Local 'wrap artists' set new world record

The powerful imagery was simply inescapable. Whether you were driving by the building where it was draped along EDSA or glancing up from as far away as The Fort, it caught the eye of everybody in Metro Manila. From August to September this year, the hulking 29-story PET Plans Tower located along EDSA, Guadalupe in Makati City featured a gigantic sticker wrap showing the well-buffed body of a shirtless man wearing nothing else but a pair of Levis 501 Jeans.

So impressive was the installation that Guinness World Records has awarded the venture — aptly dubbed the “Levi’s Colossal” — the title of the “Largest Sticker Wrap in the World.” The building wrap measured 200 feet high by 235 feet wide (the stickers covered three sides of the building’s glass wall) for a total area of 47,000 square feet. Just how big is 47,000 square feet? Approximately 20 billboards can fit inside it; put another way, 500 cars can park inside that area.

Mixing cutting-edge technology with high art, sticker wraps are part of the new advertising tools redefining the world’s urban landscapes. Sticker wraps are a familiar technology found on shop windows, billboards and — now — around buildings in renowned cosmopolitan cities like New York, Tokyo, London, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Big Idea

Two of the outdoor advertising industry’s top players — outdoor media specialist Chito Gutierrez of Focal Point Advertising and Anthony Gaw of premier image solutions provider Golden Touch Imaging known for its cutting-edge larg-format printing — are the creative geniuses behind the extraordinary Levi’s Colossal project. With their record-setting achievement, the team was recently welcomed to the very select club of Guinness World Record Holders.

Gaw, a second-generation entrepreneur, recalls having Gutierrez as his client when the latter was still with a multi-national advertising agency. “That’s basically when our business relationship started, when we implemented out-of-the-box projects,” Gutierrez states. With Gaw’s creative use of new materials and technology and Gutierrez’s development of new systems and well-organized logistics, it’s a solid business partnership that has gotten the team many of the industry’s high-profile projects and a reputation for pushing the boundaries of creativity.

“In the beginning you had billboards. Then came giant and mega billboards, and even what they call ‘spectacular’ billboards. It has always kept us wondering, what’s the next big thing that will really make a definitive impact on the industry? That’s when Chito and I conceptualized and developed Project Colossus,” explained Gaw. “Project Colossus’ objective is to create landmark projects in the field of outdoor image displays. We decided that we’d be the ones to put a dot to the industry’s quest for the ultimate outdoor advertising statement!”

“We also wanted to create a legacy that would not only make our companies and clients proud, but one that would create a relevant and positive effect on the industry we both have been in for years,” continued Gutierrez. That was in mid-2006, when Project Colossus was on the drawing boards.

With careful planning and well-thought-out execution, an opportunity finally presented itself in the form of the Levi’s 501 “Live Unbuttoned” campaign, which was led by Levi Strauss Philippines Inc.’s advertising agencies Universal McCann Worldwide Communications and Harrison Communications. This spawned the Levi’s Colossal, the first in a series of visionary projects under the Project Colossus banner.

Technical Feat

The Philippines is no first-timer to the Guinness World Records. But among its long list of admirable world records, the Levi’s Colossal award is the first to be judged based on its technical merits, making the achievement a marvel not only among the Guinness World Records adjudicators but among other cosmopolitan cities around the world.

“The Levi’s Building Wrap brought the Philippines to a spot that’s at par with the technology-based world records of progressive countries. It not only showcased the world-class technology and expertise that our country is capable of, but also became an achievement that all Filipinos can truly be proud of,” Gaw added.

“With an extraordinary project like this, we could just not leave anything to chance,” Gutierrez pointed out. “We thoroughly covered all the National Building Code rules and safety regulations.” The building wrap material is made of weather-grade, fire-safe perforated sticker. To assemble the wrap, the project team underwent rigorous training in high-elevation rigging and safety works using the latest mountaineering equipment and mechanized gondola systems designed exclusively for building wrap executions.

It took 15,120 man hours to prepare, print, produce and install this building wrap, utilizing the following personnel, materials, supplies and equipment: 28 personnel consisting of print specialists, decal installers, rapellers and gondola operators; 130 liters of ink; 700 liters of cleaning solution was used for the cleaning and preparation of the building; seven kilometers of rope and cable for the rapellers, safety lines, and other high-elevation rigging. The digital file alone needed to print the perforated sticker required 2.35 terabytes and a computer time of 500 hours.

The Next Big Thing

With the Levi’s Colossal, the Guinness World Records title only affirms that the Philippines has indeed caught up, if not surpassed, other countries in the field of large-format image displays. Golden Touch’s and Focal Point’s pioneering use of outdoor advertising has elevated the country as a major player in the global industry of out-of-home media.

What’s next for Project Colossus wrap artists Chito and Anthony? “We’re definitely brewing something up already, perhaps even bigger or more spectacular than what we have done, but we’re just not telling yet,” says Gaw and Gutierrez. “Meanwhile, we just want people to appreciate the record-setting success of the Levi’s Colossal. This enormous feat has set the new benchmark not only in its physical magnitude but also in the enormity of its impact on the industry and the country.”