Syngenta

As a new brand in a highly competitive market, Enogen corn had to make Canadian beef and dairy producers give their feed a chance.

Enogen corn is a brand-new feed product for Canadian beef and dairy producers. The Syngenta-owned company came to us with a simple value proposition: their corn is more easily digestible, which improves the amount of energy livestock get out of eating it. As a result, producers can reduce their single biggest expense by purchasing a more efficient feed product.

The company was faced with the challenge of being new to the highly competitive feed market, and most producers have strong brand allegiances. And with good reason – the health, quality and profitability of their livestock is at stake. If they’ve trusted in a food product for years, why would they bother switching to a new one?

Enter Enogen corn. Syngenta needed to create awareness of their new brand and feed product. They had to stand out in a crowded market with established competitors and make producers care about Enogen’s unique positioning as a more efficient feed alternative. To accomplish this, we developed a strategic approach that reflected a deep understanding of our primary audience, the producers.

Every audience is one of a kind

Dairy and livestock producers are distinct from other kinds of farmers. Yes, they grow crops, but not for the purpose of feeding people. They care more about their animals than fields. When buying feed, it must minimize costs yet enhance animal health and welfare, as their success rests on these factors.

In other words, they needed a feed that performs better than others. If they found a corn product that could deliver stellar results without creating more work or increasing costs, they’d absolutely be interested. It was from this insight that we determined the one thing our marketing should focus on: efficiency.

Launching the brand with a focus on efficiency meant our creative would promise producers that they could get the same – or better – output from their cattle using less feed than they currently were.

Our agency’s deep experience in agricultural marketing meant we were familiar with the tropes most common to advertising in this sector. Many companies focus their imagery on vast crop fields, working farmers, plaid shirts, and the occasional grazing cow. When so many ads take a similar visual approach, they blur together, and customers won’t recognize the difference. To intrigue, advertisers must be more creative and strategic, while keeping the core sales positioning clear and engaging.

Embrace the bold

We focused our creative on the most vital part of a producer’s operation with sharp, evocative imagery of cattle. High-impact headlines like “A New Breed of Feed” quickly inform the audience of a new feed option on the market with language relevant to their industry. The subhead, “A new era of high efficiency feed begins now with Enogen™ corn.” positions the brand as innovative, and as a leader with a focus on efficiency.

For this nationwide multimedia campaign, we developed both English and French executions to be featured in online and print publications as well as field signage. Creative assets were also supplied to the client, allowing them to develop promotional materials for their Twitter feed and promotional opportunities such as the 2022 Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show. These assets ensured the messaging would have a consistent look and feel for all producers, retailers, and influencers.

Sharing pays off

Farmers who grew Enogen corn in field trials said that the campaign instilled a sense of pride for being among the first to use the new product. When the campaign launched nationally in 2022, farm show attendees took notice of the creative, which featured prominently on the Enogen Seed Guide.

“That is a striking cover. It really makes you stop and look,” one attendant praised.

As anticipated, the creative resonated deeply with retailers as well. Some have even inquired about using the creative on billboards that they would book and underwrite themselves.

The creative continues to inform and motivate beef and dairy producers to learn more about the emerging product.

By taking the time to think strategically and then creatively about how to engage the right people, we were able to strengthen awareness of Enogen corn.