The substances I inhale
After the press preview and opening day of The Last days of Pompeii, James Cassidy from FKP Scorpio Entertainment Ltd looked at me and said: "Tell me Peter, what substances do you inhale before you come up with these ideas?"
Fair question.
But honestly? It has nothing to do with substances. Not even Tibetan incense.
What it does have to do with is one thing: connecting the dots.
This particular launch started with thinking about the Holy Blood Procession in Bruges. My son was part of the Roman legion that marches through the city every year. Impressive group. Exactly the energy I was looking for to take over the Brussels Grand Place for the Pompeii launch. I tracked down the group leader. But getting a Roman legion together turned out to be … complicated.
So I did what I always do. I called Chrissie Vanaelst from Strange People. Chrissie is my go-to person for animations and activations. We go wayyyy back. Together we've pulled off some memorable projects — including building an actual Tiny Top for Cirque du Soleil. (Check that project here) Chrissie didn't have Romans "on stock" either, of course. But she was in. The search continued.
A few days later, I was sitting with Hilde Roelandt, our contact at VRT, discussing the campaign for The Last Days of Pompeii. The Romans idea came up in conversation — and that's when the click happened. Hilde remembered a group. A full Roman "society" in Tongeren. She even had a contact.
That's all you need sometimes. One conversation. One person who remembers something. One dot connected.
From that point on, it was all about connecting the right people at every level.
Chrissie and Silas started talking to the Roman Legion: planning, scheduling, logistics, feeding thirty-odd Romans. Meanwhile, other contacts were running with city officials. I wanted the Mayor, Philippe Close, there, of course. That takes time and patience — and last-minute schedule changes, including the moment the bus with the Romans got stuck in traffic.
The bus became a dressing room. We changed the timing on the spot. I contacted the police and asked them to escort the bus. We blocked streets. And then …
The magic happened.
The Romans arrived. Did their final preparations. Got into formation. And conquered Brussels. They were so impressive, nobody needed to be asked to move aside. The Grand Place just opened up in front of them. And as they arrived, the Mayor — who we'd worked with before on other projects — finished his meeting early. A few minutes to brief him. A handshake. And we had our moment.
None of this would have worked without one more thing: a video team you can trust completely. Peter Hoogland and his team know exactly what I'm looking for in the videos we like to run. Not a viral video for its own sake — a video that makes people feel something. That they'll want to share. And that will, in the end, sell tickets to the exhibition.
When you're extinguishing fires in real time, you need a team that moves with you. Not one that's rigidly following a script. In what I do and in who I am, the script is rarely followed.
All the fires. All the moving parts. All the last-minute pivots. It led to something we were all genuinely proud of.
And we got noticed. The campaign was just shortlisted for the De PR Publieksprijs 2025 — PR stunt campaign of the year.
If you liked what we did in Brussels … vote for us here.
