Farm IQ Winter Series
Here’s a great project I’d love to share with you. FarmIQ is a leading farming software company that really makes a huge difference to their clients. Their software platform allows farmers to make informed decisions on a wide variety of issues around the farm. It was fun to work with the team again as we had created the Summer Series with them a few months before, and with their winter promotion, they needed to get the word out on the features that their software offers for farmers. FarmIQ is really reaching out to it’s target clients with social media, as it’s the most effect way to do this. With the short life span that any marketing content has in the digital age, it’s important to get the most out of any production, so that you can get the most out of your spend.
The FarmIQ Winter Series (and the Summer Series that I created for them too), is a great case study, creating not only a series of videos showing key features of the software but also looking at the different places that they can get their message out. We all think of Youtube and Facebook, but with a myriad of platforms with a myriad of formats required, it’s key to create the content that takes advantage of each platforms strengths. Creating a single video is far from a “one size fits all” situation.
“Creating a single video is far from a one-size-fits-all-platforms situation.”
Farm IQ summer series - Todd White left, and Libby Wood getting ready to film
A single video from a production, published on-line is far from a cost effective way to get your message out there. Once the content is out there, it’s life span is disappointingly short, however the way this project was created is very smart. Creating a set of videos, bumper ads, and booking a full day of filming we created 7 main videos to talk about their product that can be rolled out over their campaign season, keeping their messages, logo and product in view for longer. It also allowed them to create 5 bumper ads to use as advertising to put in to Youtube to generate viewership of their content and drive potential clients to their website (website = cash register).
One of the key things that FarmIQ has done is understand who their target clients are, and where they are consuming media, (on the phone, youtube, facebook, instagram, etc). In FarmIQs case they are targeting young farmers who are tech-savvy. They are already using phones and computers everyday to run their businesses. It’s where they get a lot of their information.
Youtube and Vimeo as platforms offer great features that allow you embed and post your video content with ease. Both offer free options, through professional grade (Vimeo) options if you’re creating and posting a lot of material. The 16:9 format is an industry standard, which really works well on a mobile phone held horizontally.
Traditional Youtube 16:9 ratio video
However not so well if the phone is held vertically, and this is were the square format is starting to come in to it’s own. Instagram is the platform designed to take the most advantage of people holding their phones vertically.
The great thing about this project was the way we shot the footage allow us to re-crop and create videos that fit the Instagram TV format. This flexibility really provided great value to the whole project.
GETTING THE FARMIQ MESSAGE SEEN.
Like any video, it won’t be seen unless you get it in front of your audience and here’s where bumper ads come in. They were quick to capture, and when placed in front of a Youtube video through advertising space, you’ll get the attention you need.
For the Winter Series, the bumper ads provide the ability to draw attention to your messages in the longer form. FarmIQ uses these very short videos (6 seconds - see the below video) at the start of other Youtube videos as part of their marketing spend. In conjunction with Facebook, Linkedin (and the appropriate platforms) you can quickly get your audience to view your messages.
FarmIQ have created a well thought out campaign, taking advantage of the content they need to produce, and using it on the various platforms that their target clients are looking at. This is great strategy to get the most out of their efforts.