Sign of times: Hamilton falls victim to prank

The signs have been attached to three council-owned billboards. Photo / Nikki Preston

Council happy for Megatron banners to fly as radio hosts’ stunt coincides with movie release.

Megatron could be the newest nickname for Hamilton if public and council reaction to new tongue-in-cheek billboards at the entrances to the city are anything to go by.

Commuters entering Hamilton this week may wonder if they've arrived at the right place when passing the large billboards marking the main entrances to the city welcoming them to Megatron.

The signs were part of a prank carried out by ZM's new breakfast radio hosts Carl "Fletch" Fletcher, Vaughan Smith and Megan Sellers who snuck into the city in a van in the early hours of the morning and hung them over three of the four large council-owned billboards.

The wraps, playing on the established "Hamiltron" catchphrase and accompanied by a graphic with cows and transformer robots to celebrate the release of the Transformers: Age of Extinction movie, were hastily stuck up with duct tape at the signs on Morrinsville Rd, Cambridge Rd in Hillcrest and by the Fonterra dairy factory on Te Rapa Rd.

Residents took to the council's Facebook page and to Twitter yesterday saying how they loved the new look and thought it was an improvement on the previous marketing campaign.

Hamilton Mayor Julie Hardaker had been unaware of the signs until they were up but said Megatron reflected that Hamilton was "a mega-important city for New Zealand" and fitted in with it being the youngest city in the country based on population age.

Megatron is also an extension on the city's "Hamiltron" nickname which it adopted a few years ago and which is often paired with the "City of the Future" catchphrase.

The city council has agreed to leave the signs up as an "act of good faith" until the end of the week when ZM had been told to remove them so they could be changed in time for Fieldays next week.

"Vandalism and graffiti are very different to what ZM has undertaken. We class this as a cheeky piece of guerilla marketing," Ms Hardaker said.

The radio hosts revealed the publicity stunt on air yesterday morning and Fletcher had expected a different reaction.

"I thought they would be angry and tear them down within the hour," he said.

Smith was happy to promote his hometown and, while he was pleased the stunt had turned out so well, the pair thought they would have to charge exorbitant fees in the future. "I'm not at all surprised that the forward-thinking Hamilton Council has decided to make the most of this amazing opportunity," Smith said.

Meanwhile Hamilton Deputy Mayor Gordon Chesterman described it as a bit of fun and publicity for the city, but disapproved of it being done without permission.

"For people to put wrappings around our own signs is a bit obnoxious if they haven't got permission. How would they feel if I dropped down there and put an election sign 'Vote for Gordon' all over their building?"

Public pleased

• Signs have been put up at the main entrances to Hamilton welcoming people to "Megatron".
• They are part of a stunt by radio station ZM to help promote the new Transformers film.
• They have had a good response from the public and the council is allowing them to stay up until the end of the week.