At Arrow, we know the world of Five Years Out relies on small, forward-thinking parts put together with absolute precision.
This is why Arrow recently partnered with Elevation Digital Media, a small local production firm, to make a commercial for our Aerospace and Defense industry. The autonomous paper plane machine was built by one of the world's best LEGO builders, Arthur Sacek, and aired during the big game this past weekend.
Chris Lewis Arrow Creative Director, Elevation Digital Media: We tried to figure out what Arrow does in aerospace and defense? It’s not clearly defined, and I think that they like it that way. That’s when we said, bring it back to the basis, the way five year olds would see it with, and that’s Legos.
Jon Stevenson, Director of Production, and Elevation Digital Media: I went to Google and typed in “World’s best Lego robotics designer” and came up with this guy. We reached out to Arthur via email. He wrote back telling us that he was really excited about the project, and from there we did a few Skype calls from Brazil.
Arthur Sacek, Lego Robotics Specialist: When this type of thing happens I get excited because it’s something that I like to do. It’s a challenge to collect a build paper planes that can really fly.
JS: We have to shoot the commercial Friday. It’s essentially four days that he has to get the machine done.
AS: When you have free time because when you get tired you can go home and take a rest, but when you’re on a deadline it’s quite difficult. I know it looks crazy, but I am going to rebuild this machine. Yesterday I finished this first machine. This one is much more powerful. I will have something with a motor so we can have movement. We need to work hard to have all of these things working together. It’s a mix of stress and motivation. There are a lot of things we need to gather, but I think we can do it.
AS: It was quite difficult to do last night. It was a terrible time. I spent a lot of time on it. I didn’t sleep. I went home to take a shower and came right back.
Hugo Meyer, Director, Global Brand Management: This is a great metaphor for how Arrow takes all the parts that are needed and puts together something so complex as Aerospace and Defense. The businesses that we’re in are sometimes difficult to articulate. Working with elevation has been amazing. You all have amazing. You guys have come with incredible ideas to articulate those in unique and interesting ways.
CL: The paper airplane machine is cool, but it’s not quite enough. We need to hip people on an emotional level. We added in a really cool sound design. We have quotes from JFK, Charles Lindbergh, and Neal Armstrong. It gives you a sense that Arrow is building off the history of aviation and innovating going into the future.
AS: I don’t want to just fold a plane. I want to fold a flying plane. I love the challenges. When you have this kind of feeling you will think of how to change other things. We need to solve problems. We have a lot of problems everywhere. To be able to see, and test , and make things…It’s wonderful!
Arrow.com