MF, a worldwide brand of AGCO (NYSE:AGCO), is proud to announce that its MF 8S “Landing on Earth” digital event won the Gold Medal Award in the category “Best Use of Digital Technology” and the Silver Medal Award as “Best B2B Digital/Hybrid Event” at the Best Event Award 2020, on December, 4th 2020 livestreamed digitally from Milan (Italy).
In this challenging CoVid-19 period, NEXT Group, the awarded agency, worked together with Massey Ferguson on the organization of the worldwide, 100% Digital launch event of the new MF 8S tractor that took place on the 24th of July 2020. Given the Coronavirus pandemic, the entire event’s organization was led remotely, leveraging all digital capabilities and collaborative working tools in the middle of the first lock down between March and July 2020, between the French based (Beauvais) Massey Ferguson Marketing team and Italian based (Milan) NEXT Group team.
On the launch day, 65,000+ guests participated in the livestream event broadcast on a dedicated web platform in 10 different languages with real time translation. Amongst the participants, AGCO and Massey Ferguson employees, 900 journalists, the entire global Massey Ferguson distributor and dealer personnel, as well as 25,000 farmers and contractors from 170 countries, experienced the tractor launch from the comfort of their offices or their home, on July, 24th 2020.
Prior to the event, a robust teaser and engagement campaign had been developed to give the opportunity to interested viewers to register online leveraging social media and marketing automation capabilities.
For the occasion of the livestream, a dedicated studio was purpose built within the Massey Ferguson Beauvais factory (France) using the latest broadcast technology normally used by TV channels and film productions. Guests experienced a fully immersive presentation in an exciting atmosphere created by a Virtual Set with LED Corner and camera tracking, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Worldwide Contributions, lights and music effects. The real MF 8S tractor finally appeared in all its grandeur using lights, Augmented Reality, videos and music effects.
To keep the audience’s attention and offer an enhanced user experience, the dynamic pace of the presentation supported by enriched content such as animations and videos, as well as real time polls contributed to the large success of the event. A press Q&A was led through a live chat box and live answers from the presenters.
The event success was amazing. No doubt, it was thanks to the breath-taking design and features of the MF 8S, but it was also thanks to the team’s innovative, high technological ideas for launching a product digitally.
“This is awesome! We feel so proud to receive this award from NEXT Group, this is a really well-deserved recognition for the innovative ways Massey Ferguson engages its business partners and customers. This is also a demonstration that commitment, dedication, and team spirit lead to success in this pandemic times” says Thierry Lhotte, Vice-President & Managing Director Massey Ferguson Europe & Middle East.
“Massey Ferguson connected The World – for the first time ever people from all around the world were with us – at the same time in the same place! The pandemic brought us challenges but also gave us opportunities. This Global Live event was made possible thanks to a strong push of digital disruption in the way we show our innovations to the marketplace whilst keeping social distance. A world premiere demonstrating what is the New Era for Massey Ferguson: Breaking the Distance amongst the brand, its dealers and distributors, its customers and the press offering an enhanced experience through Digital Marketing tools.”, says Francesco Murro, Director Marketing Massey Ferguson Europe & Middle East.
“We feel so honoured to receive this award. This is the result of dedicated team work partnered with one of the strongest, most disruptive marketing teams we have ever worked with and who were refreshingly open to new ideas. During the whole process we felt a part of the Massey Ferguson team, working hand in hand to tackle the creative and technical challenges to gather 65,000 people from all around the world, keep their attention during a 30 minute livestream mainly followed on mobile devices and ultimately engage them in a longer term relationship with the brand.”, says Marco Jannarelli, President of NEXT Group.
The Landing On Earth Event signified the beginning of a long journey of successes for the MF 8S as well as for new MF product digital launches as per the Marketing Road Map, initiated in 2018.
“The Massey Ferguson brand had already made the decision to move anyway from traditional shows to more hybrid events before COVID-19. Back in 2018 with EIMA show in Italy, we first announced our move from traditional shows to offer a more personalized and targeted experience to our customers. Our MF eXperience Concept was just the start where MF would engage customers by blending physical presence and digital capabilities and pioneering the use of virtual reality to immerse customers in our product line. We know this decision at that time sparked a lot of discussion. In a way, the coronavirus situation has forced us to adjust to a more disruptive and innovative trade fair and events model and the way we launch and promote our products revolves solely around the needs of our customers and their expectations”, concludes Mr Murro.
Discover more about the MF 8S tractor via the Massey Ferguson web site (MF8S.masseyferguson.com).
