New Holland Brave New Tractors

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1 2007 Gold Effie Winner New Holland Brave New Tractors Category: Agricultural, Industrial & Building Agency: Colle+McVoy Client: New Holland North America Strategic Challenge Reinventing a haytool company to become known as a leading tractor brand New Holland, a 111-year-old haytools company once linked to Ford Motor Company, faced the challenge of reinventing and reintroducing itself as a tractor brand. New Holland tractors were originally marketed under the Ford name. At that time, they were known as the affordable people s tractor. Adding to the difficulty, New Holland tractors were also faced with: Fierce competition in the tractor marketplace. John Deere dominates, with Kubota and Case IH as strong seconds and an influx of cheaper brands aggressively vying for the rest of the pie. A premium go-to-market strategy that was vulnerable to cheap imported tractors from Asia that were flooding the market. And limited media budgets competitive brands spent six to 10 times the media budget of New Holland (CMR and Nielsen) in a time when nearly every segment of the agriculture equipment industry was stagnant or shrinking (Agricultural Equipment North America Report, 2006). Target Audience: Finding common ground It was clear that if New Holland tried to be all things to all people, the brand would fail. It was essential to define a target mindset that would be receptive to the idea of a New Holland tractor. Based on a series of in-depth psychographic interviews to understand the emotional role of tractors among farmers and rural homeowners, a mindset that took pride in choosing the non-traditional

2 option was identified. Unlike most farmers and rural homeowners who sought out the market leader, John Deere, as a badge of success and security, our target consumers felt choosing nontraditional brands was empowering. Being nonconformist, especially on a major purchase like a tractor, reflected their passion and insight. These independent consumers had the confidence to seek the better solution, even in the face of a six-figure purchase decision. The following characteristics illustrate the Independent s mindset: Nontraditional choices are confirmation of the target s smarts and knowledge Aggressive about the future Entrepreneurial Work-hard, play-hard mentality Best technology=ability to achieve dreams A cool tractor reinforces the target s sense of possibility (Agency Research) Objectives: Specific objectives: Strengthen New Holland as a tractor brand and increase New Holland market share by 5%. Increase dealer satisfaction with New Holland brand image by 10%. The Big Idea The tractor of the future Research showed that while the Independent tractor purchaser had many rational issues to consider, he also had a strong latent desire to possess the coolest equipment in the field. In order to tap into our target s desire for cool that sense of possibility and excitement about technology our investigation identified the opportunity to position New Holland as the tractor brand of the future. Positioning New Holland as the tractor of the future effectively repositioned John Deere as yesterday s tractor, a tractor for traditional, conformist purchasers. Armed with this new direction, New Holland was positioned to challenge the market leader. Turning traditional tractor advertising upside down Typical advertising for agricultural equipment is far from what anyone would consider cool. Tractor advertising is utilitarian, showcasing equipment and people in typical situations, replete with technical copy and specifications for the model depicted. In order to achieve the goal of making New Holland the tractor of the future in the target s mind, it became crucial to turn traditional tractor advertising upside down. New Holland ads would have to look like nothing else out there. In order to deliver the modern feeling needed, we took the tractor out of its natural habitat. Stark, unconventional backgrounds, including sand dunes, the desert and arctic tundra, were juxtaposed with close-ups of the machines to create a compelling and clean display for each piece of equipment. Research showed that when ads featured a specific crop or work activity, audiences often focused on these aspects of the execution rather than on the tractor. By placing New Holland tractors in unusual

3 settings, the machines not only became the heroes they should be, they became futuristic. Bringing the Idea to Life Making a splash with a bold media mix The media mix had to be as bold and unique as every other aspect of the campaign. So, traditional media for reach and frequency was combined with new media for impact and buzz value. Online media also helped us compete effectively with the comparatively large media budgets of the competition (CMR and Nielsen). And because the campaign would succeed only with buy-in from New Holland employees and dealers, an early emphasis on internal communications was vital. By kicking off the campaign with dealer advertising at the end of February, and launching the remaining elements in unison, we were able to choreograph the biggest splash possible during the peak of the purchase consideration period (March through May). The media strategy behind all of these components was brand intrusion, allowing this campaign to reach people in as many different ways as possible: Dealer rollout o Brochures and banners went to dealers to pre-announce the new campaign. Microsite o Whyblueisbetter.com was developed and launched. Online advertising o Banner ads and Google keywords drove potential purchasers to New Holland websites. Print advertising o Brand campaign appeared nationally in industry publications. Truck sticker magazine insert o Unique sticker insert targeted livestock producers. Branded stickers could be placed on equipment, vehicles or any glass surface. Advertorial series o How technology is changing agriculture and rural living spread advertorial campaign appeared in key industry magazines. Newspaper insert o Dealer-imprintable FSI ran in local markets, highlighting a 0% financing offer. Co-op radio o Dealer-tagged radio spots ran in top regional markets. Trailblazer Awards sponsorship o Multi-media exposure was associated to industry leadership in innovation. Wildlife Habitat Program o How-to advertorial appealed to rural lifestylers. Total media expenditures were between $1 and $2 million, six to 10 times less than our competitors.

4 Results Objectives restated: 1. Strengthen New Holland as a tractor brand and increase New Holland market share by 5%. In a stagnant and declining market, at a time when industry sales of >40-horsepower tractors were down 0.5%, New Holland sales increased by 17%. During the same time period, highhorsepower tractor sales in the industry were down 11%, while sales of New Holland shot up 36%. Market share grew 21% for New Holland in the >40-horsepower tractor category. Market share grew 85% in high-horsepower tractors (Agricultural Equipment North America Report, 2006).

5 2. Increase dealer satisfaction with New Holland brand image by 10%. New Holland dealer satisfaction with brand image has improved by 37% since 2005, reaching an all-time high since data has been recorded (Market Probe 2006).

6 3. Campaign results that drove success: Online banner advertising performed 3.5 times better than the industry average of 0.15% (Agency Contact Tracking). Incredible results were achieved with print driving traffic to the WhyBlueIsBetter.com microsite: A total of 15,600 unique visitors were logged in the first 41/2 months, surpassing expectations by 50% and building purchase intention. Approximately 90% of users were direct requests. Online initiatives attracted more than 68,000 potential purchasers to New Holland websites (Agency Contact Tracking). To sum it up, New Holland reversed years of sliding market share and posted a 9% increase in overall tractor sales in a down market. In addition, dealer satisfaction scores are up 37% and online initiatives that drive purchase intentions have attracted more than 68,000 to New Holland websites, resulting in the most successful marketing program to date for the company. Budget: $1 to under $2 million Campaign Reach: National Media Channels: Radio, Newspaper, Trade/Professional, PR, Interactive/Online