The new Ripley's Believe It or Not! attraction in London's Piccadilly Circus.
Normally it's the PR people who come up with the wacky, creative, out-of-the-box stunts and present them to the client. It's unusual to be asked at the very first meeting whether or not you can secure a Beatles tribute band - made up of dwarves - for an opening event.
Ripley's is relatively unknown in the UK but were set to open a 25,000sq ft attraction in the heart of London's West End. We were tasked with opening the attraction - producing and managing an opening event for 650 guests, securing media coverage, getting celebrities along and making sure the 'most difficult logistical opening we've ever seen' (Westminster Council's words) went without a hitch.
Five months before opening, we invited a select group of media and key stakeholders to tour the construction site - where we outlined our vision for the new attraction and detailed plans for turning the Trocadero back into London's most popular tourist attraction. On the three days before the attraction opened, we held exclusive briefings with key media, securing pages of reviews and massive interest from readers. We followed that up two weeks later with our gala party - of which one guest remarked "if Mad Max married a Sugababe - this is the type of party they'd have."
60 celebrities - including Katie Price, Jennifer Ellison, Kelly Rowland and Derren Brown - paraded past a packed press den, down a red carpet of burning coals and across a man lying on a bed of swords before entering the attraction. Human 'Believe It or Not!' characters such as Catman, Lizardman, sword swallowers, contortionists and a regurgitator entertained members of the public and guests - performing inside and outside on the red carpet to much acclaim.
Celebrity DJ, Tom Crane, played to a packed house and the newspapers and magazines over the following few days were crammed with pictures of guests enjoying the weirdest, most bizarre and entertaining opening party they'd ever attended.
We're still trying to find the mini-Beatles though.
