From television to print, and outdoor to digital, the star of the Wyffels Hybrids advertising campaign is their admittedly simple and plain white seed corn bag.
If you’ve ever seen an agricultural trade publication, you’ll notice one thing very quickly. Just about every ad looks the same. A farmer looking over the horizon at sunrise or sunset. A grandfather walking rows and holding a grandson’s hand. Remove the company logos from the ads, and it’s impossible to tell them apart. So, one year we decided to spoof the competition with stock photography of wistful farmers standing in idyllic fields of corn, and cautioning customers not to fall for picture-perfect advertising.
To reach a dispersed audience in the rural Corn Belt, sometimes you have to get creative with your media. With billboards few and far between, a wrapped grain bin or a semi can work nicely.
What do you do when you’re the little guy? An independent seed corn company in an industry dominated by multinational conglomerates? You learn quickly that the secret to success – and the only way to survive – is by creating quite possibly the best seed corn money can buy.
While Wyffels may be outspent, it doesn’t keep them from being outspoken. Their stark, bold ads stand out amid the clutter and create a unique and wholly ownable personality of their own. And by utilizing a tightly integrated brand campaign across multiple mediums, we’ve helped position Wyffels as a powerful challenger brand. Brand awareness is at an all-time high, sales have increased each year, and Wyffels is now officially the fastest growing seed corn brand in the Corn Belt.
Independent and family-owned since its founding in Atkinson, Illinois in 1946, Wyffels Hybrids is the fastest-growing seed corn brand in the Central Corn Belt. By focusing on the one thing they do best and by continuing to put farmers ahead of shareholders, this outspoken challenger brand has bucked the odds and continued to prosper in an industry full of large, multinational brands.