Radio station Studio Brussels is a rather small music channel in Belgium. Every summer they are present at all the major music festivals. More than being one of the many sponsors we needed to claim the moment but with a modest budget.

Being a small player the challenge was to reach our target audience amongst big spenders like Coca-Cola, Vodafone and Toyota. Second, we learned from research too much sponsoring on festivals quickly annoys people. They feel aggressed at a moment they come to for pleasure. As we knew that people go to festivals to see concerts and not to be harassed our objective was to be present in a more relevant way than just with a sponsor flag and some leaflets.

It was a gigantic hit. For each festival Studio Brussels supplied a couple of thousand cushions, which were all sold out in minutes. People lined up in long queues so they could get their own copy. Next to a lot of free press, people were very enthusiastic about the cushion and they left great comments on the Studio Brussel website. An important indication of success results in the fact that De Zitvlaai was admitted in an exhibition of the Belgium Design Museum. And it features already in the book “ design with a smile”.

We created something that shows Studio Brussels understands the festival-spirit and really cares about its audience. What is this festival spirit? Watching a concert, having a beer, waiting until the next one starts and having a beer. The idea of creating a cushion was born. People could sit on something cosier when waiting the next concert or just by having a beer.Regarding the design, as most of the festivals take place on a field, we created a cushion, which looked exactly like a cow¹s droppings. De Zitvlaai (The Sitshit). More than a useful item, a relevant design.