The GREAT Campaign Launches the World's First 'Ever-Changing' Statue

The GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland campaign (GREAT) and Pablo & UNLIMITED have today announced the launch of the latest iteration of the Unicorn Kingdom campaign The ‘Ever-Changing Statue’ - a distinctive, 3D-hologram installation in New York City. Statues have historically been used to honour past achievements, however this future gazing statue looks to raise awareness of the UK tech Unicorn and Future-corn leaders who are spearheading the country’s $1 trillion tech sector. The statue will be on display at Rise, created by Barclays, in New York City, between March 26th - April 4th, 2024.  

Despite the UK being the third country in the world to have its tech sector valued at one trillion dollars, after the US and China, and boasting the highest number of Unicorns (private start ups which are valued at more than $1bn) in Europe, UK Government research suggests that many of the USA’s top tech entrepreneurs and investors are not aware of the scale of the UK’s world-leading tech ecosystem.  

GREAT, the UK Government’s flagship international promotion program, has taken steps to address this by launching in 2023 the ‘Unicorn Kingdom’ campaign, created by Pablo & UNLIMITED, which promotes the UK as a place with all the right ingredients to breed new tech unicorns, drive international investment, grow the economy and create jobs across the UK. The campaign highlights the UK sector’s scale ($1 trillion), agile regulation and world-class talent.

This year, the GREAT campaign looks to continue to spotlight the UK’s tech strengths having built the world’s third $1 trillion- tech economy following the US and China, through the unveiling of the world's first ‘Ever-Changing Statue’. Whilst statues have historically been used to honour past achievements and for nations to pay tribute to their most revered historical figures, Pablo & UNLIMITED have put a disruptive spin on the concept by creating a modern representation of the UK’s dynamic and innovative spirit, celebrating the companies that are driving the future of business and technology forward on a global level.  

Instead of celebrating the figures of the past, the ‘Ever-Changing Statue’ uses cutting edge 3D holographic technology from British company, HYPERVSN to spotlight the icons of the UK’s future from the thriving UK tech sector such as leaders from Quantexa, Blockchain.com, Octopus Energy Group and Proximie in a revolving manner. Visitors can now learn more about  the UK companies and their founders while viewing the installation. See a full list of all founders featured on the statue here. 

The campaign will be extended through social content and a series of interviews with the Unicorn and Futurecorn CEOs, talking to their experiences of the Unicorn Kingdom, whilst outlining the beneficial conditions the UK offers to tech start-ups and investors, as part of a partnership with the Wall Street Journal.  

The Unicorn Kingdom campaign, supported by multiple UK tech unicorns including Starling Bank, Marshmallow and OakNorth Bank, is the latest in a number of recent actions from the UK Government which demonstrates its strong support for UK tech. This includes the establishment of the new Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, the launch of the International Tech Strategy, the upcoming AI Whitepaper and the Government’s commitment to provide £20 billion of funding to research and development by 2024-25 - the highest ever level of public support for UK researchers and innovators. In 2023, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unveiled a bold plan to cement the UK’s place as a global science and technology superpower by 2030, investing over £370 million in government funding to boost infrastructure, investment and skills for key growth technologies, including quantum, supercomputing and AI. 

Kate Taylor Tett, director of GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland Campaign, said, “The UK’s  growing tech sector is the largest in Europe and a fertile breeding ground for high growth companies, thanks to an ecosystem which nurtures global talent and innovation. The goal of this campaign is to raise awareness of UK tech success by celebrating some of the sector’s leading lights, their impact and their potential, in an eye-catching and unexpected way”.  

Harriet Knight, joint managing director of creative agency Pablo London said: “To date, 160+  tech Unicorns, some valued as high as $18 billion, have been started in the UK, more than the total number in Germany and France combined. We wanted to do something disruptive that would celebrate and spotlight the UK as a tech powerhouse as well as educate investors on the thriving environment that breeds an unrivalled number of Unicorns. A conventional advertising approach was never going to cut it, which is why we came up with the idea to construct the first Ever-Changing 3D-hologram statue - a representation of the ever-growing, ever-changing dynamic nature of the UKs thriving tech scene.”