Arla Introduces Your Latest Strava Fitness Rivals with Cow Step Challenge

“Can you out-step an Arla cow on grass?” That is the challenge behind ‘The Cow Step Challenge’, which Danes will be able to experience in the Strava app over the coming weeks. Strava has become a popular platform for cyclists and runners to track and compare routes and performance. But now, users can also battle five real-life Arla cows, each with their own Strava profile, and see if they can take more steps in a day than a grazing cow.

“We know from research that most Danes care about the welfare of our dairy cows. So, we chose to put that front and centre, while at the same time keeping the message clear and simple,” said Christoffer Qvirin Holst, associate brand manager at Arla.

The milk consumed by most Danes comes from cows that spend the entire summer half-year out on grass. Among other things, this is why Arla Milk carries two animal welfare hearts.

“Milk is a very generic category, and showing cows out on grass is nothing new. So creatively, there is a need to activate the message in a new way that can both entertain and engage. Rather than simply telling the story, the ambition was to get Danes to become part of it themselves.

More and more people are tracking their daily steps, and that was a behavior we could tap directly into through Strava’s new steps feature. This is the first brand partnership of its kind, and when we presented the idea to Strava, they laughed and said yes straight away,” said Mads Tagel, creative director at Accenture Song.

In the Strava app, five different cows appear with their own profiles - acting as a kind of cowfluencers alongside the other athletes’ users can follow and compare themselves with. Users can choose whether to battle Agnes, Maren, Karen, Bitten or Tina and see how their daily step count measures up against theirs.

Cows have different personalities, which also come through in their behaviour out in the field. Some are more curious and explore their surroundings, while others are more cautious.

“Together with local Arla farmers from different parts of Denmark, we found the cows and tried to bring their individual personalities to life through the creative expression and their Strava profiles,” explained Maja Kargaard, senior creative at Accenture Song.

The cows’ activity is tracked using Garmin watches attached to their collars, recording their movements continuously for five weeks. Throughout the campaign period, a new day’s data is uploaded to each of the five cows’ Strava profiles.

Learn more about the challenge here.