One great way to promote your brand to a wide audience is to choose an event that’s sure to draw heaps of attention, and create a branded point of interest. However, you can leverage the method if you’re already an international brand too. The marketers on behalf of beverage company Milo Australia planned to employ this engaging technique, and requested custom inflatable footballs for an upcoming AFL game in Melbourne.

Our mission as a business is to offer exceptional customer service in the pursuit of helping other companies, big or small, reach their target audiences in fun and creative ways, and this project really embodied that endeavour. We were overjoyed at the prospect of collaborating with the client on this project!

Mapping Out the Play

We’ve all experienced it. Sometimes kids, even when excited about something, get so distracted that they would gladly wander off and do something else. The event organisers had this knowledge in mind when they decided to host fun activities away from the main action. Who better to join in on the fun than a beverage brand best-known for producing chocolate drinks to give kids the “nourishing energy they need to get the best out of their day?”

The marketer commissioned 9 footballs in total, each measuring 1.5 metres long with width to scale. They were to be set up around an area where free activities would take place, like games, give-aways, and meet-and-greets with AFL players. The custom inflatable footballs were to be matched to the brand’s colour and branded with their logo as well, so there would be no doubt about exactly who was sponsoring these particular festivities. 

The only challenge we could potentially foresee was getting them to be footballs, but it wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle. Inflatables tend to want to be a more rigid structure, such as arches preferring to have straight legs and a straight top bar. For inflatable balls, they would rather be perfectly round than have shape to them. We sat down and quickly worked out a solution that worked beautifully!

Adorning the Court

These custom inflatable footballs called for an uncomplicated, humble design, with only two aspects to transfer onto the units. We have enough experience blowing up smaller products that the process of scaling them to size took barely any effort, including sizing the simple beverage logo on the side panels. 

The other quality we had to reflect onto the custom inflatable footballs was the colour. After being in business for so long, there isn’t much we aren’t familiar with, but getting these units just right required a method we don’t get to use all that often, so it was a bit exciting. In printing the materials we use for our inflatables, we frequently use full colour, because it can easily achieve a nice, vibrant look. However, this time the colour was so specific that we had to use the pantone matching system to find the right green.

After aligning the design with the facets of the client’s branding, it came time to decide which material would serve our purposes best, which was pretty much already decided by the shape these custom inflatable footballs had to take on.

Coming Together as a Team

To achieve an oval-like shape just to begin constructing Milo's custom inflatable footballs, we had to get a little creative. Instead of just slapping panels together and calling it good, the inherent round-ness had to be manipulated in a way that would give these balls a deliberate shape. What we had to do was purposely cut each panel so they could attach to each other but still maintain their slightly cylindrical quality, then fuse a piece on the end to act as a point.

The plasticised polymer we used for this project is our most durable option overall. It also beats the competition in terms of basic hardness, which helped us quite a bit in achieving the unique shape: polyvinyl chloride. The reason these 9 custom inflatable footballs’ purpose made choosing the material a no-brainer was that they are just meant to be smallish inflatable balls to entertain kids, not towering over the spectators or in the background on stage at a music festival.

Only PVC has the durability to withstand being welded without having to solidify before moving on to the next seam. By using this method, we can completely forego constructing the unit with a constant blower to keep it inflated. It can just be filled up, sealed off, and touched up if it happens to deflate a bit. 

Another Field Goal!

From ensuring the custom inflatable footballs exceeded all the client’s expectations to running through our extensive protocols, to shipping the units out must have taken longer than we thought it would, because by the time they arrived, the game was already looming. Luckily the solutions we came up with made setup a breeze, and the only thing left to do was wait.  The event within an event must have been a great success of a branding effort, because since then, Inflatable Anything has had the pleasure to collaborate with the beverage company on several occasions. 

It gives us great pleasure to know that something we created can really make living, breathing human beings feel closer to or identify with a brand. Contact our team today to discuss how we can bridge the gap between you and your potential customers!

Branding, whether it be for a big business or a small business can be crucial. Typically, it can either align an institution with a philosophy or a literal image, sometimes both. The University of New England in New South Wales holds an orientation event every year called Lifesaver Day, and they asked Inflatable Anything to create custom blow up letters to display at that years’ occasion, in the school’s colors and based on their current advertising campaign.

The annual happening is meant to introduce new students to their communities, both on campus and in the surrounding city of Armidale. Student organisations and local businesses put up stalls to give pupils a good idea of what kind of support they can expect to look forward to for the next few years of their lives. We think the best part of the university’s branding efforts is that it not only gives UNE an identity as an institution of higher learning, but it also gives a sense of identity to the student community, some of whom may be away from home for the first time in a big way.

Here at Inflatable Anything we always love providing that kind of support to fellow businesses through our work. However, it’s a fantastic perk when we can extend that fellowship to the people our clients serve, and we could not wait to help the university with this endeavor!

A Blueprint to Follow

The client wasn’t looking for anything elaborate and that was purposeful. Ultimately what they wanted was down-to-Earth, welcoming, effortlessly branded custom blow up letters to foster campus engagement. After some discussion, Inflatable Anything and the university came to an agreement that these letters would be best if they stayed grounded, as opposed to for example being suspended from the ceiling. The campaign called for just 6 letters spelling out “evolve,” which is related to their overall commitment to prepare their student body to face the challenges and obstacles of today’s changing world. Three of said custom blow up letters would be black, and the other half would be green. 

The design was so straightforward that there wasn’t a whole lot of planning that needed to be done. The only tiny bump in the road we came across was figuring out how to keep the O and the Vs upright, because they have much less ground surface in which to put a solid base. This happened to be a great collaboration between ourselves and the university though, because they already had a solution for that. All that was left was to sign the project over to us, which came swiftly!

Coming Together

The client requested solid colors for these humble 2 meter high and 1 meter wide custom blow up letters, which meant they didn’t even need us for our printing capabilities; they simply knew we would have the same level of dedication to this project and to this venture as they did. So we used coloured 100% polyvinyl chloride panels, which when welded add to the durability of an already durable material. Without any artwork to approve, we moved straight to the next step in our process.

As soon as we heard about the concept for these custom blow up letters, we knew that the superior material for the job was polyvinyl chloride. The most obvious reason being that it’s wild to believe they would want noisy, constant blowers at an event meant to ease the anxieties of new students. With this polymer, you can actually apply heat to the seams of the panels, which will fuse them together quite nicely. From there, all you have to do is inflate the custom blow up letters and seal them off, and they’ll stay like that for at least several hours. 

We just had to affix solid plywood boards to the bottom. 

PVC is also one of the most durable options of material Inflatable Anything offers, meaning these custom blow up letters were definitely built to last for as long as UNE saw fit. We were absolutely delighted with the idea that something we created might help to foster a meaningful sense of community for these New South Wales students for years to come!

The Big Day

The client was delightfully involved in much of the process of making these custom blow up letters, which was refreshing. The letters went through our quality control protocols and careful packaging and shipping with just enough time before the event actually took place. The university was very appreciative of our efforts on behalf of them and their student body, and by all accounts, they worked perfectly. UNE has even used them for several Lifesaver Days since then!

Are you looking for someone to help further your brand or message with the same enthusiasm you have? We might just be for you! Contact our team of professionals today!

Belgium, Germany, Netherlands and Japan! These are some of the top countries for quality beer production. Despite it being the most popular alcoholic beverage here, Australia didn’t even make the top 13! To help shine a bright light on some of our best native brews, the organisers for Adelaide’s Beer and BBQ Fest ordered an inflatable novelty beer can for their 2018 three day event.

Any occasion to bring people together for a common goal, even if they’ll be well inebriated, is a thrill for us. We couldn’t wait to work with this client again!

Gathering the Ingredients

In 2017, Inflatable Anything was tasked with creating bespoke inflatables for that year’s iteration of this festival—beer kegs. The units were such a big hit that they came back to us for an inflatable novelty beer can to act as a sign for their feature pop up pub. Obviously, the unit wasn’t exactly to be a large product replica because it wasn’t modelled after a type of beer, but the organisers knew we had quite a bit of experience from past projects. They commissioned a 2.5 metre standard can, with a properly proportioned width, complete with original artwork for the label. 

Activating the Yeast

Supplying their own sketch saved our team here at Inflatable Anything some time, so all we had to do was draw up a sketch for the client’s approval. When it came to actually applying the original artwork to the inflatable novelty beer can, we fed both the client’s drawing and the material into a digital printer, blew up the image to an appropriate size, and let the machine do its magic.

Not only is this the easier and more precise way to transfer artwork, but this kind of printer generally results in a higher quality image. On top of that, we used a full surface (all-at-once) print with CMYK colours, which can achieve nearly the entire spectrum with its four colour matching technique. 

At Inflatable Anything, we really want to make sure we provide our clients with the best solutions possible!

Brewing up the Batch

The 2 materials that are without a doubt best suited for inflatables are the 2 options we offer- polyester and polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. Both have most of the same general qualities to them, but depending on the client’s purposes for the unit and the functionality it needs to have, usually 1 option stands very clearly above the other. For this themed inflatable novelty beer can, our ultimate winner by just 1 point was the former polymer. 

Polyester, also known as polyethylene terephthalate, is a plastic-like material whose fibres have very little space in between them, making for quite a strong option. The feature that really pushed polyester above polyvinyl chloride in our mind for this project, though, is that the former is indeed quite strong, but still mouldable: it can hold unique shapes—like the rim of a can—very well without puckering or wrinkling.

However, for an inflatable novelty beer can meant to be propped up on and tied down to the roof of a tavern, there were 2 qualities that were more or less most important. Since this festival was traditionally held outdoors with buildings scattered throughout its perimeter, polyester’s ability to resist many of the shots Mother Nature might throw its way, like rain and extreme sunshine, fit the bill perfectly.

Secondly, the inflatable novelty beer can was likely to be reused for the pop up sampling Australia’s best brews for years to come, so it needed to be portable as well as lightweight enough not to put too much stress on the roof of the Beer and BBQ festival's makeshift pub. For this reason, and to decrease unpleasant distraction from this lively event, we also constructed the unit with internal blowers.

Cheers, Mate!

Overall, the process from conceptualising the inflatable novelty beer can, to quality control and delivery passed by pretty quickly. It really helped that not only did the client know exactly what they wanted, but also knew that once they finished everything on their end, they could fully place their trust in us to manufacture the very best unit we could using high quality materials for them.

The next time you need to add a dash of lime to your event, contact our team of professionals!

When you think of Disneyland, what pops into your head? Probably mouse ears, yeah? What about Macca’s? We’re betting you think of the golden ‘M.’ Good branding can associate a particular business with an everyday, mundane object. This is what Sovereign Hill Museums Association was hoping to do when they asked for an inflatable candy jar replica from Inflatable Anything.

As a very popular gold rush-themed tourist destination in Victoria complete with an 1850s schoolhouse featuring pupils and a confectionery featuring original equipment, Sovereign Hill was asked to host a promotional media event on their grounds. To help build this association in Aussie’s minds, they wanted Inflatable Anything to construct this inflatable candy jar replica based off of one of their best-selling lollies, the hard boiled raspberry drops. 

We love helping businesses build their identity in our own little way; even better when it’s meant to attract more tourism and give a nice boost to the Australian economy!

It’s a Draw!

For this particular project, as mentioned, the client wanted a product replica of one of their best-sellers. Though our process for large replica items is usually a bit more labour-intensive these days, they insisted on a design so realistic it could be easily mistaken for the real thing. The marketing team wanted a multi-layered, clear jar with a lid, raspberry drops (or a high-resolution picture of them) inside, obviously all wrapped with the label. 

Our reference material for creating this inflatable candy jar replica was both the product and, since the multiple layers were a bit of a novelty for us, a client sketch of exactly what they hoped for. With the media event in the rear view mirror, we had no time to lose!

From the client drawing, we were able to render up a quick 3D model to follow. However, without exact dimensions for the project, we really had to rely on our own judgment when it came to constructing this inflatable candy jar replica. But isn’t that exactly why people come to us in the first place? Putting their trust in Inflatable Anything to sort out these details obviously paid off, because we got the greenlight to move forward with manufacturing almost right away.

Old Time Hardware

Even though polyvinyl chloride is the only material that can successfully be used to make a clear inflatable anyway, it does have some qualities that made it the superior choice for this project.  Standing at almost 6 meters with a width to scale, this inflatable candy jar replica was expected to last, and PVC is the most durable option we offer.

Secondly, Sovereign Hill is an open-air museum, so the polymer was best in that regard too due to its capacity to resist the elements.

Thirdly, the client did not want the burden of having to deal with a noisy external blower, so we treated this unit similarly to how we construct our inflatable balls, which can be inflated and sealed off.  For even more strength, and to achieve this sealed-off effect for such a large structure, we ended up using heat to fuse together the seams of the polyvinyl chloride panels, a solution that is really only possible on a 100% PVC unit.

Special Delivery

After finishing the inflatable candy jar replica, subjecting it to vigorous quality control protocols, and shipping it to the fictional town, there were somehow still a few days until the event. However, it was fairly lucky that we had to use the welding process to achieve what Sovereign Hill wanted, because there was a mishap during setup where the inflatable got damaged due to dragging on a rough surface. Welded seams, though they rarely come undone in the first place, are extremely easy to repair in comparison to glued seams, even out in the field. You just have to have the right equipment.

Our repair of the inflatable candy jar replica lead to it featuring as a focal point during many, many more promotional media events over the years. In fact, we created the replica in the year 2013, and the same inflatable has been used by the tourist destination as recently as early 2020! It’s safe to say we had quite the happy client.

Here at Inflatable Anything, we enthusiastically bring your ideas to life, even if it’s just from a 2D rough sketch. Contact our experienced team of professionals today to see just how far we’ll go to rouse yours!

Whether a big city, small town, giant corporation, or locally-owned business, usually the focus of branding is on fostering a sense of community and shared purpose. Saint John’s Parish In the community of Mitcham, Victoria, hosts an annual fete, as do many other not-for-profit organisations. For theirs, they requested a festival inflatable arch to frame the entrance to their elaborate yet humble celebration featuring contests, live and local music, and BBQ!

Here at Inflatable Anything, we love bringing these communities closer together in our own way, and we were delighted to work on this project!

A Warm Welcome

For this event, the client wanted a simple festival inflatable arch that would be bright, colourful, and above all, welcoming. As with many of the event arches we’ve created in the past, this one was to have areas on the legs where the client could advertise their event sponsors and space on the top bar to promote the event using detachable banners. Obviously, they knew they wanted the festival inflatable arch to be attention-grabbing, but they also wanted to make sure that the banners and shade of the blow up would complement each other. With some guidance from us, we came to an agreement on some very satisfactory solutions.

Beauty of Creation

The colour the client landed on was the cheerful, sunny stock yellow. However, since all they asked for was a coloured festival inflatable arch, there wasn’t much in the way of artwork to apply to the 3 metres wide by 3.4 metres high unit. The real work came into play when we had to design the detachable Velcro banners for them. Obviously we had to recreate the logos on the polyester panels, but first, we were also asked to help the religious entity freshen them up.

Some of the logos they had were poor quality and muddled, so we gladly helped them arrange to have the logos redrawn into a better format. This particular client was really laid-back and quite pleasant to work with, but even if they weren’t, it was the least we could do. With the logos recreated in high resolution, it was time to get on with business-as-usual!

When it came to printing out these revitalised logos, we first had to take the client’s renovated artwork and blow it up. This process was made much easier and much more pleasant-looking thanks to the redraw. To best capture the depth of colour in these drawings, for this sub-project we used CMYK inks on a digital printer. Although spot colour can generally get a more precise match to the original shade, CMYK can achieve a much wider range of colours. Since this was achieved on our digital printer, no time was wasted on letting the inks dry.

Something from Nothing

The festival inflatable arch was meant to have a simple shape; the client just wanted clean and straight lines throughout, with perfectly square corners. Typically arches achieve rigid shapes really well anyway, but we knew it would be even better if we chose the construction material with this in mind.

Polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, is the superior material to use for quite a few of our projects depending on what kind of inflatable it is, and it was definitely best for this festival inflatable arch. PVC has a lot of toughness and mechanical strength to it, which makes for great units that call for more rigidity. As a construction material, it’s also extremely durable; fire-resistant; weather-resistant; abrasion-resistant; shock-resistant. That’s why it’s used in so many applications, from roofing to wire insulation to fashion and footwear.

The best quality of polyvinyl chloride for many projects, though, is just how lightweight and portable it is. Added up with everything else, we guarantee PVC inflatables can be reused event after event, year after year. In that vein, as with this festival inflatable arch, Inflatable Anything would be more than happy to provide any client with brand new detachable banners to keep up with changing themes, branding, and sponsors.

Judgment Day

Our products take anywhere from 2 to 3 weeks to ship once we’ve completed everything on our end, but by happy circumstance, the client was very local to our business, so we were able to directly deliver the festival inflatable arch after we finished our quality control protocols. This gave them plenty of time to get accustomed with the setup, break down, and storing process before the day of the event.

The Mitcham Community Fete has been continuing on for years, and has become one of the most popular fete celebrations in the eastern suburbs. If our work had anything to do with the success of the client’s annual festival, we consider that more than enough ammo to continue providing creative solutions and ace customer care to businesses around Australia.

What can we help you with today?

Physical health and wellness may not exactly be at the top of everyone’s priority list, but surely we can at least all agree that paying attention to the quality of the food and drink you put into your body is important. To promote their turmeric elixir specialty beverage, supplement supplier and health food brand Liquefy contacted us about constructing an inflatable health drink bottle for an upcoming trade show. 

Here at Inflatable Anything, we are quite passionate about bringing ideas to life, especially when they benefit a product and a purpose we can really get behind!

Setting Out On a Journey

The client wanted, ultimately, a promotional unit we are very experienced at making: a product replica. However, to get the biggest bang out of their buck, they desired for the main label to adorn all 4 sides of the squared off inflatable health drink bottle for maximum exposure. Since this was to be for a trade event held indoors, the client was also very conscious about the nuisance it might be so specified that they wanted to reduce the noise of the inflatable by foregoing an external blower altogether. All were simple enough requests. We just had to make sure we got the proportions right on the inflatable health drink bottle once the artwork was approved.

Walking the Path

Standing at 2 meters high, with the width adjusted to stay proportional with the dimensions of the actual product, we knew there was an obvious superior material to meet the client’s needs for this inflatable health drink bottle: polyvinyl chloride, more commonly known as PVC!

A full colour print is a technique by which ink is directly applied to a fabric all at once instead of in layers, and it happens to work really well on this particular plasticised polymer. It can also be referred to as 4 colour or CMYK printing, named so because of the inks used to achieve its wide variety of hues: cyan, yellow, magenta, and black. The process really matches and blends colours together well, so the end result is quite striking and attention-grabbing, which I’m sure you’ll all agree was exactly what was called for with those fantastic shades of orange. All you really need is a quality digital inkjet printer and a team with experience on how best to operate it!

Building Yourself Up

The specific quality of PVC material that immediately drew us to our conclusion was the fact that the polymer can be seam-welded, which is a process wherein seams are basically fused together on a molecular level. There’s no separating that puppy, and if it does happen to split up, the welding process makes it effortless to repair! With this strong and lightweight structure, you can just blow up an inflatable once, seal it off, and go about your day sans blower, internal or external.

This method is also how we construct our inflatable balls and some inflatable props, and the material plus the technique is quite popular for inflatable boats. From our conversations with the client, it was very clear how well the solution would work for this inflatable health drink bottle.

Although there are several great options we could have used in this regard, PVC is the most durable fabric thanks to its tensile strength. It is also anti-microbial, easy to store, naturally flame-retardant, and resistant to chemical damage. For this inflatable health drink bottle, polyvinyl chloride really did an ace job of capturing some of the details of the turmeric elixir bottle as well, and we couldn’t have been more pleased. 

Staying Grounded

Building these creations typically takes us here at Inflatable Anything anywhere from 2 to 3 weeks, and a bit more time for quality control protocols. By the time the client finally approved the artwork and all the other specifications, the day of the trade show was quickly approaching. Tight deadlines have never intimidated us before, though! Somehow, we still got the inflatable health drink bottle to them just in time.

At this point in our business, we have nearly had to perfect every single technique under the sun to construct the perfect inflatable unit, yet we see every new project as a new opportunity to improve and better our business practices.

We dedicate ourselves to bringing your idea, and your brand, to life every single minute of every single day. Contact our team of highly trained experts today to see how we can facilitate your vision!

Think back to the last time you went to an event, like a fair or a farmer’s market. Do you remember a large focal point? Perhaps it was a promotional event sign or a vendor’s larger-than-life tent. Most people would say yes, and it’s exactly why organisations do it: it sticks out and is memorable. Prowater wanted to take advantage of this phenomenon by commissioning 3 jumbo inflatable bottles to promote their whey protein, hydrolysed collagen, and antioxidant-rich health drinks at an upcoming trade show in Melbourne.

Here at Inflatable Anything, we take great pride in helping businesses further their brand recognition, especially when they are Australian owned and operated. Three cheers for stimulating our economy! Needless to say, we were very eager to get started on this project. 

Creating a Training Schedule

This project called for a unit our company just happens to be very accustomed to constructing after so many years: a scaled up product replica. Generally, it’s very easy to make these kinds of bespoke and custom inflatables because you already have a direct reference for the design and the only thing you really have to worry about is making sure the measurements, as they are adjusted in this case for the jumbo inflatable bottles, stay proportionate to each other. After a brief discussion over the best materials to use to achieve the exact detailing and functionality they wanted, the client signed off on the design and we were all set to get this project under way!

Let Me See You Flex

When it came time to plan out exactly how to construct the units, we knew we had two options in standard material, both of which were perfectly well suited for these jumbo inflatable bottles. Initially we wanted to use polyvinyl chloride. It has the ability to be seam-welded and left inflated, and is therefore quite durable. The client really wanted these bottles to look realistic sans external blowers, hence our suggestion. However, they desired some qualities that could only be achieved using polyester material even more. Internal blowers it is then! 

Specifically, they insisted that certain features of the real-life bottles be reflected as closely as possible, such as the ridged lids. The other quality the client required in these jumbo inflatable bottles that polyester could provide was its printing capability. Other materials can have sufficient-enough printing applied to them with no problem, but this polymer can tolerate a technique called dye sublimation.

In said process, high temperatures are used to open up the pores of the material to let the specialty inks really set into the panels. Essentially, the dyes are then permanently embedded into the substrate, rather than printed onto the surface. Because polyester generally takes colour better than others anyway, and because it was applied as a full surface print-applied all at once, not in layers-this gave the jumbo inflatable bottles a fresh, crisp, and vivid appearance. Safe to say it was definitely the best option when you need your brand to leave an impression!

Show Your Stats

The three “flavours”, or variations, in design were pineapple and coconut (yellow), kiwi and strawberry (red), and orange and citrus (obviously, orange), meaning the only real differences in the layouts for the digital printing were the overall colours and parts of the label. Each of these jumbo inflatable bottles were set to be 2.5 meters high and approximately 1 meter wide, and they were to weigh 10 kilograms. If they happened to tilt or wobble at all for some reason, the whole unit would surely come down! We don’t even want to think about what a huge liability that would be at a crowded trade show.

We decided that the best way to avoid such a catastrophe even happening would be to sew in a pouch for a solid piece of plywood in the base to hold them steady, as well as to act as the base for the battery-powered internal blowers.

Final Weigh In

There was a bit of back-and-forth internally as well as with the client, but all the kinks got worked out in the end. In fact, everything was finalised a month before the Melbourne trade show, which gave us more than enough time to construct, perform quality control, and ship out the jumbo inflatable bottles. It was definitely yet another success to add to the books here at Inflatable Anything!

Contact our experienced team today! From one business to another, we assure you we will not even think about stopping until we have fulfilled your every request.

What’s a better way to interact with your target audience than to literally pop a human being into a space as the walking representation of your brand? That’s exactly what Deb Australia decided to do when they placed an order for a set of custom made inflatable costumes to patrol the floors of upcoming medical expos and other promotional events. 

The client is a brand under SC Johnson, a popular manufacturer of mostly cleaning supplies. In this instance they wanted to promote their Aussie skincare and hygiene product line, which sells sanitation and care solutions targeted towards industrial, institutional, and healthcare users.

We know how important these types of items are to the safety and well-being of patients, and we were very much looking forward to doing our part to further brand engagement!

What’s Up, Doc?

One of the client’s products is probably very familiar now thanks to 2020, and is definitely an obvious choice to try to replicate because of the general shape; the Cutan Alcohol Foam Antiseptic Handrub. 

Because it is a real product, it was very easy to copy and translate the overall design and logo. In fact, we are quite experienced with scaling up real objects. The challenging part for us here at Inflatable Anything was figuring out how to make this custom made inflatable costume essentially in two parts, the square receptacle for the body, and the foaming pump for the head. 

Luckily, the client came to us because they trusted our judgment and knew we would take all precautions to make sure the costume and the event achieved exactly what they wanted to, and there was no way we were going to let them down. We got to work!

Choosing a Specialty

There are quite a few bespoke units we construct that require more of a finite shape without sacrificing portability, which is why polyester is such a popular choice. It was definitely the correct one for this custom made inflatable costume as well. 

Polyester possesses a fair amount of qualities that make it stand above the other materials that could be used in a custom made inflatable costume. First of all, the fibres in this polymer sit quite close together, giving it an overall more solid and impenetrable structure. Because of this, polyester is much less likely to lose its shape for example through contracting or wrinkling, and is also resistant to damage from ultraviolet rays.

However, there are 2 features that especially render the material ideal for this kind of project. Since the custom made inflatable costume would obviously have to be worn for who knows how long, it needed to be both lightweight and comfortable, and easy to wash. Polyester fits both bills quite well. To fully facilitate this custom made inflatable costume’s purposes, we also included a portable blower to allow the wearer unrestricted ability to boost the client’s brand. As mentioned, this costume can be thought of as two separate pieces, and the top half still needed a little something extra to make it functional. 

While polyester is a quality material for inflatables, it doesn’t quite have the capacity to work for every situation.  Though polyester perfectly suited the 90 centimetre wide and 170 centimetre high body piece, the 55 centimetre diameter and 70 centimetre high head piece also needed a window so the wearer could see where they were going, which was made out of polyvinyl chloride in a way that complemented the replica without adding a burden to the person walking the floor.

Applying the Dressing

The great thing about scaling up items is that the guesswork is for the most part taken out of the equation; all you have to do is make sure the sizing stays proportionate.  When it came to copying the logo and design onto the sewn polyester panels for the Cutan custom made inflatable costume, we knew from experience that a full print would be best. Basically this just means that we printed the image all at once onto the polymer instead of in layers. With this method, a design can be much more detailed and have a crisper finished look, which is typically exactly what a client wants when promoting their brand.

The Final Test

The promotional events the client attended must have been great successes for their business. They were so stoked about what they accomplished through that conference season that they placed an order for a third custom made inflatable costume the following year!

Here at Inflatable Anything, we love taking on new challenges to help businesses relate better to their target audiences. Contact our team today and let us help you do the same!

A great way for a brand to forge some kind of connection directly with their target audience is by participating in an activation event.  After some back and forth, this was achieved for Print Logic on behalf of Western Australia’s Masters M flavoured milk beverages with a printed blow up bottle.

The parent company that spawned these slight variations, Big M, isn’t exactly a small business by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, they’ve been one of Australia's biggest milk brands since the late ‘70s. However, gone are the bikini-clad adverts of old. For the past few years, for very good reason, the beverage supplier has been rebranding itself as a more down to Earth and relatable product, “out to play since ‘78.” 

The client’s initial plan was quite ambitious. They wanted Inflatable Anything to create an inflatable carton complete with the logo that spun around. While creating a way for the audience to quite literally interact with the product (in this part of Oz, known as Masters M) was a fantastic idea, we knew there was quite a bit of work to be done before being able to pull something like that off. Still, we were excited to try our hand at this enterprising project!

Stirring It Up

Through our years of experience, we knew that a printed blow up bottle with moving parts had some risks that needed to be accounted for. First of all, the safety of said target audience is paramount, always. We would feel awful if one of our creations were to injure a bystander, of course, but it would be detrimental to the brand we’re trying to help elevate. With the size the client desired on top of the functionality, delivering a satisfactory solution seemed more and more foolhardy. That didn’t stop us from trying though!

However, part of our protocol for this kind of unit required outside experts to make sure the structure met certain standards and that they could officially certify it. In the end due to circumstance and time restraints, the client agreed to a printed blow up bottle that functioned as a large, stand-still inflatable replica of the brand’s Masters chocolate milk beverage. Inflatable Anything does have quite the expertise when it comes to this type of structure!

Tough as a Bull

Much like our arches that need a certain amount of durability to retain their shape, many of our replicas are made from polyester panels, and this printed blow up bottle was no different.  The polymer, though used as a sort of fabric in this case, is actually more of a plastic that holds up really well. For bottles especially, there is a lot of detail around the lid area that just can’t quite be achieved as successfully with other materials. For example, polyvinyl chloride, while fairly strong itself, tends to pucker and stretch under any kind of stress. 

Another quite important quality for an event like a brand activation is a realistic appearance. The printing quality on polyester panels tends to be better anyway because there is less space in between the fibres of the material, and therefore the colour stays more uniform. But in this case, we also used dye sublimated printing, which uses heat to open up the “pores” of the polymer and allows the inks to soak into the material, giving the printed blow up bottle a vivid, crisp, and exciting look. 

As with most replica units we’ve created, we literally just up-scaled the actual product-in this case a 300 mL bottle of Masters M. The height of the printed blow up bottle needed to be 4 meters, so from there we just kept up with the proportions of the real-life receptacle.

Only Thing to Do is Jump!

Obviously, the solution we provided for the client wasn’t exactly what they had in mind. The original plan had great potential for an interesting and memorable activation event, but executing it just had too many potential loopholes to ignore. Though our thorough protocols and safety measures put a halt on this innovative design, the alternative structure we came up with was safer and more realistic. And, as you can see, the printed blow up bottle proved to be pretty engaging without the added features.

This was a rare, humbling experience for our company, but you can definitely rest assured that we will do everything in our power to bring your idea to life. Contact our team of experts today!

Nostalgia for the ‘90s is huge these days, and not just with Millennials. Who can blame us? It was a fun, trendy decade (with most of said trends promptly dying that decade as well)! It only makes sense to capitalise on that fun with a ‘90s-inspired, printed inflatable arch!

The Yarra Valley Racing Club contacted our team at Inflatable Anything about constructing a themed arch for their late-December meeting, centred around the ever-important holiday of Festivus, which started in the household of Seinfeld show writer Dan O’Keefe. Other racing clubs in the area had planned events to celebrate the traditional yuletide festivities, but the client really wanted to stand out from the crowd and play up the fun aspect to draw in media attention and more members.

Who would even want to pass on an awesome opportunity like this? We were delighted to help them put their own spin on the pop culture phenomenon!

For the Rest of Us

In case the audience is not familiar, the Seinfeld episode featuring Festivus is called “The Strike,” in which the characters choose to forego the glitz, glam, and gross over-commercialism of Christmas, instead celebrating the alternative holiday created by George Costanza’s father Frank on December 23rd.  

The club’s Festivus for the Rest of Us Day at Yarra Glen Track was to include popular Seinfeld-inspired events, such as the Feats of Strength-in this case including sumo wrestling and a mechanical bull ride-, Airing of Grievances for a prize, a Soup Nazi, the customary nondescript and non-distracting Festivus pole, and a DJ spinning classic ‘90s jams.

For our part, we were tasked with crafting a printed inflatable arch that not only advertised the fun yet forlorn anti-Christmas Christmas event, but also played up the nostalgia factor for the witty, comedic genius that is this show about nothing. 

The Letter

The driving force behind choosing this ace, made-up holiday is the love the club’s chief executive has for the 9-season sitcom. Because of this, the client already had a good idea of what artwork they wanted on the printed inflatable arch, which stood at a whopping 2.5 meters high and 3 meters wide. Our expertise was needed to make sure the artwork fit nicely on the legs of the printed inflatable arch and maintained a nice polished look for the publicity this event was sure to receive. 

The top of the arch was to be printed in the style of Seinfeld’s logo, with the legs in white and covered in images and quotes that related back to the nearly cult-status TV show.

What’s the Deal with Construction?!

We have many years of experience bringing ideas to life overall, but we are especially adept at constructing arches. As per usual, we here at Inflatable Anything used sewn polyester for this printed inflatable arch. The material retains its shape very well, which is the biggest reason we utilise it for this kind of structure; no puckering or stretching, just a solid, durable arch that can last up to a decade if well-maintained. This quality also makes it portable and reusable, which is exactly what most of our clients do. Polyester is also UV resistant and perfect for any outdoor event. 

Again, this Festivus-themed Christmas meeting of the racing club was a fairly big deal. The popularity for the show plus the nostalgia for the ‘90s all but guaranteed extensive media coverage, so every aspect of this event absolutely had to look good including the printed inflatable arch. With our experience and commitment to customer satisfaction, we were more than happy to deliver!

The fibers in polyester material are very close to each other, which accounts for many of the above listed qualities. However, it also makes the fabric very easy to print on, and the finished product very vibrant, which is exactly what the client sought out for their meeting.

The Finale

Typically, building and testing our inflatables plus shipping takes between 2 and 3 weeks after everything is finalised. We were contacted about this project in November, which gave us quite a tight deadline, and yet we pulled it off with fantastic results and time to spare!

In fact, the club’s Festivus for the Rest of Us Day was such a smashing success that it is now an annual tradition for the Victoria organisation, and the printed inflatable arch we created for them continues to greet attendees every year.

We take great pride in doing our part to make an event meaningful and memorable. Contact our experts, yada, yada. We love a challenge!