Gala Bingo Hides All 90 Bingo Calls in Holy Grail Ad Campaign

Gala Bingo has created the ultimate advert for bingo fans by cryptically hiding all 90 bingo calls into their latest film: ‘All The Calls'.

After quietly launching classic looking product advert earlier this year, which pointed out five bingo calls hidden within the film, Gala Bingo is today revealing that they have in fact hidden all 90 calls within their latest TV ad – and there is up to £50k for grabs for whoever can find all the calls.

The incredible film was achieved through months of script writing, meticulous set design and choreography planned down to the second to create a series of set pieces which could hide all of the calls within them. These set pieces were then captured by attaching a super high-speed camera to an electric bike, which sped through the action at 30mph.

A three-minute version of the ‘All The Calls’ film - which runs entirely in slow motion, showing every single incredible bit of the action - is being launched online so bingo fans can pore over every frame, and find each of the calls cryptically hidden within them.

How we hid all the calls in ‘All The Calls’

The incredibly ambitious film that sits at the heart of the ‘All The Calls’ campaign was developed in partnership between senior creative Tom Dixon of neverland, and director Noah Harris of Agile. 

The duo started with a longlist of all of the different bingo calls there are for each number from one to 90. Then selected a call for each number that would make sense all together as a story. 

The production team at Agile then found a location to bring their script to life and started work on the incredibly detailed set, props and casting needed to include each of the 90 calls within the action.

The team then created a detailed map and animatics to help plan out every cast and prop movement, as well as helping to set out the path and speed that the camera would have to move through the unfolding action to capture it all. 

Once everything was in place and thoroughly rehearsed, the team rigged a camera shooting at 500 to 1000 frames per second to a controlled electric bike, which flew through the set with the Director of Photography controlling the camera remotely.

The resulting footage was then edited into 30” ad which speeds up and down, and super slow motion long form film. Both films feature a specially slowed down version of Todd Rundgren’s ‘I Saw the Light’ which features on the Gala Bingo’s main ads. The version of the song was created by Factory Studios using a cutting edge application of AI that slowed the track down six times without distortion. 

Sara Jolly, head of brand Gala Bingo and Foxy Bingo, said, "Despite being on the shoot, and working through all the plans and schematics, this film still astonishes me! I hope bingo fans have as much fun finding all the calls as we did hiding them."

Tom Dixon, senior creative at neverland said, "Turns out putting 90 bingo calls in a 30” advert is a logistical nightmare. I’m very sorry to all our production partners."

Director Noah Harris said, “This was an idea Tom and I had talked about a few times when working on previous projects.. and it seemed like a foolish undertaking… when the time came to make it, it turned out it was : )

We undertook an intense creative process coming up with all the ideas within the film which was all of the following – fun / exasperating / joyous / tiring / silly / migraine inducing / never to be repeated / argumentative / FUN again.

The shoot itself was great… who wouldn’t want to put a phantom on an electric motorbike and hammer it down a busy street chasing some errant fowl?”

A campaign of clues and the big reveal

The competition to find the calls will be promoted through an integrated OOH, digital and social featuring stills and clips of the film and set.

The ads will give hints towards some of the most cryptic clues, as well as pointing out some of the more iconic and well-known bingo calls. The media for the campaign was planned and bought by Gala Bingo’s long term media partner the7stars.

The competition to find all the calls closes on 8th of December at which point Gala Bingo will be revealing where all 90 of the calls were hidden with a new version of the three-minute film with each of the calls highlighted.