THE GREAT GRAIN DEBATE

TitleTHE GREAT GRAIN DEBATE
BrandGRAINS RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
Product / ServiceCORPORATE IMAGE
CategoryA07. Corporate Image & Sponsorship
EntrantMAXUS GLOBAL Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Media MAXUS GLOBAL Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation MAXUS GLOBAL Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Toby Boon Fairfax Media Strategist
Rhiannon Brown Fairfax Media Senior Account Manager
Jessica Doyle Fairfax Media Content Manager
Jessica Lamb News Corp Australia Account Manager

The Campaign

Our insight came from looking at existing brand communications, the GRDC produced cumbersome reports for corporate governance, but they weren’t talking to farmers in channels they used or language they related to. Our idea was to start “THE GREAT GRAIN DEBATE” to get farmers, government and everyday Aussies talking about the importance of grains. We needed to not only start a conversation, we needed to become THE conversation that would take the GRDC from obscurity to the top of the political agenda. So we started THE GREAT GRAIN DEBATE in three ways: 1. Talk with farmers not at them 2. Be seen and heard by Government 3. Get Australians to celebrate grains and farmers

Creative Execution

1. Talk with Farmers not at them We created live events in farming towns across Australia and we invited farmers to tell us their challenges. These events led to 123 different news articles, videos and podcasts being produced about the GRDC for farmers in the field and at home. 2. Be seen and heard by Government We secured the GRDC a seat on stage at the Global Food Forum. We got grains on the agenda and started a debate with business, government influencers and global speakers about the issues facing farmers and the GRDC innovations that are securing the future of farming. 3. Get Australians to celebrate grains and farmers We published “snackable grain facts and stats” on Australia's No1 weather app, e.g. Did you know that a 500g packet of pasta contains 17,600 grains of durum wheat? Or that 15,800 kernels of wheat go into a loaf of bread?

Results

Our campaign sparked a debate in the Australian Senate about GRDC funding and generated over $3 million dollars in earned media Podcasts were listened to by 9.9 million people over a seven-week period. Google searches for “GRDC” reached an all-time high between 28 February and 5 March 2016, eight times higher than two months prior Website traffic to the GRDC website doubled from 30K in November 2015 to 56K in April 2016, two-and-a-half times more than the total number of Grain Farmers in Australia (22K) The weather app “snackable facts and stats” generated a click through rate of 0.71%, more than double the app's benchmark (0.30%) Our digital media click through rate was 0.65%, which is 12 times higher than the industry benchmark (0.05%) In summary, we didn’t just start a conversation, we became the conversation and we took the GRDC from obscurity to the top of the political agenda

We took the Grains Research & Development Corporation from obscurity to the top of the political agenda by creating "THE GREAT GRAIN DEBATE".

We discovered that news, politics and weather heavily influenced farmers on a daily basis as they listened to radio "talk back" and podcasts in the field, then check the news and weather updates when they get home after their day was done. So we got GRDC discussed in news articles and on the radio. In addition to the levy farmers pay to the GRDC, the Government also subsidises it, so we elevated the importance of the GRDC within Government. We knew that global conversations get discussed in Government circles, so we got Australian grains and the GRDC discussed in global conversations about food production. We knew that 37% of all Australians visit weather sites every week, we also knew that weather directly influenced farming decisions and therefore farmers, so we leveraged a mobile weather app with geo targeted ads that talkedto Australians about grains while also celebrating local grain farmers.