The cat is out of the bag: Culprits admit to Fife stencil 'mystery'
The mystery of the Fife cats has been solved.
For the past few weeks residents of the Kingdom have been baffled by dozens of images of felines that have appeared on signs and roadsides.
The moggie art had users of the Fife Jammers and Glenrothes Awareness Facebook pages scratching their heads, with nearly 800 reactions and over 100 comments across both pages.
As well as the street art, there was a poster campaign and newspaper adverts in The Courier.
Now the culprits behind the scheme have stepped forward. The cats are a clever viral marketing campaign by local car dealership Your Ford Centre.
They're promoting the new Ford Puma Gen-E. The fully electric version of Ford's incredibly popular small SUV .
It has a 43kWh battery that gives the car a range of 233 miles – making it one of the most efficient EVs on the market
Stuart Prentice and Filip Krawczyk are group marketing executives for Your Ford Centre and came up with the idea for a viral marketing campaign.
The pair were inspired by the 'puddle lights' on the new Ford Puma Gen-E, which beams a puma image onto the pavement when you open the driver's door.
They went to great lengths to keep their campaign secret. Stuart explained: 'We didn't tell any of the staff or management here so that there was no risk of it being leaked, and so they wouldn't share the likes of Fife Jammers posts – so there was no way of it being traced back to us.
'We created the website and email address for new cat on the block from personal computers and contacts again so it was harder to trace back to Your Ford Centre.'
The pair stencilled more than 100 cats all over Fife over the course of a few days. 'The hardest part was actually getting the cats out there without being caught,' Stuart continued. 'Some were done during the day wearing high vis vests on so no-one really questioned what was happening if they did see us, but most were done in the dead of night.
'I was out several times at midnight and beyond to do them.'
Filip said: 'It was hard to keep it a secret, but we have made it happen. It was even harder to keep a straight face while overhearing people talk about it, but what a great feeling to be behind one of the most secret campaigns in the UK automotive industry.'
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