Halter
+275%
Of US monthly target hit
+263%
Rate of closed inbound sales
-61%
Cost per sales assigned lead
Driving adoption of the world’s most advanced virtual cattle fencing in New Zealand and the USA, enabling more productive, profitable, and sustainable farming.
The problem
In our primary focus area of New Zealand, there are less than 11,000 dairy farmers spread across the country. Of those, the average age is 50 and the vast majority have been farming in the same way for multiple generations.
Naturally, they’re unbelievably sceptical of investing tens to hundreds of thousands into fancy new tech from a young team and changing the way they farm. Additionally, they assume Halter won’t understand how farms actually work or what farmers truly care about.
“Mate, I’ve been doing this forever, why the hell should I change what I’m doing?”
My Roles
Defined and lead the overarching creative strategy and visual identity of all ad assets groups.
Pitched and helped secure the client, winning the proposal, then fostering ongoing collaboration.
Directed, photographed, and produced video and photo shoots, from ideation to final edits.
Created static and video ads in Figma and Adobe Suite, optimising for different campaign objectives.
Established feedback loops to refine content monthly and continuously boost lead volume.
Oversaw the entire creative process, ensuring alignment with business goals and delivering on tight timelines.
Research
Market research gave us a strong foundation to test and refine our creative approach. Here are some of the core insights:
Early Majority Focus: For our primary target audience, feed and grass management ranked highest in importance, followed by labour resources.
Limited Awareness: Most farmers recognised Halter only for its Virtual Fencing feature, despite the brand’s broader offerings.
US-Specific Needs: Vast ranches made GPS-based tracking crucial in the US market, whereas in NZ it was far less of a priority.
Perceived Complexity: Halter’s full relevance to key farming pain points wasn’t clearly articulated, leaving many farmers confused.
Financial Justification: Farmers wanted a clearer breakdown of how Halter’s services would impact profitability.
Key Decisions
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Market research showed farmers were both uncertain about Halter’s profitability claims and wary of a hard sell. We addressed this by breaking down the story of:
Explaining virtual fencing: Fence and shift cows in novel ways, in seconds.
Linking this to perfect grazing: As a result of that virtual fencing, you now maximise your paddocks and speed up grass regrowth.
Emphasising the contextual outcome: You now feed your cows more grass as well as more consistently overall, and put more milk in the vat as a result.
We could then communicate a relatable, digestible story for farmers without ever having to throw financial buzzwords at them.
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Knowing farmers are heavily influenced by local peers, we created testimonial ads featuring farmers from specific regions. This localised approach gave viewers real-world evidence from neighbours who looked and sounded like them, farmed in the same conditions, and who may even live just down the road.
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To help balance budgets, we proved that authentic, phone-filmed ads showing basic demos and screen recordings performed exceptionally well. Producing these ads inexpensively allowed us to diversify ads and scale.
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We distilled the core message to two outcomes: saving time and increasing profitability - perfectly aligned with the top concerns our research highlighted for farmers. We then developed a funnel hypothesis:
Top-of-funnel: Emphasise the emotional appeal of saving time.
Mid-to-bottom-funnel: Prove financial ROI to justify the purchase.
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We used a series of rapid tests to optimise our approach:
Channel Quality: Identified the most receptive platforms and the quality of specific audience targeting within them.
Messaging: Experimented with different angles to see what resonated most.
Creative Formats: Determined the ad styles (video, static, UGC) that drove the highest lead volume.
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Developing formulas for a perfect Halter ad - story flow, must-have creative elements, most impactful mentions etc. This reduced uncertainty with ad creation, and when combined with monthly iteration, meant we could reliably scale lead generation month-on-month.
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We produced straightforward, no-fluff video ads that demonstrated everyday tasks, normally hours long, completed in seconds with Halter. Additionally, by showing older farmers seamlessly using the Halter App to do these tasks, we dispelled fears around complexity and made the product feel accessible.
