DIGITAL MEDIA


BAMBI is young with shapely pins and deep brown eyes, framed by long, luscious lashes. She is looking for a fun, commitment-free relationship. Swipe left and you could soon be squeezing her udders. Don’t worry, you haven’t lifted up the


wrong magazine by mistake. Bambi is a Jersey cow. Her charms are advertised on Tudder, an app created by Hectare Agritech, a UK-based online agricultural marketplace that is transforming the way farmers are buying, selling and paying for their produce. Just like Tinder, which was its


inspiration, Tudder lets farmers swipe left or right on profiles of cows and bulls, which are more mundane than their human equivalent, comprising location, breed, age and data such as potential milk yield, rather than passions or interests. If a farmer likes an animal, they simply click on the icon - resulting in an amorous, mooing sound - and are taken through to its full details on Hectare’s SellMyLivestock platform, to which 42 per cent of UK farms have signed up. The idea for Tudder came when


five-year-old Hectare approached technology communications agency Octopus Group for ideas on how to publicise SellMyLivestock, an online livestock and farm supplies platform.


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For Octopus chief executive Jon


Lonsdale, a self-confessed city boy, it was a step into the unknown. ‘Our specialism is technology, not agriculture,’ he explains. ‘We had zero experience in farming.’ But as Hectare explained how SellMyLivestock worked, there was a ‘complete lightbulb moment’, he says. ‘We were talking about SellMyLivestock and someone said Oh, it’s like Tinder for cows but we use genetic data instead of just a photo.’ Hectare’s chief technical officer Jamie McInnes created a simple app - and Tudder was born. The story was given to the Sunday


We were keen to tell a deep story about how farmers can utilise tech to grow and manage their businesses


Times, but nobody anticipated the reaction. On the morning it appeared, Hectare chief executive Doug Bairner recalls ‘my phone was red hot. People loved that it was a bit of fun, and were intrigued by the idea’. The campaign


around Tudder had ‘to tell a story of how technology can help farmers while addressing the


concerns they have – and all in a light- hearted but non-patronising way,’ says Lonsdale. To maximise the impact, the


campaign launched on Valentine’s Day. Key journalists received Valentine’s Day cards promoting Tudder, while the supporting social media campaign linked to a ‘provocative’ video. Other


media collateral included mocked up images of cows using phones and serious video interviews with real farmers.


‘I think it helped it was a dull week


for business news what with Brexit et cetera, and business journalists loved writing about such an upbeat story,’ concedes Lonsdale, adding: ‘Tudder is not just a novelty. With the launch we were keen to tell a deep story about how farmers can utilise tech to grow and manage their businesses. We worked hard on the messaging and media training to ensure the story was right.’ With puns about meat markets, moo- pid and Hugh Heifer aplenty, the British media ‘milked’ the story across national, regional and farming titles. As each journalist tweeted a link to their story, it gained even more momentum - and soon became a global phenomenon. It was written up in America’s leading


cattle publication Beef Magazine, but went mainstream with mentions on The Late Late Show with James Corden, Late Night with Seth Meyers and Conan. All told Tudder received more than 1,000 mentions in print publications around the world and reached more than 157 million people on Twitter. But - more importantly - in its launch week, Tudder was one of the top ten business apps. The campaign resulted in a 30 per cent uplift in traffic to SellMyLivestock and a 58 per cent increase in new user registrations compared to the previous six month average: all this from a campaign with a budget of just £22,500. ‘Seriously, it was a tiny amount and


CorpComms | February/March 2020


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