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Creating New Market Adoption

35,000 ACRES CONTRACTED IN FIRST YEAR

FOR PIONEER WINTER CANOLA LAUNCH

Creating New Market Adoption
THE CHALLENGE
INSIGHT & STRATEGY
THE SOLUTION
BUSINESS IMPACTS

THE CHALLENGE

OUR GOAL

Establish a new market for winter canola in the Mid-South, aiming to enroll 35,000 acres in the first year and then scale up toward one million acres by 2030. 

This involved: 

  • Generating awareness for the Pioneer Certified Winter Canola Program
  • Educating growers on benefits of winter canola as a profitable double-cropping option
  • Building overall affinity for the Pioneer brand with Mid-South farmers

OUR REALITY

Most agencies would see launching a new crop variety as a product introduction or standard product launch. We saw it as what it really was: building an entirely new market from scratch while understanding every nuance of the buyer journey that would drive adoption.

This wasn’t product awareness — this was market creation that required deep buyer journey expertise. We had to convince farmers to adopt something they weren’t familiar with and didn’t understand the long-term financial and operational impacts of, all within an aggressive two-month campaign for the enrollment push.

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INSIGHT & STRATEGY

Our approach was to leverage our buyer journey for farmers, understanding not just their decision-making process but the underlying motivations, concerns, and opportunities that would influence their willingness to embrace winter canola. 

  • The challenge required convincing many farmers to switch their “double crop” — adding winter canola into their planting schedules after harvesting their other crops.
  • Most farmers in the Mid-South didn’t know about winter canola as a second crop option and weren’t aware of the route-to-market program.
  • The farmers who planted two crops in a season were used to their own specific routines and crops.
  • Some growers had bad experiences with winter canola in the past, creating negative perceptions that had to be overcome.
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Illus insights and strategy

 

OUR INSIGHTS

Pioneer and Bunge Chevron Ag Renewables (BCAR) had created a genuinely differentiated offer — a guaranteed market with competitive pricing that eliminated the biggest risk farmers face with new crops: market uncertainty. 

Our buyer journey research revealed an untapped opportunity to make this compelling offer even more powerful. 

Our audience insights uncovered additional motivations and concerns that could amplify adoption: 

  • Mid-South farmers weren’t just evaluating the economics of winter canola — they were considering how it would fit into their established seasonal operations and family rhythms.
  • Our research showed that some farmers viewed winter as their operational recovery period, and any new crop needed to be positioned as enhancing rather than complicating their established routines.

 

 

OUR STRATEGY

Our strategy combined the Pioneer and Bunge Chevron Ag Renewables guaranteed market advantage with audience insights to create a strikingly compelling proposition for Mid-South farmers. 

  • We positioned the guaranteed market as providing both financial security and operational peace of mind.
  • We designed content that highlighted how the guaranteed market eliminated typical crop uncertainties while demonstrating how winter canola could integrate seamlessly into existing operations, actually enhancing their seasonal flexibility rather than disrupting established routines.

Our approach reinforced how the Pioneer and Bunge Chevron Ag Renewables guaranteed market solution, combined  with our audience insights about operational integration, created an opportunity that respected farmers’ seasonal preferences while delivering exceptional returns.

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THE SOLUTION

Solution two prong

Pioneer and Bunge Chevron Ag Renewables required a robust integrated plan that spanned owned, earned, and paid channels across three major brand ecosystems — Pioneer, BCAR, and Corteva. Our approach leveraged the guaranteed market advantage while addressing operational concerns through strategic messaging and channel coordination.

Our team developed a comprehensive grower content strategy that amplified the guaranteed market differentiator while addressing farmers’ operational concerns. The strategy focused on a two-pronged approach: targeted, concentrated awareness activities that highlighted market security and comprehensive educational materials that demonstrated operational simplicity.

 



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BUSINESS IMPACTS

Our insight-driven approach, combined with the Pioneer and BCAR guaranteed market advantage, delivered exceptional grower engagement in the inaugural year of the product launch. We achieved targets ahead of schedule and significantly outperformed industry benchmarks.

YEAR 1 MARKET PENETRATION

  • The program successfully achieved its first-year target of 35,000 acres ahead of projections, with participation from 130 converted growers within the aggressive two-month window to support the enrollment push.
  • A strong foundation was established for scaling toward one million acres by 2030.
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GROWER ENGAGEMENT PERFORMANCE

These engagement metrics prove our content strategy, targeting, and nurture automation drove highly qualified grower activity.

41.7%

email click-through rate

(1,203% above industry benchmark)

66.7%

email open rate

(2.6× industry average)

24.25%

landing page engagement rate

(with a 2:45 average session duration)



We do more than execute agricultural marketing  campaigns — we bring buyer journey expertise that identifies untapped opportunities to maximize business advantages.

Two Rivers Marketing will help you build brand relevance, transform your customer relationships, and drive real change for your business. Let's talk.

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