World's largest striding man for Joburg skyline

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The wrap covers almost the entire building's surface, except for the windows, with a total visual impact of 11000m².

100-year celebration

It's all part of the 100-year celebration of the Johnnie Walker “Striding Man” icon which was designed exactly a century ago and has reportedly become one of the world's first internationally recognised brand icons, ahead of the distinctive Coca-Cola livery. Its message is intended to be a very uplifting one for Jozi residents as it takes a big step, from ‘hope' to ‘reality'.

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Sindiswa Mbude, Johnnie Walker marketing manager South Africa, says the striding man is widely regarded the world over as a symbol of progress, a significant role in positioning Johnnie Walker as one of the world's pioneering brands. “My team and I had to ensure seeking of innovative use of media to deliver the ‘Striding' campaign in South Africa”. South Africans love the mix of innovative and inspiring brands, whose message resonates well with them,” he says.

Richard Wilkinson of Impact Media says it took 10 teams of industrial mountaineers eight weeks to erect the infrastructure and flight the digital mesh building wrap using 14 040m of galvanized steel cable, 46 800 brass eyelets, 400 anchor bolts and 3000m of climbing rope. A distance of 22500m of bungee jumping was clocked up to complete the task. And 1242 cups of coffee consumed to caffeine fuel the feat.

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During the installation, 173 drill bits were used and three drills were broken. And all this in icy Highveld chill - with average temperatures measured by the team at the start of each day of 7 degrees.

And six of the industrial mountaineers doing the installation quit, claiming that being harnessed more that 100m above the ground was too much for them - despite having conquered some of the highest mountain peaks in the world.

Temporary installation

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Mbude says the building wrap is a temporary installation and the landlord will be using the infrastructure after the campaign to install a decorative metal mesh to modernise the building.

According to Mbude, the iconic status of the Johnnie Walker brand made it highly appropriate for the brand to be on the largest building wrap in South Africa.

The largest current outdoor ad in the world is a billboard made from live plants which spell out the message “No.1 for football and still growing” covering a total area of 436 000m² (more than 50 football pitches) which was created to grab attention at Vienna Airport for the closing stages of Euro 2008.

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The Johnnie Walker Joburg building wrap is second in size to an outdoor hoarding in Kuwait, which covered a total surface area of 11 760m² and was erected two years ago for Kuwait's largest shopping mall opening.