A Derby creative agency has successfully sent a cow to the edge of space as part of a campaign to promote a farm attraction’s new space-themed maize maze.
This year, the design of the maze at the National Forest Adventure Farm, at Tatenhill, near Burton, celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first manned Moon landing.
To mark its launch, Fluid Ideas, which looks after the farm’s digital, social media and advertising activity, devised and ran an event, which saw the attraction’s mascot, Crumpet the Cow, fly 36km to the edge of space.
Every second of the mascot’s two-and-a-half hour voyage was captured on a digital camera. Visitors to the farm for the launch event were able to experience it for themselves with virtual reality headsets.
Crumpet sat in a specially-designed rig attached to a hydrogen-filled latex balloon which expanded to the size of a small house.
At 36,000 metres, the balloon burst and Crumpet parachuted back to earth, landing in a field at Topcliffe, North Yorkshire.
According to Fluid Ideas, which is based at Darley Abbey Mills, more than 1,300 people tuned into Facebook Live to see Crumpet make his journey.
The annual maize maze at the National Forest Adventure Farm attracts more than 45,000 visitors a year and is made up of 600,000 maize plants.
It offers three miles of paths, bridges and viewing towers in a 10-acre field. The maize was planted on May 1 and will reach 8ft by mid-August.
Ben Meakin, digital marketing lead at Fluid Ideas, said: “Social media is a busy space for businesses and we’re always looking for ways to cut through the noise.
“We’re privileged to work with the farm which, like us, is always innovating and allows us to push the boundaries – such as by sending a cow to space!”
