Killer app: Communisis makes giant National Lottery scratchcard

The National Lottery commissioned Communisis to create a world record-breaking giant scratchcard to mark the launch of its latest scratchcard game, which offers the biggest ever jackpot from the lottery firm of 4m.

 

What did the job entail?
Communisis worked with promotional games specialist and printer IGI Europrint to create the replica scratchcard, which stands at 14m and 6m wide – 500 times bigger than the real thing. The scratchard was displayed at the White Rose Shopping Centre in Leeds and unveiled by Adam Catterall of the National Lottery TV adverts and the tallest man in Europe, Neil Fingleton. Fingleton used a cherry picker to reach the scratch panel and reveal the symbols using a giant coin.

How was it produced?
Communisis and IGI Europrint based the design on the original-sized scratchcard, measuring 92x107mm. The background artwork was magnified 500 times and printed onto 14 sheets of 1x6m 200gsm semi-gloss paper using a Mimaki JV33130 large-format digital press at 1,400 dpi. The top left hand panel, which formed the gaming part of the scratchcard, was printed on a Roland litho B1 press, with the 12 B1 sheets overprinted with scratch-off latex using a Sakurai screen press and overprinted using four colours on the Roland machine.

What challenges were overcome?
Europrint promotions sales executive Wayne Fyles said: "It was very difficult to print full four-colour over rubber-based latex, but we managed it."

What was the feedback?
Camelot’s Anya Reynolds said: "We were impressed that the team pulled off such a high-quality replica of our scratchcard on the enormous scale. It worked perfectly on the day."