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LAT Nitrogen

Engaging 1M farmers through digital transformation

Step into the digital world of farming
service line
Brand Strategy Planning & Implementation
Visual Content Creation
Web development
UX Strategy
UI Design
Digital Identity Design
User Persona & Market Trend Research
Customer Experience Mapping
Launch Strategy Creation and Implementation
Digital Marketing Campaign
Implementation of Cognitive Studio and custom modules
Quality Assurance, Support and Maintenance

The Case

LAT Nitrogen, as a leader in the European fertilizer business, needed a renewed digital strategy and visual identity with complex and updated technological solutions. It had to be engaging for farmers from 19 different countries while replacing the company’s current content management system with a new, more flexible structure.

The Solution

The rebranded website and its new identity were strategically created to have the biggest impact in the digital space of the agronomic industry. We managed to bring to life a unique website with refined features with a complex UX/UI strategy reflecting the brand’s core values, topped with an intense launch campaign.

Buckle up, we are getting ready to take off 

The journey of our collaboration has been one of a kind and we still have many more milestones ahead of us. LAT Nitrogen with the headquarters in Vienna, Austria is one of the major European market leaders of producing and supplying crop nutrition products serving farmers and retailers in 19 countries across Europe, on the highest industry standards. 

In January 2018, we embarked on a multi-year long partnership to change the LAT Nitrogen digital identity and help them realise their vision of making a future-proof digital mark in the fertilizer industry.

Ain’t no mountain high enough - The challenge

The company, as a leader in the European fertilizer business needed an improved strategy and identity with updated technological solutions.

On the other hand, we assigned for creating a digital product which had to be engaging and appealing for farmers from 19 different countries who generally spend their time away from the wwws and .coms of the world. 

Thirdly, the current content management system had a rigid structure not able to organize translations and automatization which was reflected in the website’s lack of personality, with a very low level of user engagement. 

Understanding the driving engine

Our marketing and digital CX specialists team has travelled about 5000 km, involving 8 site-visits to get to know in-depth the LAT Nitrogen customer base in order to create a comprehensive customer experience mapping. Alongside, we conducted an international market research survey with the purpose of defining most accurately the user personas. Well-defined farmer and reseller personas enabled us to efficiently identify, communicate and comply with the company’s user needs. Knowing precisely the audience, helped us refine the features, visual and functional elements of the LAT Nitrogen website which was utmost important in creating the overall added value.

Appearances that matter digital identity and visual content creation

We needed to turn the tide and show the world the hidden beauty and clear benefits of crop nutritions. We addressed this based on our research thus we have created a connected UX strategy focusing on the touchpoints at which the different user types come into contact with the brand, seeing our product less as a standalone experience, but part of a wider network of experiences. For making it shiny, our UI design team had created a new digital identity with an entirely renewed icon library, engaging design elements and a unique visual style guide. 

Care and appreciation for nature, human engagement were the elements which could complete the precise and factual offers of the brand. That is why we upgraded the visual content of the  website by creating a fresh and vivid photo and video library consisting of more than 1000 new images by setting up  6 seasonal shootings, following the evolution of nature throughout the year. 

What is under the hood? cognitive studio Digital Experience Platform

A while back we have transformed the old ways of content management by creating our in-house DXP.

So we have taken as a basis our DXP and tailor-made it complying with the LAT Nitrogen needs: with custom modules, able to uphold 19 different countries with multilingual contents,  crops that are country dependent and different fertilizer products spectre available in specific countries.  

User friendly content creation and management, connectivity to external translation agencies are such features that Cognitive Studio is capable to uphold. A future-proof content management tool with appealing layout and flexible structure serves the editors in the most self-explanatory way.

Thus we implemented the Cognitive Studio with personalized functionalities with 8 levels of admin and editor types. Due to its modular built and scalability, Cognitive Studio facilitates the cross-country organizational structure of the company and handles the high complexity of the country-crop-nutrition combinations.

Ready, steady, go! bringing the brand to life

The launch of the rebranded website and its new identity was strategically created to have the biggest impact in the digital space of agronomic industry, so we raised the bar high.

The implementation of the launch strategy consisted of building 2 dedicated landing pages hyper personalized for 6 different countries, 10 custom video ads, on 5 targeted channels with more than 2000 digital banner ads.

The company’s philosophy of supporting farmers with the best quality fertilizer products enhanced by its online tool, NutriGuide offering personalized recommendations to grow efficiently were the basis of the strategy.

During the launch period, in partnership with LAT Nitrogen we brought to life step by step one of the most complex digital product.

During the launch campaigns we managed to overachieve our initial KPIs. We reached 137% of the initial target number of farmers and resellers in 6 countries through the revamped digital identity and new online farming tool in the first month. Then in only 4 months we engaged already 9% of our 5 year target in only 19 countries.

Numbers:

  • 19 countries - 1st launch
  • More than 300.000 lines of code
  • 28.5 - the CC and LAT Nitrogen teams’ average age
  • 5 nationalities within the core team
  • 1000+ - emotional pictures taken
  • 2000+ - web banner ads
  • 571 - graphs
  • 180 - working days

Holding onto each others

The journey has not yet come to an end. Along the way we had our laughs, our moments of truth and we can say that our partnership and mutual appreciation for each other is still growing having the same goal: reaching for the stars and never stopping there. The enormous workload of content creation by the LAT Nitrogen team, the obstacles we’ve overcome during the building and creation process and the high complexity of challenges had made us a great team and better human beings.

Stats of January 2019 compared to January 2018 show already significant improvements:

  • Returning visitor rate increased by 30%
  • Bounce rate decreased by 20%
  • Average duration per session increased by 74%
  • Pages per session increased by 74%

Veronika Ettinger

Head of Marketing at Borealis L.A.T
“Going through our digital step-up journey was a fantastic cross-functional experience for our team. Cognitive Creators stood out already in the pre-tender qualification phase with their pro-active approach in perceiving and understanding customer needs. The initial positive impressions were confirmed throughout our cooperation. Working together was a great experience of creativity, professionalism, flexibility, achievement and last not least, it was also really good fun!”

Roadmap

January
Project kick-off
System architecture for digital identity
February
March
International market research, Customer experience mapping, Cognitive Studio implementation, Customer development
User persona definition, Visual content creation (photo and video library expansion)
April
May
Wireframes, UI design
Campaing materials Messages, content & channel setup
June, July
August
Fine tuning system demos, Start the launch campaign for both website and Nutriguide in 6 countries
Internal launch of website
September
October
Official public launch of website and Nutriguide Supporting and sustaining digital growth