When your business is milk, you have to think young. Milk has been a symbol of healthy childhoods and simple pleasures for centuries. But that was now part of the problem. Milk was no longer relevant to many young German consumers, and the Bavarian homeland of their dairy industry was often considered a quaint relic.

A troubling development if you’re the Bavarian Dairy Association. Our client.

We could see that today’s edgy young Germans and the deeply conservative Bavarian dairy industry were worlds apart in their own country. It would take a wild, unexpected event to bring them together. And to get milk on the radar of urban media? That would require a PR work of art.

So that’s exactly what we put together.

Launched in the summer of 2014 “Milk land Bavaria is being multi-colored” staged a competition to find Germany’s best street artists to create huge paintings on dairy farms throughout Bavaria. Hip young Germans took up the call. Conservative dairy farmers competed for their attention. And the media turned out to witness the unlikely relationship blossom across picturesque Bavarian meadows.

Impossible to ignore and hard not to love, this “White Wedding” proved the perfect coupling of art and commerce.

In cooperation with the artists’ association “Die Bunten,” the Bavarian Dairy Association opened a competition to find Germany’s best street artists to create huge paintings on seven dairy farms throughout Bavaria. Despite initial fears about the dairy farmers’ cooperation, they were soon competing to have their farm involved. In September 2014, a jury of experts, including representatives of the Bavarian Dairy Association and Die Bunten, chose seven winners; artists as well as farmers. And that’s when things got colorful. Artists started turning their sketches into giant murals. Farmers watched with growing interests. Tourists started showing up. And the media picked up the unfolding relationship between farmers and artists, aided by interviews, photos, videos and background facilitated by the agency. We were also busy painting a picture; of a modern industry and a multifaceted sponsor of contemporary art, who just happened to provide consumers with a healthy, enjoyable and diverse product: milk.

News coverage exceeded all industry expectations, and the message “Das Milchland Bayern wird bunt” (“Milkland Bavaria is being multi-colored”) was reflected in every media report, establishing the diverse modern spirit of Bavaria’s milk industry.

By the end of 2014, the campaign had inspired 432 “colorful” stories in print and online media, producing nearly 360 million media impressions - including top tier national publication bild.de and regional powerhouse Muenchner Merkur. Broadcast media included ARD, Bayerischer Rundfunk, and Antenne Bayern. Industry press DMZ (the German Dairy Newspaper) and Top Agrar also closely covered the story. The popularity of the art convinced the dairy industry to launch “Street Art im Milchland Bayern,” its first YouTube channel, immediately attracting 23,700+ views.

On International Milk Day this June, the street art artists will embark on their next big project -- painting the campuses of the dairy industry’s largest training centers -- showing it’s cool to drink milk, and work, in the dairy industry.