I’ve got to hand it to Gala bingo, their latest promotional campaign is brilliant.
Titled ‘All the Calls’, not only is the commercial entertaining, challenging, amusing, clever, and well thought out, but it also offers the chance to win a share of £50k in prize money too, with a top prize of £20k going to a single player.
This one is bound to get people talking, so what is it exactly?
Well, Gala have produced a TV commercial in which they have hidden all 90 bingo calls. Yep, all of them.
Some are easier to spot than others (much easier) but they are all in there somewhere – and the advert is only 30 seconds long!
I’ll be honest; even if you have no intention of entering the competition or playing at Gala, the advert is still worth watching a few times, they’ve done a remarkable job with it.
I can’t think of another promotion quite like this one.
What is Gala’s ‘All the Calls’ Promotion?
It’s a promotion and a TV commercial all rolled into one – the perfect marketing campaign.
Gala have produced a 30 second advert and also, thankfully, a super slow motion 3 minute version of the same thing:
Players must watch the advert and spot all 90 bingo calls, then enter the competition via Gala’s website, pointing out where all the calls are in the commercial.
One lucky player who gets them all right will win £20k, while the other £30k will be split into 7,200 smaller prizes.
How many did you spot on a first watch? I promise they are all in there.
Some are there as actual numbers or words, and others are there in the actions of the people in the scene; for example, a lady is reading a book called Thee and Me (23), there is an advertising billboard promoting Brighton Line Tonic (59), and there is a delivery guy ‘knocking at the door’ (number 4).
There’s even one number to spot before the advert really kicks off (hint: read the small print).
I’ve watched it three times and still haven’t found them all, so it’s a challenge!
How Did They Make the Advert?
Gala worked with an award winning advertising agency called Neverland to come up with the idea for the commercial, and they used an award winning production company called Agile Films to make it.
As us lot already know, there is more than one call for most bingo numbers, so the first job was to sit down and pick the calls they were going to use.
This was about picking calls that were popular, but that also fit into the scene they were creating.
Next, it was a case of finding the right location where all of their ideas could be brought to life, so there were some creative decisions made regarding how to place each call based on the location too.
Talking about the process, the director, Noah Harris, said:
“This was an idea Tom and I had talked about a few times when working on previous projects.. and it seemed like a foolish undertaking… when the time came to make it, it turned out it was.”
Tom Dixon of Neverland added:
“Turns out putting 90 bingo calls in a 30” advert is a logistical nightmare. I’m very sorry to all our production partners.”
These comment was clearly made in jest though, as both men went on to talk about how much fun they had on set.
The whole scene was thoroughly rehearsed for timing, before the DOP (director of photography) remotely controlled the camera which was mounted on an electric bike that travelled through the scene.