Going digital – paving the way for the future of farming

Businesses everywhere are changing the ways they engage their customers – but getting customers – and your staff – to change how they work with you is no easy feat.

Farmlands Co-operative approached Great Scott for strategic communications support for the launch of FarmlandsPRO, a self-service solutionfor farmers and growers – and Farmlands’ own sales team – to view, place, manage and track orders, and engage directly and effectively with Farmlands more broadly.

The tool was part of a much bigger long term strategy for the Co-op, which was aiming to transform its operations to be more farmer-focused, to grow its market share and improve how it serves its core customers.

So how do you build excitement and get customers signed up for yet another digital tool? You leverage the rural event of the year: Fieldays®.

We embedded one of our senior advisors into Farmlands who worked alongside their internal communications specialist and brand manager to ensure a cohesive approach to the FarmlandsPRO story.

Great Scott’s designers created a motion graphic animation to promote the app’s key features. The animation needed to clearly communicate who FarmlandsPRO was for and how it could help them manage their business. It needed to feel like Farmlands, but be different enough to grab attention. And a super diverse range of farmers and growers – and Farmlands staff – needed to see themselves represented.

Farmlands had a significant presence at Fieldays, but it can be a crowded market with everyone vying for the attention of a select few rural reporters.

From Christchurch, Great Scott began pitching to rural media ahead of launch day. We lined up interviews and case studies for Rural News, Rural Exchange, Rural Roundup, NZ Agribusiness, Hawkes Bay Radio, NZ Farmer and Ōpōtiki News.

With a successful launch, Farmlands’ focus now shifts to continuing to embed FarmlandsPRO in the ways their staff engage with customers, and their customers engage with them.