The day before the historic 2010 federal election, Julia Gillard officially opened the New Top Ryde City Shopping Centre. What neither she, nor any of the other thousands of shoppers at the event were expecting was for 200 performers to spontaneously burst into a 7 minute choreographed flash mob.

Just as quickly as it began, performers melted back into the crowd.

Conceived and produced by VerveCreative, this flashmob performance was shot using 7 cameras, edited on site and uploaded to YouTube within hours of the performance. The video is designed to go viral – a highly effective way of promoting the centre.

“Top Ryde City Shopping Centre recently underwent a major refurbishment. In fact the whole centre was virtually re-built. It’s not every day that a new shopping centre opens in Sydney. And it’s certainly not every day that the PM is the guest of honour the day before the Federal Election, said Verve Creative’s owner Rob Frank.

“With so much media attention, it was the perfect opportunity to create an event that would capitalise on the coverage to promote the centre. The event also needed to be a surprise and have the potential to be used as a viral campaign,” he added.

To see the performance, click below:

Vervecreative worked closely with the marketing team at Top Ryde City to develop a Flash Mob performance.

At a random moment in time, the music in the centre changed. ‘shoppers’ started spontaneously dancing to the music. Very quickly one performer turned into 10, which eventually culminated in a mass performance involving over 200 dancers, including  Rob Frank’s mother, a former choreographer and ballerina.

The event was covered with seven cameras. The video was edited on site and uploaded to YouTube within 3 hours. Within 2 days, the video has had over 2,000 hits. At this rate, within a week, 10’s of thousands of people will have seen it – a highly effective way of promoting the centre.