sites which a typical route would take you past. Using this data we used the 3 sets of designs of create a "loop" of the intrigue piece with Billy bass and the QR or call to action to watch the full story, followed by the product shots, finally the recipe designs with different lines from the Take the leap / be our guest song. This meant that from most vantage points or commuter routes you would take the journey from the farmed Billy Bass fish, to the free swimming leap wild product, to the recipe on the plate. Bringing to life the song lyrics "Here at leap, we believe, that the best fish all swim free, from deepest wildest oceans, to your home, bon appetit!"
Leap Special Build
Leap Special Build
Leap Special Build
Leap Special Build
Leap Special Build
Leap Special Build
Leap 96 Sheet
Leap 96 Sheet
Leap T16
Leap 48 Sheet
Leap 48 Sheet
Leap Billy Bass
Waterloo Domination
Leap 48 Sheet
Leap recipe 48
Leap product 48
Leap Billy Bass 48 Sheet
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The Leap Wild campaign marked a few significant firsts. It was the first fully animatronic 3D, musical billboard we know about in the UK and definitely for Global media. We also suspect it is the biggest Big Mouth Billy Bass in existence. But aside from that, what makes this a great campaign for me is the depth of thought that went into every aspect of the design and placement in order to bring the TV ad to an out of home audience.
I enjoy an interesting brief. I am happy to work anonymously and don't always select work based on budgets. So feel free to contact me regarding a case you think I might find interesting.
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Email: Rik.cheetham@gmail.com
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"I am proud to say This is one of the first fully automated animatronic 3D Billboards in the U.K."