Some projects are straightforward. This was not one of them. And we loved every second of it.

The second instalment of the Meadow Fresh Flying Cows launched on 9 December at the SkyCity Breakers game, and if you were there, you already know. If you weren’t picture 500 custom plush cows dressed as Santa’s Elves, attached to parachutes, raining down from the rafters of Spark Arena onto a packed crowd. Yeah. That happened.

It started (relatively) simply with custom plush cows for the Meadow Fresh brand a fun, tactile promotional product that audiences love. Then someone asked the question that separates a good campaign from a legendary one: what if they wore elf costumes? What if they had parachutes? What if we dropped them from the ceiling?

Challenge accepted.

The Meadow Fresh Moo-Meter had the crowd warmed up and vocal but nothing could have prepared them for the moment 500 costumed, parachuting cows began their descent from the Spark Arena roof. The place absolutely lost its mind.

Behind the scenes, the logistics were anything but simple. Costuming plush toys at scale is one thing. Attaching parachutes that actually work is another. But our personal favourite detail? Our team filming test drops from the rooftop of our factory in China carefully timing each cow’s descent to make sure the anticipation built perfectly, and that nobody took a plush bovine to the face at pace.

This is what custom branded merchandise looks like when creativity, strategy and a little bit of madness collide. At Withers & Co., we specialise in custom promotional products, event merchandise and branded giveaways across New Zealand and Australia from the simple to the spectacular.

Even when spectacular involves a parachute.

Ready to make your next campaign unforgettable? Talk to the Withers & Co. team.