When you skim through agriculture magazines and websites, you’re inundated with imagery of fields, equipment or farmers in their “natural habitat.” For the grower audience consuming this content, these ads can become, to be honest, extremely boring. Lessing-Flynn worked with Apache Sprayers to execute the “Elephant in the Field” campaign ad to stand out — it is visually compelling and confronts the issue of compaction head on.

 

The Problem

Compare the weight, efficiency and cost of ownership of all sprayers on the market, and it’s clear that Apache Sprayers are the best pound-for-pound sprayer — they are the lightest in the field. In fact, competitor machines weight about 8,000 pounds more resulting in unnecessary and unwanted soil compaction. To translate this problem, we decided to quite literally address the “elephant in the room” with a clever ad campaign featuring an actual elephant.

 

The Solution

After extensive customer research, Lessing-Flynn found that farmers were concerned with compaction and its resulting yield impact. This ad aimed to pinpoint the pain that many growers feel when it comes to their spraying equipment. While compaction is a serious issue for many, the elephant in the field ad provided a clever and witty way to discuss this problem.

 

“Elephant in the Room” Ad Goals:

  • Develop an eye-catching campaign that is unique, and directly discusses the concerns growers have when buying equipment.
  • Test effectiveness of messaging and identify key areas of optimization.
  • Include a strong call-to-action where interested individuals could get more information.

 

The Results

Lessing-Flynn worked with Discida (formally iTracking Research) to effectively identify key messaging and creative advertisements to place for Apache Sprayers. This put the creative to the test with real people using heat maps, gaze plots and candid feedback. These scientifically-based results gave insight into what was important to the grower and the effectiveness of the ad.

 

Our findings with the heat map and eye tracking showed several things related to our initial goals:

  • Panelists commented the image was unique, interesting and attention grabbing.
  • The hero image was a notable departure from the “usual” images our farmer panelist see in ag advertising and websites.
  • In hero image/tagline combination unmistakably represented the concept of soil compaction.
  • In addition, the hero image effectively drew early visual interest down to the Apache Sprayer image and logo.
  • The video CTA received significant attention and had the highest likelihood of conversion.

 

Discida Heat Map Tracking:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Real Farmer Feedback During Testing:

  • “That’s a big ole elephant. I like the writing of this one, it’s the clearest of the 3 designs. It does grab your attention. I like the clarity, it’s easy to read. I like the white text over the blue sky.”
  • “This ad is more compelling. The elephant makes a point right away. I think the messaging is more compelling, I got the point quickly. Apache is making a better case in differentiating from other brands.”

 

The campaign was initially launched on a national level across the United States and Canada. With well-received feedback, Apache Sprayer dealers requested placements in local and regional publications. Lessing-Flynn then developed additional ad sizes that dealers could customize with their own dealership information and logo.

 

Final Print Ad: