TRACTOR | Brand Launch
Farmer-founded, Tractor Beverages are on a mission to create a cleaner, healthier planet; one drink at a time. But being the new company on the block is tough in a competitive environment dominated by legacy soda conglomerates. Everyone loves an underdog story, and what’s more underdog than standing up against big soda! We tell the story of overcoming these big soda bullies through a humble Cup, who is stuck in a dystopian world and just wants something better.
Hornet Director Andy Baker, alongside illustrator Mel Baxter, helped us bring to life our story of a cup on a journey from dystopian indoctrination to a world of choice. The soundtrack was provided by Valerie June covering the classic Duran Duran song.
For social, we created a series of short videos, highlighting all of the reasons to choose Tractor.
Working alongside our illustrator Mel Baxter, we developed a campaign art direction based on the natural ingredients, flavors, and colors that make up Tractor beverages. Our ‘maximalist’ backdrops gave us consistency across the wide range of media formats.
For such a visual campaign, it was tricky to translate this into radio. So for our audio campaign we developed a voice for Tractor.
We developed a full world of characters and lore for the launch campaign. Our Tastebuddies populate our Tractor farm. They’re bright, colorful characters with an impish personality, protecting the world from the evils of Glugopoly.
Clementine is our hero flavor, so we created a series of poses and characteristics specific to clementine. This allowed us to create more specific messaging for the launch.
Tractor can only be found in participating pouring partners, so we didn’t exactly have a ‘product shot’. Instead we created hero images of the ‘bubbler’ device in which Tractor is dispensed. The arrangements behind the bubbler were nods to the organic ingredients.
The protagonist of our story is the humble Cup. We spent a long time trying to find ways to get as much personality into the design, before landing on the idea of using the ice cubes to deliver the reactions we needed.
GLUGOPOLY is the omnipresent entity that looms over the dystopic landscape. There are four brands that sit below the holding company - ZOINK’D (energy drink), EXXXTRA SWOLE (sports drink), BURPZ (cola) and finally JOY JOY (lemon & lime). They all come with distinct personalities and advertising campaigns, and although it may seem like there’s choice, they’re basically all the same.
World Surf League: Our art direction toolkit can also stretch outside of the brand campaign. Most recently we have sponsored the WSF, which included the creation of a bespoke longboard design.
