PITTSFIELD — It’s a campaign that has stood outdoor advertising on its head in Berkshire County.

If you’ve driven through Coltsville, along Elm Street, up North Street or on Route 8 near the Adams-Cheshire line, you’ve likely seen the billboards for Nocher Realty and realized something seems not quite right: The billboard copy and accompanying logo are upside down.

There’s no obvious clue that this was done on purpose, leading one to believe that a memorable mistake was made. Four times.

Certainly, the public at large thought so: They picked up the phone and called the agency’s Pittsfield and Adams offices to deliver what they thought was bad news.

“Our phone was off the hook for the first [billboard],” broker/owner Jason Nocher said Thursday.

Jason Nocher, shown with his wife, Jen, says his firm regularly uses outdoor advertising as part of its marketing strategy. But the upside-down gambit took it to another level.

But what seemed like a very expensive, very public goof was very much on purpose — a brainstorm that Nocher had two months ago and brought to billboard owner Lamar Advertising.

Just days into its run, the campaign already has generated considerable word-of-mouth for the firm, and for Lamar, according to Nocher and Kellie Witherell, Lamar’s senior sales account executive for Berkshire County and greater Albany, N.Y.

“It definitely exceeded expectations,” Nocher said. “I thought it would get a bit of buzz. I didn't think it would get such an extra boost.”

There's no hint that the upside-down installation of Nocher Realty's billboard at the intersection of Dalton Avenue and Cheshire Road in Pittsfield was intentional. But the business had the idea two months ago, and worked with Lamar Advertising to post it at four locations.

Nocher says his firm, with 11 sales associates and assistant brokers and $75 million in sales last year, regularly uses outdoor advertising as part of its marketing strategy. But he acknowledged that it’s not always easy to know with certainty how billboards translate to business and brand awareness.

But Nocher said the investment — four billboards at $1,800 per location — is paying off in name recognition and free media attention. “Slater and Marjo [on WUPE-FM] talked about it two days in a row,” he said. “Seeing the buzz on these has definitely helped us more forward with future billboards.”

Witherell also received phone calls, even from her own family. “They’re like ‘Oh my God, your billboard’s upside down.’ And I’m laughing,” she said.

While the campaign includes four billboards, only one went up the first day due to the weather, Witherell said. ”Just that one [billboard] got so many people talking about it. The chatter was just crazy," she said.

Witherell, who has more than 30 years of experience in outdoor advertising, said this isn’t the first time a customer specifically requested an upside-down message. Years ago, an insurance firm sought that treatment at a Coltsville billboard location. And even though it read “Everyone makes mistakes,” folks didn’t quite get it.

“They said ‘Your installers — what were they thinking?” she recalled. “[One said] I was at Kelly’s Diner and thinking, ‘Are they really going to leave it like that?’”

But Witherell says a creative and memorable billboard is an effective billboard — and she loves it when customers come to her with big ideas.

“Outdoor [advertising] is absolutely 100 percent thinking outside of the box,” she said. “This just absolutely delivered.”

While it looks like someone made a mistake with this Nocher Realty billboard located at the intersection of Dalton Avenue and Cheshire Road in Pittsfield, the upside down installation was actually intentional.

Witherell isn’t sure she will get more upside-down requests. But she’s confident the buzz created by Nocher’s upside-down gambit will spark other ideas,.

“Sometimes this works. Customers say ‘I don’t want to do that, but what else can we do?’ I say bring it on,” she said.

For his part, Nocher is very happy with the attention, and the knowledge that the brainstorm paid off.

“We wanted to be different. We always scream to the general public that we’re a different kind of real estate agency,” Nocher said. “Typically this is the slowest time of year for real estate, hands down — we wanted to get Nocher Realty’s name talked about and it clearly worked.”