The skies may be empty, but your branding should still be Flying High!

With air travel halted, the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland has proven to be a real pain in the ash. The beast Eyjafjallajokull ( I dare you to try pronounce that one.) spewing her dust clouds across the skies has resulted in the shutting down of many of Europe and Britains' air spaces. 

With that amount of soot and smog lingering in the atmosphere, one would assume that there could be a lasting detrimental effect. Will our precious Ozone Layers' already-gigantic hole begin eroding at an even faster rate? Will ashen acid rain fall to earth and destroy our land? As extreme as this may sound, keeping ones' carbon footprint to a minimum is becoming more important than ever - what with the likes of ol' Volatile Volcano doing us no favours. Fortunately, Expand a Sign has gone Green and has made changes to keep our planet clean!

Every company, business and service provider requires branding. Standing out from the crowd with indoor and outdoor advertising really does attract attention, and provides a highly visible sales opportunity. A nasty ash cloud? No problem! With our advanced printing technology, we are able to print bright, vibrant and bold graphics; perfect for being noticed in even the dullest, most dreary weather conditions. 

Freak snow storm? Not an issue! Our Flying Banners have withstood the harsh Arctic climate, the Sahara Desert and even Hurricane Katrina. 

Check out this video to see for yourself how robust our banners really are!
   


 There really is never a reason not the let your brand soar!

Cheers,

The EAS team.

It's good to be left in the dark!

Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change. Only a year later and Earth Hour had become a global movement with more than 40 million people across 32 countries participating. Global landmarks such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and Rome’s Colosseum all stood in darkness for 60 minutes, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour.

On March 27th at 8:30 pm, millions of people around the world turned off their lights for an hour. Creating awareness has educated millions and every hour, people are taking small steps to lessen their impact on the environment. From hanging your clothes to dry to taking public transport, those small steps add up to huge changes for our great globe. Expand a Sign is also going green and is a proud sponsor of Earth Hour. Over the past 2 years we have provided branding solutions for WWF Earth Hour events.

Expand a Sign makes and sources all our components in one country, producing the smallest footprint possible. We are committed to improving lives and to keeping the environment clean with the donation of our waste fabric cut-offs to community projects around South Africa. They use it to make bags, raincoats and other useful items. Each person benefits directly and can help uplift their local community. Expand a Sign is also involved in programmes which donate thousands of school bags and raincoats to underprivileged children each year.


We're going green and giving back... are you?

Cheers,
The EAS team.

Branding that will get you to the Finish Line!

Expand a Sign is a proud partner of Alive Outside, an Irish sporting events company. From Aquathons to Duathlons and Triathlons, we're confident in our ability to provide the most suitable branding products for each event's requirement.

Alive Outside are extremely safety conscious and always have the participants welfare as a concern. Our products proved to be an ideal option; our Folding A-Frames have a pop-up mechanism which means that there is no risk of injury if used on a sports field. Our Flying Banners are staked into the ground safely and our patented "Quick Connector" locks each banner in place, meaning no runaway banners in particularly unpleasant weather conditions!

Alive Outside hopes to attract the interest and participation of anyone in Ireland who may want to embrace a change of lifestyle.

If you would like to learn more about Alive Outside, go to: http://www.aliveoutside.ie/index.php

Cheers,
The EAS Team.

Letting Creativity Fly!

In June 2009, Nottingham City Council Arts & Events department approached us with a most interesting dilemma.

Having previously purchased a number of Expand a Sign banners for branding their local events, they were now looking to engage schoolchildren around the city in living arts projects to be displayed at various Council organised events throughout the region, but on a naturally limited budget.

The solution was simple and yet extremely practical. We provided 60 small, non printed Value Wing Banner fabrics, on medium pole sets. This allowed the children to create their own vibrant works of art on these unique novel canvases.


The results were amazing. 60 unique, individual and colourfully decorated banners at a price that made it great value for money. The project was so successful that the authority aim to repeat the exercise for 2010!

Cheers,
The EAS team.

We're Gonna Have a Ball!

South Africa received a bad wrap in the 20th Century. Fraught with Political turmoil, the Nation went through many tough and some incredibly triumphant times.

So being able to host something as huge as the Soccer World Cup is a pretty big deal. The FIFA Soccer World Cup has grown from its beginning in 1930 to become one of the greatest sporting events in the world. Well over two billion people are expected to follow the month long tournament between the world's top 36 soccer playing nations.

And the branding opportunities for such a massive sporting event are endless! If you read a previous blog (below...no, go down... no, the next article..yes, well done.) you will see that Expand a Sign provided some great Coke branding for the World Trophy Tour in late November 2009. 

But how could we get in there and provide the best branding products available at one of the greatest sporting events on the planet? Our banners speak for themselves with their excellent quality, and we soon provided MTN, a huge National cell phone service provider, with 100 Feather Banners to be displayed during the course of the tournament.


But how incredible is this?

We were commissioned to produce 2 giant replica South African soccer jerseys to be used at the matches.

Just imagine the raucous crowds, clambering to hold a part of the massive jersey over their heads as they chant their National Anthem and sway along in patriotic passion.

...each to their own, I suppose.

An exciting aspect of Expand a Sign is that no two moments are the same. One day we are producing teeny tiny Flying Banners for a restaurants' table promotion and the next we're running across the enormous new Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, South Africa with a monster jersey in tow.

  

With 4 months until kick-off, we have so much on the go. Expand a Sign will be plastering the place in branding product - but more, closer to the time.


Cheers,
The EAS team.

Dam, it's exciting!

The Midmar Mile, an annual swimming event held at Midmar Dam in Howick, South Africa is in its 37th year and has attracted over 17000 annual entries over the last few years. In September 2009, the Guinness Book of Records officially recognised the Midmar Mile as the world’s largest open water swimming event with 13 755 finishers.

USN was one of the main sponsors and Expand a Sign Feather Banners were proudly displayed at the finish line, where thousands of exhausted swimmers were presented with their medal and sports drink.

All conditions were ideal on Saturday the 13th February, as the Expand a Sign swimmers braved the water and fought the masses to eventually secure 38th position out of more than 400 company teams.

Enjoying a barbeque, family and friends watched as the gun went off and proudly welcomed their soaked sporting heroes back to solid ground and a dry towel.

Expand a Sign Flying Banners, Folding A-Frames, Ex-Domes and many more were displayed by take-away vendors, small businesses and international companies alike.



So - are you joining us next year?!

Cheers,
The EAS team.

The Annual Dusi Canoe Race was a blast! Expand a Sign branded the paddles off the place with our Ex-Domes, Ex-Discs, Flying Banners, Feather Banners and folding A-Frames.

The Dusi Canoe Marathon is the longest canoe race in the World. Starting in Pietermaritzburg, the gruelling 3 day racers paddle down the Umgeni River, stopping at Inanda Dam on the 2nd night (party!) and eventually finishing at the Umgeni River mouth in Durban.