FMC: OVERWATCH®

FMC needed to name, brand and launch a new herbicide into the largest agricultural market in the country; wheat, barley and canola. The brand identity we created also needed to have global relevance.

• Read the story.

  Let's start where it ended...

  The ending was nothing short of spectacular. FMC sold out the first allocation of product - three times the budgeted amount. This marked the most successful launch in FMC’s global history.

  Our multi-channel marketing campaign delivered remarkable results, reaching 98% of our target market. By the time Overwatch was available, not only had they heard of it, but they also understood the value it would bring to their farming operations. There was no ambiguity about what Overwatch was. Our negotiated media spots provided more than triple the value we paid for.

  Over the course of the next three years we continued to evolve the campaign to maintain market traction.

  Now, let’s dive into the how it all began...

  Positioning

  We conducted an in-depth analysis of market competitors, both in Australia and abroad, as well as successful agricultural and challenger campaigns worldwide. The majority of advertising in this space was uninspired—pale, male, and stale. The typical imagery of an aging white male in a paddock, standing behind a ute with a drum and a dog, was outdated. We needed a more relevant and modern approach.

  Naming

  We sought a name that communicated the product’s benefits—watching over a farmer’s largest investment. It needed to resonate with our target market and work across multiple languages. Additionally, it had to be globally ownable. After considering a shortlist of over 20 names, we recommended Overwatch® Herbicide, which was approved by the global marketing and brand team.

  Brand Identity

  Our brand identity had to reflect both the product and its outcomes. Overwatch creates a distinctive magenta hue in treated crops due to its signature bleaching effect. We chose this magenta as the brand’s primary color to ensure in-paddock and on-shelf recognition.

  This insight also inspired our campaign tagline: See the difference in the paddock. The tagline highlights the visual signature, superior efficacy, higher yield, and the new mode of action that addresses resistance, particularly in ryegrass.

  To modernize the conversation and reflect the diversity of contemporary Australian farming, we featured a strong female agronomist and a younger farmer in all campaign assets. The black-and-white images, accented with magenta blocks of color and creative hand symbols, were designed to disrupt the market, grab attention, and cut through the cluttered conversation.

  Campaign

  Launching a new agricultural product involves long lead times—registration and approval are required before selling can begin. However, waiting until then to build a brand would have jeopardized the success of launching a new product in the same season. Farmers needed a reason to trust that this new product would work.

  Our approach was three-phased:

  • Teaser Campaign

  • Registration Announcement

  • Buy Now

  Marketing Strategy & Media Buying

  Our strategy and media buying approach centered on three key objectives:

  1. Launch with Impact: As a new product, we needed to ensure our target market knew about Overwatch® Herbicide before the key sales period. We bought media across six channels (Regional TV, Regional Radio, Google AdWords, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter) and aggressively promoted the product’s unique selling points. This ensured our media hit very specific regions at the right times, ahead of the key sales period.

  2. Convert Pre-Registrations into Sales: To turn mass market awareness into sales over 12 months, we partnered with FMC to ensure a seamless onboarding experience—from initial product awareness to pre-registration, and finally, to product availability in the market. This process was designed to be engaging, consistent, and deeply informative.

  3. Enhance FMC’s Brand Recognition and Recall: Running such a large campaign across multiple channels, including TV, significantly improved FMC’s brand reputation and recall. To capitalize on this increased awareness and traffic, we included a series of brand posts on social media to highlight FMC’s history and values.

  Services Provided: Channel strategy, media schedule negotiation, production and delivery of assets to all partners, as well as ongoing monthly reporting and optimization of schedules to ensure maximum value.

“Having Emerger partner with us has been invaluable. Their seniority, expertise and ability to deliver outcomes to our business is second to none. They have partnered with us on the delivery of our biggest product launch in history and in doing so have been proactive and gone above and beyond to work within our timeframes and sometimes complex international requirements. We will continue to work with Emerger for many years to come.”

— Hugh Palmer: FMC Product Owner, Herbicides

So much pink!!! We needed to make the identity relevant to the product and the outcome. Overwatch created signature bleaching within a crop, creating a magenta hue in treated crops so we decided to use this as a primary colour for the brand to drive recognition in paddock and on the shelf. That same insight also led to our campaign tagline: see the difference in the paddock.