The Ponte Tower, the soaring, cylindrical skyscraper that is one of Johannesburg’s most recognised structures, has nailed a new colour to its mast in one of the most challenging outdoor advertising assignments ever undertaken by Airport Media.
Vodacom’s sweeping brand revision from blue to red has seen everything from rugby shirts to buildings, shops to packaging, change in a what seems like an incredibly short time. Airport Media’s Suzanne Styles told TheMediaOnline that they were given a mere 60 days to transform Ponte.
“It took seven moths to complete the blue Vodacom LED display on Ponte. We were given three months and 25 of those days were taken up with dealing with occupational safety issues,” she said.
Over one ton of red paint and seven kilometres of LED lights were used in the process. The building is the tallest residential building in Africa. The display is 15m high, at the very top of tower.
“The building has 54 stories, is 130m in circumference, and is 176 metres off the ground. It only has two working lifts, and there are three-storey penthouses at the top, which meant the team had to lug all that material up two and a half flights of stairs. Some of it had to be hoisted from the outside. It was a nightmare!” Styles said.
First, the team had to remove two kilometres of blue LED lighting. Fortunately, the display has an outside power source so residents weren’t affected. Then the team had to work around a raft of masts and satellite dishes at the top of the building.
“This was NOT like putting up a billboard on a highway!” Styles laughed. “The work was carried out by the incredible teams- there were eight to 10 teams on the sky decks at the site, behind and in front of it – from Flighting Boyz. What they pulled off in the short space of time we had was amazing.”
Styles also paid tribute to ‘Michael Coca Cola’ who has wired every installation at the site, from the original Coca Cola through both Vodacom incarnations.
The extraordinary ‘ad’ will be finished on Tuesday next week.
Mannie Feldman, working in a team together with Manfred Hermer and Rodney Grosskopf, in 1975, designed Ponte.
