THE SETUP: To engage and educate a younger, forward-thinking audience about innovative farming technologies, Land O’Lakes created a four-part tech experience at SXSW. The first portion was designed as a virtual reality experience without the headset. In its place was a giant head of lettuce that, once lowered onto the attendee, played a video—through a 180-degree projection screen with audio playback—about technology revolutionizing the farming landscape. Attendees next tested their DNA knowledge with a color-coded, gene sequencing game with interactive touch screens detailing the benefits of gene editing. A wall of vintage telephones featured prerecorded messages from people struggling with hunger that, when listened to, triggered a meal to be donated to hunger relief. And lastly, a robotic inkjet printer, representative of spray control used by farmers to protect and nourish crops, created colorful works of art from satellite images of farmland.
THE RESULTS: The Food Effect garnered 121 million media impressions in two weeks and 288 media placements, from the likes of Eater, Bloomberg News, NPR, The New York Times, Ad Council, NBC and Fox—all with zero media spend. More than 8,000 attendees directly interacted with the experience, double the number of attendees the brand was originally expecting. Oh, and two of The Food Effect’s components have found a permanent home at Fair Oaks Farms, and more than 40,000 pounds of food was donated to the Central Texas Food Bank.
WHY THE JUDGES LOVE IT: In a nutshell: The lettuce head. Its projection system required three short-throw Pico Projectors to create a 4:1 ratio blended, 180-degree projection screen, and it used a small JBL clip speaker for audio playback. Add in some projection blending from Madmapper and VDMX for playback and boom!—the story of modern farming techniques comes to life.