WHOSE THE OWNER OF THIS COW TIED UP TO MY BILLBOARD

We have selected a couple of stories that we remember and that could have been phenomenal innovate campaigns if they had been realised.

Our colleagues from the field always have the same comment about such situations:

What we have seen people doing in the field! No creative agency would have come up with such ideas.

Narrator: Marko Obradović

Around 2003 we installed double pole billboards in Mionica. At that time we didn’t have a special team in charge of visiting and maintaining billboards in the countryside, so it was my duty to visit them once a month. One Saturday in 2008, I went to Mionica and I couldn’t believe my eyes. A purple cow on the billboard, and a real 3-D natural colour cow tied up to one pole of the billboard. Saturday is the stock market day in Mionica and the billboard was 100 metres from the open-air market.

I approached a group of peasants and asked: “Ok, guys, who is the owner of the cow tied up to the billboard?” The owner immediately uttered his argument: “Isn’t it used for advertising? Are they advertising a cow? Well, I have a cow too. And mine certainly gives more milk than the one up there. A cow up there, a cow down here, what’s the problem?”

I patiently explained that it was not the purpose of the billboard, that it was not the cow being advertised, but the product, that the market was 100 metres down the road, and asked him to untie the cow and stop doing the same in the future. We made an agreement and that’s how it went…

Narrator: Aleksandar Ilić

During the 2000’s, one of my duties included periodical visits of cities in which we had media. I remember one interesting situation in Kraljevo.

Whenever in monitoring, we would find the same situation on one location: between two poles of a billboard, a clothesline with hanging clothes. We tried to draw attention to people that poles were not intended for that purpose, but every time they would say: “Well, we know that, but it’s convenient.” They remove the clothesline, but as soon se we leave, they bring it back. And so on.

Finally, we dismantled the billboard, but now when I think of that, it could have been an excellent innovate campaign. An advertisement for a washing powder on the billboard, and a clothesline beneath.

If you are interested in technical capacities for innovate, innovate solutions that have been realised by Alma Quattro can be found here.