A Fortune Global 500 company and major developer of patented seed products needed to address imitation seeds sold in their home market. A regional team for the company was already working with Scantrust, so a brand protection services request was fast-tracked and issued to our team.

Scantrust was ultimately chosen to implement a solution. The serialized, secured QR codes were applied to the client’s seed packages as a brand protection measure against imitations. The codes further enabled a loyalty program that incentivized the direct purchase of seeds by farmers.

An increase in end-of-season sales was a significant, winning result. There was an impressive 30% increase in sales compared to the previous season, while loyalty program interaction levels confirmed the power of incentives to motivate participation.

Data generated from farmer participation allowed the client to gain customer insights on purchasing patterns and engagement rates while benefiting future program efforts to continue the return on investment.

As a leading agriculture company and steward for biodiversity with the mission to ensure we can feed the world’s population, our client is committed to engaging with farmers and never forgetting they are critical members of society. This approach to their business, combined with their role as a leader in agricultural science, has culminated in commercial success. Maintaining and building on that success is paramount as this allows them to continue pursuing their mission and role in feeding the world’s population. Scantrust stepped in to help support their business by providing a strategy and solution to brand protection from counterfeits, setting up packaging for directly engaging last-mile resellers, and honing in on new revenue opportunities beginning with the products themselves.

Scantrust came into their cooperation with the client has already provided Active Brand Protection services in an earlier project with a different regional team. The goal of that earlier project was also to mitigate similar challenges with counterfeit seed products. That helped project implementation go more smoothly, despite differences like culture and geography between the two projects.

We have experience and staff in several regions with teams and key players around Asia and major cities in Europe. It’s a win for us when we have the chance to work with more than one region in the same company. We can’t overstate how helpful it is to have completed a project with the same company in another area. Time to market and familiarity with pricing and protocols gained by working with the same brand are the results we see as a bonus. That was the case here. — Nathan J. Anderson, CEO, Scantrust

Already in the planning stages, confidence was high for the project. The decision to upgrade to a custom-tailored consumer engagement scheme was taken to access a tool that would help convince on-the-fence buyers that the purchase of genuine seeds was a better value than imitation or counterfeit seeds from lower-priced competitors with an offer of varying and questionable quality.

While the responsibility for technical integration fell primarily on the Scantrust team, we worked jointly with the client team to design a loyalty program that incentivized farmers to purchase seeds directly. Part of the joint planning concerned the campaign rules governing how farmers would claim rewards from scanning a predetermined number of secure QR codes. We then applied the unique, secure QR codes working with Reynders, a Belgian printer frequently collaborating with us. The codes were printed using HP Indigo Digital Presses and integrated onto each individual seed package.

Once everything was in place, and the project was live, the client could track progress and activity in real-time with their access to the Scantrust Business Intelligence dashboard, a real-time tool for managing and analyzing data generated into the system by scans. Details related to all packaging scans and farmer participation in the loyalty program were accessible through the intuitive monitoring dashboard.

The loyalty program was announced at an event with farmers in attendance, registration, and participation beginning on the spot.

The launch of the program coincided with the main growing season, and there was an immediate effect. Sales showed a significant jump with at least a 30% increase compared with the same period for the previous growing season.

Farmers quickly adopted and embraced the new loyalty program, showing their interest in participation rates beyond expectations. Without quoting specific interaction rates, we found that most packages printed with the secure QR codes recorded a scanning interaction – this was an exceptional level of participation.

It’s always great to see reasonable participation rates in campaigns using secure QR codes: participation confirms that we’re doing something right. When a notable uptick in sales is recorded, though, well, it goes without saying, that’s incredibly reaffirming. – Alex Shulgin, Data Analytics Manager, Scantrust

By implementing the Scantrust solution suite, our client quickly took action for brand protection against imitations and counterfeits that cost them revenue from their patented seeds. An increase in sales demonstrated both that Active Brand Protection worked well for them and more generally that incentives are still a strong motivator for their customers, encouraging positive participation and building a base of loyal farmers that are very responsive.

Data generated from each scan of Scantrust’s serialized codes recorded detailed customer insights, including granular summaries showing when and where products were scanned. Understanding purchase patterns and how incentives influence purchasing are powerful insights for any industry. That’s certainly proven to be the case in the agricultural and seed industry and for our client who was very happy with the return on their investment into Scantrust solutions. Data and experience from this campaign, ranging from brand protection measures to consumer engagement efforts, will continue to support marketing and sales in future growing seasons.