Land O’Lakes really wants people to know where their food comes from and how it is really produced. The brand also wants people to know that it is more than just a company that makes butter—it’s also an agricultural co-op that uses technology to help solve the problem of feeding the world in the future.
With that in mind, Land O’Lakes worked with agency Colle McVoy and Civic to create a 6,000-square-foot space at SXSW in Austin, Texas, called “The Food Effect.”
“If you know what we do and that we lean so heavily into technology, SXSW is really the perfect place to tell our story,” Tim Scott, Land O’Lakes CMO, said. “Because of our scale, we have the ability to tell a much bigger story, and we know the story that has to be told is how we feed the world. And that has to be done through technology.”
The brand partnered with Nat Geo and Microsoft to fill its SXSW space with interactive elements to showcase how food, agriculture and technology intersect.
The activation featured three different interactive elements. In one area, Land O’Lakes had a giant head of lettuce people could put their own heads inside to check out a VR experience on innovative farming. There was also a Ford Bronco—found at a local salvage yard—covered in soil. The team cut off the front third of the car to demonstrate that soil absorbs carbon dioxide.