It’s not every day you get to take a two-dimensional design and bring it to life – or in this case, larger than life. We were fortunate enough to have that opportunity with a client of ours.
Baker Cheese, Inc. is one of the largest string cheese producers in the nation. Located in St. Cloud, Wisconsin, they have been in business since 1916. The town of St. Cloud just celebrated its 100 Year Anniversary. With that came a parade featuring the Klement’s Racing Sausages (as seen at the Milwaukee BrewersGames), members of the University of Wisconsin Marching Band and over 100 other local businesses and organizations from the area. We attended the event and it was amazing!
We currently work with the Baker Brand to help with some of their package design and marketing needs, so they approached us a month before the parade and asked if we had any ideas for their float. After the flash-backs to high school subsided, and after hearing that the Racing Sausages were going to be involved in this event, we immediately presented the idea of taking the “first-stringer” character (that we illustrated for their new packaging) and creating a mascot to compliment the life-size sausages that would be parading around the event. Being that this was an event that would be attended by hundreds of kids and families, it took our client all of 2 seconds to see the value in this – and so our work began!
Working with our talented colleague, friend and UW-Oshkosh classmate, Brian Michalak, we developed a 6.5 foot tall version of the cartoon illustration, along with wearables that breathed new life into some classic Baker Brand items. As designers it’s very rewarding to see some of your creations “come to life” but this was a whole new level of excitement! We were like kids in a candy store – as was the client and eventual parade goers.
As brand developers, we’re always looking for ways for customers to interact with a company’s brand in a memorable way – be it social media, eye-catching designs or engaging interactive applications – but what’s better than actually shaking the hand (or giving a high-five) to the brand representative himself? In this case, I’d argue nothing.
It was so rewarding to see both kids and adults lining up to take a picture with the Baker Cheese character and cheering in the hopes that he throws a piece of string cheese their way. To look at it from a marketing perspective, we had potential customers begging for our clients’ product. Definitely a worth-while investment towards brand awareness.
What ways have you brought your brand to life? Is an over-sized brand advocate right for you? We’d love to hear your thoughts.
