NemaStrike Technology
NemaStrike Technology had the potential to be a game-changing product with stunning yield protection results for farmers. But farmers didn’t think they needed any nematicides, because they couldn’t see the problem they solved. Nematodes are microscopic worms, and the damage they cause is often disguised as something else, or invisible to the naked eye — and industrywide myths had farmers believing that they were already under control.
Before we could sell the product, we had to sell the problem. We first planted the seed of doubt about current methods of control, then established the credibility of the product with myth-busting, fact-driven creative inspired by hard-hitting investigative journalism.
Our problem-solution approach paid off: After just one year, belief that nematodes are a problem skyrocketed from 8% to 84%. Aided recall increased from 0% to 47% in just four months. 69% of farmers who saw our campaign said they would likely use Nemastrike — even though none of them had even used the product or seen it in action. Website sessions, Google Trends scores and Facebook engagement rates also reached staggering heights.
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The campaign was paused in 2017, but we relaunched in early 2018 with an immersive augmented reality experience at an industry trade show. A massive root sculpture attracted foot traffic — farmers know that healthy roots are critical to strong yields. With the AR app on the provided iPads, attendees could reveal details (mapped onto the root sculpture) about nematodes and other crop threats that can be addressed with the Acceleron seed treatment portfolio.
Finally, this evolved into a standalone app for the sales team to use in the field: The Virtual Root Dig app. This AR-driven experience allows users to plant a lifelike 3D soybean or corn plant virtually anywhere and pull it out of the ground to explore the four areas of coverage that the Acceleron® portfolio offers.
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