Celebrate MK 50 with your own cow

Cows parading MK for your business

& for charity

A 50th birthday certainly can’t go unnoticed without some form of celebration or commemoration and that’s where Herd About MK comes in! Herd About MK is a project that enables the very best businesses of Milton Keynes to commemorate the 50 year anniversary, as well as raising significant funds for some amazing local charities.

Not only that, the project will engage the people of Milton Keynes on so many different levels. The project will bring together businesses, schools, community groups, creative artists and the media.

As you know, Milton Keynes is synonymous with our beloved concrete cows; attracting many visitors and bringing smiles to the locals.

Thanks to constant media attention, they have become symbolically ‘Milton Keynes’; and we are bringing 50 more of them to MK to be enjoyed by everybody.

50 new and exclusive concrete cows are set to become residents of Milton Keynes; bringing the biggest arts and charity project ever to the city.

Businesses like yours can purchase a cow and brand, paint and decorate it as you see fit.

The Herd About MK team will be on hand to offer advice and guidance on how to find local artists of schools or other local companies to make your cow as vibrant and dynamic as you wish. This is set to be one of the biggest art projects that Milton Keynes has seen; 50 life-sized cows, vibrantly decorated at different points in MK. Will you be able to spot them all?

All sponsors will receive over a year’s worth of marketing and branding, not to mention announcements on the one and only MKFM.

All 50 cows will be paraded around the city throughout the year with a number of showcases planned at different landmark sites in Milton Keynes. Each event will be a sight to remember, attracting the local public and press. Imagine, all 50 cows, all different colours, lots of different brands all together in Milton Keynes. It’d be great to have your brand there too.

We finish the 50th year with an exclusive Gala Dinner in November 2017. This prestigious event is for sponsors only and a table of 10 comes as part of the sponsorship package. It’s an event not to be missed!

We sincerely hope you join us and be part of this exciting 50th year celebration of our city.

& welcome to a very unique project: Herd About MK!In January 2017, Milton Keynes will turn 50 years old. Who’d have thought that it would be as prosperous and vibrant as it is? Milton Keynes is a true success story and we, like you, are proud to call it home.

In case you were wondering, Cows on Parade re-branded to Herd About MK after being approached by an American company ‘claiming’ they own the rights to ‘Cow Parade’.

Whilst we were sure we’d win the battle to continue to use Cows on Parade, we took the decision to protect charitable money and re-brand as opposed to face potentially high legal fees.

A shame that a commercial and profitable American company felt threatened by a small, not-for-profit Milton Keynes based project, but that’s life and we’ve moooooved on.

Herd About MK or Cows on Parade?

THE AVERAGE COW CHEWS AT LEAST 50 TIMES PER MINUTE;

more than 40,000 jaw movements a day!

THERE ARE 1.895 MILLION DAIRY COWS

IN THE UK (And yet only

50 Herd About MK cows!)

A MILKING COW CAN EAT 100 POUNDS

OF FEED PER DAY, unlike our cows, who in

comparison are relatively low maintenance

COWS HAVE ALMOST TOTAL

360 DEGREE PANORAMIC

VISION

150cm

140cm 120cm

196cm

140cm

90cm

66cm

Recognising the value this project brings to Milton Keynes for both businesses and charities alike, they are encouraging your involvement.

During 2017, the people of Milton Keynes will be celebrating the 50th birthday in a number of ways and will therefore be very receptive to events commemorating MK 50. Herd About MK is a great way to bring art to the city, whilst promoting your brand and raising thousands of pound for local charities.

• Be part of the biggest art and community project to hit MK

• Raise your brand awareness in a unique and different way throughout 2017 and beyond

• Significant pre and post event(s) exposure

• Benefit from promotional awareness throughout Milton Keynes by our media partners MKFM, The MK Citizen, Business MK, Cygnus Associates, and i-print MK

• Enjoy extensive social media interaction and promotion

• Increase footfall and visitors to your store, website and business

• Multiple PR opportunities associated with the project

• Engage your staff to work on the project; having input into the decoration of the cow

• Work with local schools, colleges or artists to brand and decorate your cow

• Engage with the people of Milton Keynes and receive exposure to key business opportunities with co-sponsors

• Your cow paraded at key sites throughout 2017 with all logistics included

• Benefits from community activities such as a ‘cow treasure hunt’

• Achieve CSR targets by raising funds for local charities

• Raise money for and awareness of our great local charities

• Table for 10 at the all-inclusive Sponsors Gala Dinner in November 2017

4th Parade November 2017, Gala Dinner

Milton Keynes is 50 and the people of Milton Keynes will surely be celebratingMilton Keynes Council are planning a variety of events to mark this birthday and have included Herd About MK as a main event in their celebrations.

Herd About MK – an overview… Charity MK Cows, why get involved?

Decorate your life-sized cow yourself, with your staff, or bring in a local artist to do so. Why not invite your employees’ children to submit their ideas? Or even put a request out on social media for designs, gaining further promotion for your brand.

Register your interest from September 2016 onwards

1st Parade March 2017

1

2nd Parade July/August 2017

5

2 6

Cows arrive early 2017

3rd Parade September 2017

Decorate the cows February 2017

37

48

Project awareness & promotion with MKFM & The MK Citizen from September 2016 through to December 2017

Limited edition, life-sized concrete cow dimensions

COWS HAVE AN AMAZING

SENSE OF SMELL being able to smell

something up to 6 miles away!

COWS FORM CLOSE FRIENDSHIPS, SPENDING TIME WITH

2-5 INDIVIDUALS. They also hold

grudges for years!

MK Community Foundation

The MK Community Foundation help transform lives and strengthen communities across Milton Keynes. They support local projects who are working to make a real difference to vulnerable, isolated and disadvantaged people in MK as well as specialising in awarding grants to smaller, lesser known charities and groups alongside, supporting well known charities such as MK YMCA and Ride High.

In 2015-16 the MK Community Foundation provided over £1.8 million in support to local charities and groups who help people in poverty, with disabilities, young children, the elderly, arts, sports and many more causes. In short, they make Milton Keynes a better place to live and work!

www.mkcommunityfoundation.co.uk

Willen HospiceWillen Hospice is an independent charity offering specialist care to individuals with life limiting illnesses. Our dedicated team of doctors, nurses, social care professionals and other health care staff provide round the clock care to our patients and ongoing support for their families.

Willen Hospice offers an inpatient unit for patients to stay at the Hospice, a dedicated community team of Clinical Nurse Specialists and Hospice at Home staff, a Patient & Family Services team offering bereavement support and a drop-in Wellbeing Centre giving those not staying at the Hospice access to our services. Their care looks to give individuals comfort, help them find confidence, ease their pain and reduce their anxiety. Their vision is to always be there to care but to do that, they rely on generosity and dedication of the local community. To continue to offer the care that they do, Willen Hospice need to raise £3.6 million every year – that works out at around £7 every single minute from 1st January to 31st December.

www.willen-hospice.org.uk

MK Dons SETThe MK Dons Sport and Education Trust (SET) is an independent charity that improves the lives and experiences of its local community.The SET delivers life-changing programmes in Milton Keynes and the surrounding area and focuses on education, social inclusion, health and wellbeing, girls and women’s football, football development and community development.

The SET is a dynamic and progressive organisation that is committed to promoting a healthy and active lifestyle in MK and beyond.

www.mkdonsset.com

• A professionally sculpted life-sized, limited-edition concrete cow; fully delivered on a plinth to a location of their choice

• A blank canvas on which to decorate their cow

• Excellent branding and promotional opportunities associated with the project

• Inclusion of their logo and company details on the Herd About MK website

• Announcement and promotion of their involvement to key MK press throughout the year

• Promotion on the Herd About MK social media channels with links wherever possible. In addition, they will receive promotion on our charities and media partners social media channels

• Table of 10 to the all-inclusive Sponsors Celebratory Gala Dinner in November 2017

• Extensive social media promotion via our media partners and our charities

• Their cow paraded at four key sites throughout 2017 with all logistics included

• An opportunity to promote their corporate creativity and engage staff and people of Milton Keynes

• Benefit from community activities such as a ‘cow treasure hunt’, where high-value prizes are on offer for those spotting the most cows

• The opportunity to merchandise their cow for additional promotion

• Raising funds for local charities

Herd About MK Sponsorship Fee £7,000+ VAT. Limited to 50 cows.

Similar events in the UK have been a tremendous success! Businesses have seen an upturn on their social media interaction, retailers have seen an increase in footfall and dwell time, as well as an increase in visitors throughout the county as a whole.

All sponsors shall receive...

• Shopping malls have seen an increase in 20% of visitors year-on-year when the event was on

• Dwell time doubled when shoppers and visitors looked for the statues

• 91% of people visited parts of the county they would never normally go

• 43% of visitors believed the event created a stronger sense of community

• A restaurant reported an increase in sales of 16% during the showcase

• 53% of visitors to a similar event in Norwich visited specific trail venues because of the event

• 56% of people had a more favourable attitude to business because of the involvement

I cannot think of a better way to spend a proportion of my marketing budget.

Herd About MK provides me with over a years worth of advertising and engagement for far less than I spend elsewhere. Also, being part

of the 50th celebrations is invaluable. David Wick, MD Mirror Outlet

Our Sponsors

Simeon Jackson sj@herdaboutmk.co.uk 07530 309806

Rob Broekhuizen rb@herdaboutmk.co.uk 07 725 418475

admin@herdaboutmk.co.uk 01908 326789 www.herdaboutmk.co.uk

For more information and to reserve your cow, please contact: