What in the world does The Red Cross have to do with a men’s grooming brand? Basically nothing, but the 2 decided to partner up anyway. The latter was quite popular with a younger crowd, so the former was hoping to capitalise on that while promoting the brand’s new line of products. They commissioned an inflatable sports marquee from Inflatable Anything for use during an upcoming blood drive event, which would act as a tent for people to relax in while waiting to make sure they didn’t react negatively to donating blood.
The overall marketing message behind this activation “Love is in the Blood” focused on performing loving acts, in this case such as 85,000 Aussies donating blood that could help save 10,000 lives. This mission especially made us feel honoured to be a part of this project, and we couldn’t wait to get started!
Planning It Out
Lynx Australia wanted this inflatable sports marquee to resemble some of the inflatable cubes we’ve created in the past, with a pillowed texture on the outside and 2 windows, both to allow for air to pass through the inside and outside (respectively) of the unit. This is especially important for inflatable sports marquees.
Since these units are fairly enclosed, the air that circulates inside them tends to get very hot very quickly, which isn’t good for the people walking in and out of the inflatable. On top of this, we also made the door into the unit quite large at 2 metres high and 2.5 metres wide, as well as including fans in the interior space during operation to help cool down the structure.
Applying the Dressing
The client insisted on an interesting design complementing their branding that wrapped all along the outside of the inflatable sports marquee, which they graciously provided themselves. Once we have the artwork for a unit, we feed it into our computer-aided design software to superimpose it onto a model that helps guide us through the production process.
As far as printing went, our standard is a digital printer, on which we typically try to discern through conversation which colour matching methods/inks would best serve our clients’ vision. Since this was a professional, custom-made design, we opted for the very best solutions to achieve the best optics. We went with a full surface print for the external panels of this inflatable sports marquee, which requires having the material ready to be printed on all at once, as to avoid any gaps in the image itself (such as 2 sides of a seam that don’t line up).
Ironing Out the Foundation
As with some of our other units we’ve created in the past, this inflatable sports marquee can be thought of as 2 different parts. The actual inflatable cube had to be sturdy especially for safety concerns, but it was also way too big—at 3 metres high by 5 metres wide by 5 metres long—to last on anything other than an external constant blower. Besides, trapping air in a welded structure made from insulating material would just add to the overall heat inside the unit.
We decided the best solution would be sewn polyester panels, which have the ability to regulate compressed air flow really well. This polymer also adds some other great benefits to inflatables, such as a somewhat flexible yet durable shape, UV resistance for outdoor events, and ease of washing in case of any mishaps.
The base of the inflatable sports marquee, on the other hand, wasn’t as imperative to safety standards, or at least not in the same way. Though we could have constructed the entire marquee in the same way without too much worry, we decided it would be best to install a more solid base for the bottom of the unit. This would make absolutely sure that it would hold steady for the duration of these donor’s relaxation and monitoring periods.
Special Delivery!
We already had an extremely tight deadline for this inflatable sports marquee, and with all the extra considerations for the project, we had to work a bit of magic to meet the deadline. We made it though! Instead of the usual 2 to 3 weeks required for shipping, we ensured same day delivery of the unit from Melbourne to Sydney. We’re glad we made it happen, too, because the grooming brand was absolutely stoked about everything we were able to achieve in that short period of time. Another satisfied customer pushes us to work even harder to provide ace support to fellow Aussie businesses.
