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:

 

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:

 

Discida Heat Map Tracking:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Real Farmer Feedback During Testing:

 

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:

Late last fall, our client, the Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives, came to us with an issue — the lives of their members’ employees were at risk, and they needed help. Utility workers who were working on the side of Iowa’s roadways were experiencing too many close calls with distracted drivers.

 

The Problem

It might be hard to believe that the men and women who put their lives on the line every day working with high-voltage power (sometimes elevated as high as 150 feet in the air) have to worry about a little traffic on the road. Thanks to proper training and countless safety procedures, they know how to do their job safely — it’s really the people like you and me putting them at risk. Distracted drivers and ignorance of Iowa’s move over or slow down law combined to create a dangerous work environment for utility workers.

 

Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives checked with other electric utilities in the state to see if they too were experiencing the same issue. They talked to all of them – Alliant Energy, Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities, ITC Midwest and MidAmerican Energy. All had the same issue. In fact, in the first half of 2017, MidAmerican reported more than 500 incidents of motorists striking utility structures, including utility poles. Thankfully, there have been no fatalities yet, but it could be a matter of time before the unimaginable happens. These electric utility organizations wanted to educate driver about the state’s move over law proactively.

 

The Solution

With all five Iowa electric utility organizations in agreement, they looked to Lessing-Flynn to suggest a campaign and a plan for a state-wide public service announcement. Eager to help, we assembled our team for a brainstorm. We brought our creative minds to the table and developed a coordinated plan of action to reach Iowa’s drivers from all angles. The strategy included elements of digital marketing, public relations, media pitches, social media marketing, print ads, radio, bill stuffers and more.

 

We shared a variety of creative ideas that ranged from jaw-dropping to safe, and ultimately, all five organizations agreed on a witty concept that sarcastically reminded drivers to be aware. The “Move Over” campaign was born. In this campaign, a strong call to action encouraged drivers to pay more attention and take an online pledge to move over or slow down for utility vehicles, and then share the pledge on their social networks.

 

While we were at work on the campaign, our client had another effort underway — lobbying the state legislature. Within one legislative session, the governor signed a bill that expands the law requiring Iowa drivers to move over or slow down for emergency vehicles to now include bucket trucks and other utility vehicles. We coordinated the launch of the campaign and MoveOverIowa.com to coincide with the effective date of the new law on July 1, 2017. Using the materials we provided, our clients (now five of them) distributed the press release, pitched to media and shared social media messages via their respective channels.

 

The Results

Our combined efforts culminated on July 10, when Governor Kim Reynolds held a press conference where she signed the Move Over pledge and declared the week as “Move Over or Slow Down” Awareness Week. Nearly all major news outlets across the state – including print, news and radio – shared stories and articles to raise awareness among drivers. To date, thousands of users have visited the landing page, and the pledge has been shared hundreds of times across Facebook and Twitter.

 

On behalf of the Lessing-Flynn team, it was a pleasure to contribute to this powerful effort to protect lives. So, the next time you see flashing lights on the side of the road — do the right thing — move over or slow down.

 

Move Over Press Conference Photos

I first realized motion graphics were becoming an important facet in graphic design during my senior year of high school. While applying to colleges, I came across a school that sent me a promo disc of their classes — “Motion Design” came on the screen and it clicked for me, right there. This whole video was designed from start to finish. Motion design is the future. I knew I wanted to explore animation from then on and the rest, as they say, is history.

Here are four reasons to consider using animation in your company’s marketing needs this year:

Engaging. Stop people mid-scroll on their Facebook feed, webpage and more. Animations keep information moving in a format that speaks to a larger demographic using color, movement and music.

Digestible. With motion graphics, complex ideas can come to life. If you have a lot to say, and you’re worried that a printed format might leave your readers confused, an animation style video might the solution. Add visuals, on-screen text, maybe a bit of badass music or a voiceover. Boom. Done.

Flexible. The versatility of animation is unmatched. It’s great for website, mobile or tablets and designs are not limited to just videos — heck, you can make custom gifs! No, all gifs are not designed with space cats riding pizzas and shooting lasers out of their eyes, gifs can be productive too. They can be used to create wildly engaging social posts. Wait — there’s more. All those nifty illustrations you see flying around in your video can be repurposed into any number of print pieces as well.

Economical. Depending on the type of video you want to produce, animation can be incredibly cost effective. Consider the budget needed for one or two camera men, a producer/creative director, plus talent to spend a day shooting enough footage for a :30-:90 second video. Then think through the time your video team will need to spend reviewing the footage afterwards, adjusting audio and piecing it together into the final video. Plus, last-minute edits to the script and potential reshoots. Now think about that budget compared to a small team of designers, animators and copywriters needed to create an animated project where they can nimbly adjust and edit throughout the process. Animated video is very economical in comparison.

The Bottom Line. Animation holds a hotbed of potential for your brand. The possibilities are endless because you’re not limited to what’s just in front of you — you’re tapping into true creativity! Want to hear more? Contact Lessing-Flynn about creating your motion graphic project today.

What We Can Do — Client Examples:

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