The”Leaning Tower of Dallas” received much press over the course of the last few weeks. The 11-story building became a sensation after several failed attempts to demolish it turned it into an accidental tourist attraction and social media sensation. It inspired memes and photographs of people appearing to hold it up in an optical illusion, the way visitors do at the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy.
All this juicy froth surrounding the building that refused to fall did not go unnoticed by The Richards Group. The drama unfolded directly outside their windows and in true advertising spirit, they grabbed the opportunity to make it work for their Choctaw Casino client. Creatives worked quickly to get client and city approval to project the message “Have Better Luck With Us” on the side of the half-demolished building.
AdChat DFW was curious how the idea came to fruition and how it unfolded so quickly so we asked for the story from The Richards Group.
How did this idea come about?
We understood that this demolition was going to capture the public’s curiosity when it didn’t come down all the way. And the memes came quick. We’re always looking for ways to join in on conversations around current events (where it makes sense to), and this one was unfolding right in our backyard. We couldn’t help but look outside our windows at this partly demolished building and see an opportunity to jump on a culturally relevant moment on behalf of a client.
Who was responsible for coming up with the idea?
A creative director had the idea to project a message on the side of the building. But really, that was the easy part. Figuring out the approval process and logistics of making it happen on a canvas that was literally being torn down in real time in front of us was the hard part. It was a whole team effort that moved crazy quick with the approval process and with our in-house team who bring events and activations to life and who were able to make it happen that same night we had the idea. Everyone moved quickly because we saw the potential in the opportunity, and we didn’t know if this building would be up for another ten days or ten minutes.
What kind of reaction/results are you getting?
It’s overwhelmingly positive. Our goal was to put our client in the center of a conversation that was unfolding right in front of us. We just happened to have a whole lot of fun doing it. The Leaning Tower of Dallas has captured thousands’ of people’s imaginations and we’re just proud to have been a small part of that.
