Nek minute, RAGT launches fun stop-motion campaign for farmers via Plato Creative

Recently agricultural brands have tended towards using facts instead of fun to get their message across. Except Seed Force, the challenger brand known as an innovator both locally and globally for developing forage seed options.

Seed Force has recently become fully acquired by international seed company RAGT (after being a cornerstone shareholder since the business’ inception). So to reintroduce themselves to the market under this new name – but ensure farmers know they’re still the same tenacious kiwi business at heart – they needed a campaign that cut through. Nek minute we have talking bogan possums (one of them voiced by Levi Hawken of ‘nek minute’ fame) and cows conspiring with sheep to get to the good stuff on the other side of the fence.

For James White, commercial extension manager at RAGT NZ, the new campaign rebrand marks the realisation of a major goal for the organisation: “Farmers are under increased pressure from climatic and regulatory change. So, we felt our recent brand transition to RAGT was a perfect opportunity to generate a few smiles with our marketing material. We’ve always worked hard to innovate for Kiwi farmers, and the team has thrived on pushing the boundaries. Partnering with local companies such as Plato Creative has allowed us to continue this spirit of innovation and stand out from the traditional media in this sector, not only reaching our target agricultural audience, but hopefully capturing the attention of many and generating some positivity around an industry that is so important to our country.”

For Kelly Lovelock, executive creative director at Plato Creative, it was high time that local agricultural brands get back to creating advertising that connects with the kiwi sense of humour: “Kiwis are known to like a laugh, especially the people working on and running our amazing farms. Over the years there have been some great ads that have tapped into this. Recently though it feels like a formula has emerged for talking to farmers, and we didn’t want to fall into this category, so we thought we’d have a laugh instead.”

To break out of the formula Plato teamed up with animators Awkward Animations to produce a stop motion farmyard epic – complete with wise-cracking possums – that looks at what it’s like on the other side of the fence with RAGT.

From the outset some six months prior, Plato’s goal was to create a world for the characters to live in that could be used time and again as seasonal product campaigns come into play; something fun and fantastical that didn’t lose sight of the job at hand – selling seed to farmers.

Awkward Animations have finessed and finessed to meet Plato’s vision for the ad with a lot of effort going into minutiae such as the right paisley for Knobbo the possum’s bandana and the model Nissan Skyline GT-R. At one point Rog the ram’s little pink ‘tasticles’ made an appearance, but as you can see…they didn’t make the final cut.

Client: RAGT New Zealand

Creative & Media: Plato Creative

Animation / Models / FX: Awkward Animations