The lack of events, sporting and commercial, have impacted heavily on many print service providers, as event branding is a significant market for the wide-format print professional.
There is still new work to be won though, it’s just that it might entail some ‘outside of the box’ thinking.
Like Borussia Mönchengladbach and their fans, who have together come up with a scheme that allows football fans to put cardboard cut-outs of themselves in the stands to avoid games being played in 'empty' stadiums. With around 8,000 orders already, the initiative continues to enjoy a great response.
Here's more from the club themselves along with the mechanism of how the fans upload their photograph and place their orders…
It’s not matchday, but BORUSSIA-PARK is filling up nicely. The players themselves have now taken their place in the Nordkurve alongside supporters, as has TV presenter Arnd Zeigler. In fact, there is even a Dortmund fan in the away section. Some 2,000 cardboard Doppelgängers have been assembled and placed in the BORUSSIA-PARK terraces, including those of the first team players and staff, who took it upon themselves to place the orders. Meanwhile, the total number of orders for cut-outs has reached more than 8,000, all of which, perhaps plus many more will help “fill the stands” if the Bundesliga season is to continue behind closed doors. "The campaign organisers are regularly overrun with orders. We can hardly keep up trying to install them, but we’re obviously delighted with the overwhelming response it has received," said Borussia’s supporter representative, Thomas “Tower” Weinmann, who also politely asks the fans to be patient: "Every email is being taken into account, but they all need to be dealt with one after the other."
If you want to have the ‘cardboard you’ installed in the stands, simply upload your photo to seidabei-trotzdem.de and put in your information for the cut-out to be produced. The photo is passed on to Fanprojekt Mönchengladbach (FPMG), who in turn send you an email with the information you need to transfer the money to their account. Once your payment is confirmed, FPMG take care of everything else.
The price for one cut-out is €19.00. €2.50 will go to the FPMG and a further €2.00 will go both to their campaign “Borussen helfen Borussen” (Foals help Foals) and to the Borussia Foundation. The rest of the price goes towards production and labour costs. The campaign is thereby also offering support for two small local firms in Mönchengladbach, whose shops are currently closed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The project is a non-profit initiative. Season ticket holders can also specify their block when ordering so that they can receive their usual spot in the stands. All others will be distributed predominantly in the Nordkurve. Only Block 16, directly behind the goal, will be set up by the Ultras themselves.
