Case Study
"FAB1"
The Background
In 2004, Hollywood produced a blockbuster remake of the famous children’s series from the 1960s - Thunderbirds. Ford Motor Company were approached to design and manufacture Lady Penelope’s car, FAB1. As a direct result of this Ford decided to re-create Tracy Island
for their stand at the British Motor show. A complete campaign was set up around this event.
Due to the high profile of this film, Ford wanted an interactive press pack developed that contained not only technical information about the cars used in the film, but print quality images that could be distributed enabling easy reproduction in magazines, newspapers, on
posters and the Internet.
The Brief
Our client was the agency tasked with putting the whole project together. Our brief was to provide the users with an easy to use navigation system which allowing them the flexibility to view the text files in multiple languages as well as the ability to select, view and download
the images as required. The finished article needed to fit within Fords corporate profile as well as the concept of the film and trade stand. Once the master had been developed we needed to duplicate 4000 copies of the CD and deliver to our clients printer for the fulfillment
with other items going into the press packs.
After an initial consultation we were given an outline of how the user interface was to look, a list of the images to come and the languages required. We were also given a deadline for when the CDs needed to be delivered to the printer for collation.
The Solution
After our initial discussions it became clear that we were working to extremely tight deadlines as the images would not be shot until 7 days before the show, they then needed to be airbrushed and we would not see them until 5 days before the show.
The first task was to agree a project timeline, that both we and our client could work to. We advised our client that due to the timescales the CDs would have to be duplicated rather than pressed as the timescales were too tight.
The first thing was to provide our client with a
date of when the artwork by for the CDs needed to
be supplied by. We agreed that the best solution
would be to have the CDs screen printed, this way
the Pantone colours they required could be matched
exactly and providing other parts of the project
worked efficiently when the CDs were collated with
the packaging the final product looked perfect.
Dates needed to be agreed on when we would provide a template for viewing, when we would know the content (number of images / text files), when we would receive the content, when the initial CD was supplied for evaluation and when the final sign of was required by so that
duplication could commence.
As timescales were so tight the project management on this job was critical. Any slip up would cause a delay in the final job being delivered which would have been completely unacceptable for both our client and Ford.
We then started to develop the template and await the images. Each day the progress of the template was put on the internet for our client to view. This enabled multiple people (account handlers, designers, project managers) involved in the project to view the files and make
any amendments they felt were necessary. Enabling changes to be made in development meant that there would be fewer amendments once the CD was supplied for final sign off. It also enabled the client to ensure that the ongoing development was meeting their expectations.
Gradually the images came through, languages were added and the CD began to take shape. Each image was supplied as a high resolution JPEG file from which we need to create 2 further versions, a thumbnail image and a low resolution image for viewing on a full screen. The processing
of these images took a while, however the end result was signed off quickly.
Our next step was to duplicate the media. Approval was given to us on a Friday evening, delivery to the printer was required by 2.30pm on the following Monday. Because we had the media pre-printed it was just a case of us duplicating the CDs over a weekend.
The Result
The job was delivered on time with the printer receiving the CDs on the Monday morning, enabling them a few extra hours for fulfillment.
Our client was very happy with the end result and the pack looked superb. The show was a great success for Ford, with the images having been used in hundreds of publications worldwide since.
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