Whenever there’s a big, high profile and technically demanding event you can bet on one thing – Staging Connections is behind it. One of the biggest events on the Australian sporting calendar is the launch of the Spring Racing Carnival, which coincides with the Australian Racehorse of the Year Awards. This year the two-fold event was hosted at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and was attended by the racing industry’s elite.
Staging Connections were engaged by Racing Victoria, a valued client for over 10 years, to deliver the event from brief to execution including all audio, vision, lighting, stage set and styling. As the event was to be broadcast the following evening on Channel 78 and streamed via Racing.com, it was imperative the event environment was technically flawless and tailored for this purpose. The Launch of the Spring Racing Carnival is a media event that highlights the start of the Carnival and the upcoming feature races – Caulfield Cup, The Cox Plate, The Melbourne Cup, The Oaks and Stakes Day along with the regional cups.
This year the Launch took place on the MCG arena with racing legends being the feature – horses, jockeys and trainers paraded in front of the assembled guests and a huge contingent of media. Renowned Australian sports broadcaster, Hamish McLachlan, MC’d the Launch parade and interviewed the racing legends. After the official launch concluded in the MCG Arena, guests were moved from the Grandstand into the Members Dining Room for the presentations for the 2015 BMW Australian Racehorse of the Year Awards.
The Staging Connections styling and design teams collaborated with the AV technicians to create an elegant room look that supported the presentation purpose. The awards stage was centred at the front of the room, and housed an impressive 3 x 6m Event Backdrop (pictured above), flanked with large 16:9 screens that projected the award ceremony to the 200 guests. The Event Backdrop was custom designed by Racing Victoria with a collage of images that reflected the invitation to the event and the marketing campaign for the 2015 Carnival. Across the room we installed 2 projector screens and a high-quality audio system to compliment the many fixed televisions to ensure all guests had perfect line of sight of the presentations and could clearly hear the announcements. Guests were sat round banquet style with sophisticated centrepieces comprised of a large martini glass with mirror balls that were up lit using an internal light box. The end result was a first-class launch event, fitting for the prestigious occasion. What did the client say? Nicole Coughlan, Racing Victoria Marketing Manager An amazing team effort pulling off last night’s SRC launch and AROY awards. Thank you so much for your time and effort. Everyone contributed to something that was very special and you should be very proud of what was achieved.
Bernard Saundry, Racing Victoria CEO
We are very lucky to have a team that has passion, creativity and commitment to deliver an outstanding event for Australian Racing. A big thank you – no better way to launch the spring racing carnival – the greatest show on turf. View more recent work Contact us to discuss your event Back to our Blog … Read More
No ordinary car launch for Haval Auto
Mar 19 2018
Staging Connections recently produced the launch event for the newest Chinese auto company to enter the Australian market at the Carousel Albert Park in Melbourne. The launch event saw Haval Auto introduce three new models, the H2, H8 and H9. Haval’s brief was to impress its dealers with a new way of presenting the cars. The standard launches for the auto industry have been car under cloth reveals, with run music and pretty girls to pull the cloth from the car. Haval wanted to break this mould and show the world that this was no ordinary car launch. Because each of the three models launched had very individual personalities there was a great opportunity to produce a different atmosphere and theme for each reveal to give each car a chance to shine.
Haval wanted to open up the room to allow the audience to be part of the theme and experience each car’s personality. As well as the car launch, there was also a unique ribbon cutting ceremony by company VIPs to introduce the Haval brand to Australia. To achieve the three individual themes, the Carousel was split into three areas:
Welcome and elegance – delivering a classic feel, with red up-lit walls, the Haval logo projected and a stylish chandelier, with styling elements in-keeping with traditional Chinese influence. Guests were photographed alongside a huge media wall and encouraged to sign their name on it and encourage engagement. A dramatic performance of Chinese dancing drummers then commenced. Presentations by the Haval CEO and team and ribbon cutting ceremony followed, to reveal the new H8 driven by three Bachelorettes (2 pictured above) from the latest season of Bachelorette Australia.
Champagne and oysters were then served while guests viewed the new car. Outback Australia – providing an adventure feel and rugged looking visuals. As the music stopped the soundtrack of adventure grew as a curtain pulled back to reveal he H9 car. The car was spot-lit by floor to ceiling LED walls with a backdrop of mudflats, mountainous peaks, snow clad glaciers and sand dunes. This reveal included food and drink changes an outback feel with roasted meats, salads, beer and wine.
During these reveals, the other side of the room is still dark and covered...
Funky urban jungle – An electrical noise sparks the attention of the crowd. Pixpads blast light through the drape and urban beats starts and the curtain is pulled back revealing a plasma wall showing graffiti multimedia. LED lit furniture is placed around two H2 cars with a Gin and Whiskey bar theme. On either side are city scapes and modern art as a backdrop to the cars. To further engage with guests Event Feed was used so that they could display their tweets, photos and social media posts on large screens throughout the event. (Pictured above next to female performer).
Guests, car dealers and media were enthralled by proceedings. A truly new-age car launch was born, raising the bar for all local car launches. View more recent work Contact us to discuss your event Back to our Blog ... Read More