Colourful cows along River Valley Road below Fort Canning Park
Many would have noticed the return of the colourful cows in open fields in the city. Those of us in the marcoms profession may recognise these "moo-ing" mascots to belong to Moove Media, an outdoor advertising company owned by the transport behemoth ComfortDelgro group - a conglomerate which operates most of the buses and taxis in Singapore.
Apparently, these latest "herds" of cattles are part of an Adopt A Cow promotion that the company is running. You can actually bring home a cow at only S$100 each. What's more, there are 5 of these cute cattle friends with different names to choose from.
When the Moove Media cows first made their appearance in 2005, they caused quite a huge ruckus. Everybody was talking about these mysterious cardboard bovines which sprung up almost overnight. As the story unfurled, people gradually understood that it was a branding and awareness exercise to get more people interested in outdoor advertising on taxis and buses. The second wave of this time red cows were unleashed close to National Day last year.
The brainchild of Moove Media's CEO Jayne Kwek, the cows had won multiple advertising awards including the Singapore Advertising Hall of Fame Awards.
Initially, I was rather sceptical about this marketing "moove". After all, these "cows" were standing serenely in green pastures rather than placed on buses and taxis - the very outdoor advertising spaces which they were supposed to promote. If anything, their success may lead to more businesses wanting to place 3D objects in open fields around the island.
Happily, I was proven wrong. If you look at the latest advertising expenditure results, you would have noticed that both taxi top and bus advertising have increased by a whopping 24.2% in 2006 compared to 2005. Obviously they must have been doing something right.
My question though is whether this latest wave of the cow campaign is too much of a good thing. I mean, Comfort-Delgro couldn't possibly be selling cows for a living now right?Labels: advertising, comfort-delgo, guerrilla marketing, moove media, outdoor media