A Big Exit for Automation in Big Agriculture
Bear Flag Robotics empowered autonomous tractor technology, retrofitting tractors for tillage on massive commercial farms. This technology transforms existing machines into autonomous ones. These ‘robot tractors’ take on the monotonous and unsafe tasks typically held by people, freeing them up for higher-value tasks in commercial farming. This addresses several problems for farmers, the biggest of which is finding qualified labor for tillage. Eliminating the need to pay someone to drive the tractors also boosts farm profitability and productivity, as self-driving tractors operate around the clock with stops only for fuel and maintenance. Finally, driver safety is enhanced, as tractor rollovers are one of the commercial farms’ biggest causes of death.
Escalate was challenged to help a little-known but highly innovative autonomous technology startup in the developing “Agriculture Tech” sector gain recognition from the king of all agricultural brands, John Deere.
Escalate needed to connect with two very different audiences simultaneously. First, Bear Flag had to secure placement in niche, geo-specific publications ahead of their planting seasons to attract customers. Bear Flag’s home turf is California’s Central Valley, where they could operate on farms year-round. But that market alone wouldn’t sustain Bear Flag’s business, so we had to segment the country into four distinct growing sectors based on seasonality to drive interest in demos: the South during the winter months, the East Coast during summer, The Plains states in the Spring, and California, Oregon, and Washington State for most of the year. Each of these sectors had publications targeting farmers with tillage needs, and they had to be made aware of Bear Flag.
Our Secondary target–but just as important–was the national technology and business publications and the online agricultural trades. We needed to capture the attention of big companies interested in either a strategic investment or purchasing the Bear Flag technology outright–hopefully, that would be John Deere.
