Indigo’s microbial seed treatment collection has the capacity to protect crops from abiotic stresses – from extreme temperatures and water scarcity, to nutrient-deficient soils. By increasing a plant’s resilience in tough environmental conditions and enhancing the use of resources such as water, the treatments have the potential to naturally improve yields and increase farm revenue. However, Indigo’s ambitions go way beyond seed development. The company is supporting farmers every step of the way from planting to crop harvest, delivery, and payment. DEPT® has played a role in helping to create the software which enables this complex lifecycle.

Indigo Marketplace helps growers navigate the grain market with confidence. It helps buyers access high-quality, identity-preserved crops that meet their specifications. Buyers on this platform are able to source grain with a range of characteristics (eg. protein content, milling quality, variety), and production practices (eg. organic, rain-fed, non-GM). Growers are able to access a suite of tools and services to support their grain marketing efforts. Transacting digitally, both growers and buyers can increase efficiency and access a larger market through Marketplace. 

DEPT® worked with the Indigo team to design and build the company’s Marketplace digital platform, which helps better connect farmers with buyers.

Once Indigo Marketplace was in place, crops still needed to be transported from point A to point B. DEPT® helped Indigo build Indigo Transport to pair growers and grain buyers with carriers (trucking companies), for the efficient transport of grain. Growers can opt to leave the hassle of logistics to Indigo Transport while carriers experience a seamless and supported way of finding new loads.

Beginning with just the idea of building an ecosystem to help farmers ship grain more economically, the DEPT® team worked with Indigo to launch the minimum viable product (MVP) for Transport in just four months. Indigo worked with DEPT® to launch Transport with an app focused on owner-operated trucking companies, while continuing to conduct user interviews to learn about what was and wasn’t working.

A key learning when rolling out the MVP for owner-operators was that other personas outside of the initial set could use and get value from the system. As part of a 5-day design sprint led by DEPT®, several other critical personas were identified within the shipping ecosystem that could be supported by Indigo Transport, including dispatchers managing fleets of trucks, shippers managing other agricultural commodities that need to be delivered, and individual drivers delivering the necessary loads. To better serve a range of users, DEPT® worked with the Indigo team to build out the app to fit these different personas in the transport journey.

Today, growers can select to use transportation services when transacting grain on the Indigo Marketplace app. Should they choose this option, their shipment is displayed in the Transport app so that carriers can see the load opportunity. The Transport app includes portals for shippers to input their needs into the system, and the carrier app is geared towards those transporting grain.

Indigo also partnered with DEPT® to help create a custom solution for farmers to quickly and painlessly settle complex contracts. The teams worked to design custom back-office tools to support Indigo’s accounts receivable and accounts payable teams.

Supporting all of this is a powerful platform that orchestrates the logistics to make sure crops are delivered to the correct place, on time, and in a compliant manner. With Indigo Transport, carriers can expand their business opportunities through easier access to more loads, and farmers and shippers can deliver grain with more confidence.

Indigo is continuously capturing data from fields around the world in order to research how current crops are performing given a variety of factors, such as drought, extreme heat, insects, poor soil, etc. This data comes from many sources, such as drone and satellite imagery, data directly from combines or from their own agronomists collecting results. All of this information is funnelled into a Machine Data Factory (MDF) that helps Indigo’s scientists have an overview of crop performance across the world, in addition to helping inform how to bring new products to the market.

The company needed to be able to track this data and easily visualise what was and wasn’t successful, while ensuring the privacy of the company’s customers. Our team of specialists assisted with building the front-end of this database, a user interface that allows employees to interact with the anonymised data. The users get details about any tests that were performed and the current status of a particular field. This allows Indigo scientists to easily see which experiments performed well and which didn’t on a global scale.

From grain bidding to transport to payment for crops, DEPT® has supported Indigo to build multiple apps and platforms.

Within the first few months, Indigo Marketplace saw significant traction with thousands of growers and buyers utilising the platforms. In January 2019, Indigo Marketplace saw $4B in average daily bids over a 30-day period. In December 2019, average daily bids hit $51B over a 30-day period, a 1175% increase.

Today, at every step of the way, farmers have more options, processes are more efficient, and Indigo scientists have more information at their fingertips to help drive future innovations in agriculture that will be critical to feeding people for years to come.

Our challenge was to fit three days worth of activities and inspiration into three hours while making it feel like it all lasted only three minutes. To do this, we decided to create a next-level virtual experience full of energy, a little crazy and above all personal. And that’s why we reimaged the physical experience and transformed it into a virtual one by building an interactive, 3D festival map which supported 15 stages across which more than 35 presentations took place.

Simply transferring all the elements of the original festival to a virtual platform would have led to a clumsy, unsatisfying result. Therefore, reimagination was the key. To kick off the process, we started by conceptualising our vision, the platform and the architecture of the event. The concept was crucial as this became our red thread both visually but also across our communication which we could always refer back to.

With a clear theme and concept, we quickly began to build our 3D map using React Three Fiber, a front-end tool specifically engineered to manage and bring 3D experiences to life. This, in turn, connected to Zoom, Slack and Vimeo. Our designers had the first version up and running in just a couple of weeks.

Apart from designing the experience, we wanted to excite Depsters with what was to come. So we crafted an internal social campaign which included daily hints from our zebra mascot and teaser videos. These social drops excited Depsters worldwide and conveyed that this was not an ordinary Zoom event.

In two months time, we designed and built a custom made a custom 3D festival map which one could easily explore and that was protected by single sign-on. The design and layout digitally recreated the festival site from the previous four years, squeezing in 15 stages and 35+ short and snappy presentations into a 3-hour event, and included some industry heroes like Stefan Sagmeister and Gmunk. A personal welcome movie by CEO Dimi Albers and DEPT® stage hosts made everyone feel welcome. With the help of Slack and ‘social reporters’, people knew what was going on all the virtual stages, creating a healthy amount of event FOMO, before and after the event.

Because of COVID-19, virtualisation has become the new norm and this will shape the future by creating new hybrid events which combine both physical and digital elements. And it doesn’t stop with virtual events, imagine virtual product launches, remote assistance and digital campuses. Thinking bigger, one could picture entire online environments that enable organisations to exchange knowledge or try out products and services in an accessible and personal manner.

For organisations that want to explore possibilities for their virtual event and beyond, we offer services such as concepting, designing and building a virtual 3D world, supporting your brand deploy the necessary technology and security to host a large scale event in addition to helping with the production side of things. Because, in the end, life is too short to host boring events.

Trends are constantly evolving in the cosmetics industry, and essence was faced with the major challenge that the industry is in a state of upheaval, driven by the dynamic preferences of tech-savvy Gen Z and Alpha consumers. The challenge was clear: how can the essence brand authentically connect with the young target group and build a close relationship?

In response to these challenges and objectives, essence was searching for an innovative solution and called in the expertise of the global digital agency DEPT®. After the kick-off workshop, followed by an intensive ideation phase, the idea of developing a Roblox experience was born and the foundation was laid for the ‘essence FUN PARK’ – an imaginative, immersive, adventurous and colourful world on Roblox. In this way, the brand’s young target group was to be addressed exactly where they spend a large part of their time: on gaming platforms. 

If you ask Gen Alpha about their favourite leisure activity, gaming is in first place, with 22%. For Gen Z, gaming is in first place with 19% together with the use of social media. 87% of Gen Z specifically state that they use video games at least once a week. And while they are doing this, they are not only playing, but also socialising. 

This results in enormous potential for brands to connect with the young target group authentically.

Two aspects were pivotal for the successful launch of ‘essence FUN PARK’:

• Playing by the rules of the platform
  With a clear focus on an authentic, user-centred gaming experience.
• Game structure and mechanics based on the brand values
  The essence brand values, such as ‘cruelty-free’ and ‘diversity’, are subtly woven into the game and improve the experience.

Trends are constantly evolving in the cosmetics industry, and essence was faced with the major challenge that the industry is in a state of upheaval, driven by the dynamic preferences of tech-savvy Gen Z and Alpha consumers. The challenge was clear: how can the essence brand authentically connect with the young target group and build a close relationship?

In response to these challenges and objectives, essence was searching for an innovative solution and called in the expertise of the global digital agency DEPT®. After the kick-off workshop, followed by an intensive ideation phase, the idea of developing a Roblox experience was born and the foundation was laid for the ‘essence FUN PARK’ – an imaginative, immersive, adventurous and colourful world on Roblox. In this way, the brand’s young target group was to be addressed exactly where they spend a large part of their time: on gaming platforms. 

If you ask Gen Alpha about their favourite leisure activity, gaming is in first place, with 22%. For Gen Z, gaming is in first place with 19% together with the use of social media. 87% of Gen Z specifically state that they use video games at least once a week. And while they are doing this, they are not only playing, but also socialising. 

This results in enormous potential for brands to connect with the young target group authentically.

Two aspects were pivotal for the successful launch of ‘essence FUN PARK’:

• Playing by the rules of the platform
  With a clear focus on an authentic, user-centred gaming experience.
• Game structure and mechanics based on the brand values
  The essence brand values, such as ‘cruelty-free’ and ‘diversity’, are subtly woven into the game and improve the experience.

Trends are constantly evolving in the cosmetics industry, and essence was faced with the major challenge that the industry is in a state of upheaval, driven by the dynamic preferences of tech-savvy Gen Z and Alpha consumers. The challenge was clear: how can the essence brand authentically connect with the young target group and build a close relationship?

In response to these challenges and objectives, essence was searching for an innovative solution and called in the expertise of the global digital agency DEPT®. After the kick-off workshop, followed by an intensive ideation phase, the idea of developing a Roblox experience was born and the foundation was laid for the ‘essence FUN PARK’ – an imaginative, immersive, adventurous and colourful world on Roblox. In this way, the brand’s young target group was to be addressed exactly where they spend a large part of their time: on gaming platforms. 

If you ask Gen Alpha about their favourite leisure activity, gaming is in first place, with 22%. For Gen Z, gaming is in first place with 19% together with the use of social media. 87% of Gen Z specifically state that they use video games at least once a week. And while they are doing this, they are not only playing, but also socialising. 

This results in enormous potential for brands to connect with the young target group authentically.

Two aspects were pivotal for the successful launch of ‘essence FUN PARK’:

• Playing by the rules of the platform
  With a clear focus on an authentic, user-centred gaming experience.
• Game structure and mechanics based on the brand values
  The essence brand values, such as ‘cruelty-free’ and ‘diversity’, are subtly woven into the game and improve the experience.

Trends are constantly evolving in the cosmetics industry, and essence was faced with the major challenge that the industry is in a state of upheaval, driven by the dynamic preferences of tech-savvy Gen Z and Alpha consumers. The challenge was clear: how can the essence brand authentically connect with the young target group and build a close relationship?

In response to these challenges and objectives, essence was searching for an innovative solution and called in the expertise of the global digital agency DEPT®. After the kick-off workshop, followed by an intensive ideation phase, the idea of developing a Roblox experience was born and the foundation was laid for the ‘essence FUN PARK’ – an imaginative, immersive, adventurous and colourful world on Roblox. In this way, the brand’s young target group was to be addressed exactly where they spend a large part of their time: on gaming platforms. 

If you ask Gen Alpha about their favourite leisure activity, gaming is in first place, with 22%. For Gen Z, gaming is in first place with 19% together with the use of social media. 87% of Gen Z specifically state that they use video games at least once a week. And while they are doing this, they are not only playing, but also socialising. 

This results in enormous potential for brands to connect with the young target group authentically.

Two aspects were pivotal for the successful launch of ‘essence FUN PARK’:

• Playing by the rules of the platform
  With a clear focus on an authentic, user-centred gaming experience.
• Game structure and mechanics based on the brand values
  The essence brand values, such as ‘cruelty-free’ and ‘diversity’, are subtly woven into the game and improve the experience.

Enlisting pop sensation Katy Perry as the new face of the campaign, it wanted to spread joy across 17 markets in 21 different languages.

DEPT® was appointed as the lead digital agency to extend its iconic TV commercial into online and social channels, helping to cement ‘Did somebody say…’ as a ubiquitous slogan around the world. 

To deliver on the brief, we recognized that digital executions of the campaign had to not just match, but build upon the world created within the TVC, while retaining all of its original joy.

So, we defined three core things our strategy needed to do…

THE WHAT – DELIVER JOY
Joy is a feeling, not an identity

In the very first ‘Did somebody say…’ TV ad, the thought of ordering takeaway is triggered by watching television. But that’s only one of many possible triggers to order take out. It can be when something good happens, when something bad happens, or simply when nothing happens. Our strategy needed to lean into the myriad of ways to evoke that “doorbell feeling”, and make JET the synonymous solution for ordering in when those cravings strike. 

THE HOW – A GLOBAL SOLUTION TO LOCAL CHALLENGES
17 markets, each with their own challenges

Taking the ‘Did somebody say…’ campaign global for the first time ever presented a series of new challenges. Creating thousands of assets in 21 different languages, for use across multiple platforms, meant we needed a flexible mechanic that could be tailored to local market priorities, in order to efficiently build creative that was platform-first, easily translatable and distinctively JET.

THE WHO – FOR ALL
If you eat, then you could be a JET customer

The broad awareness-focused campaign objectives meant that we needed universally relevant creative that appealed to a large majority of the category to help build TOMA, drive positive brand sentiment and, ultimately, spread joy. 

We unpacked the TVC world into different, distinctive brand elements that we could leverage and weave throughout our digital-first creative to maintain consistency:

01 Put the talent, Katy Perry, front and centre
02 Utilise the power of the track, especially for ‘sound on’ environments
03 Dial up the brand sonic ‘Did somebody say…’ to drive recall and fame
04 All situated in an entertaining, ownable world that is distinctive to JET

Knowing we had limited time to capture social content in and around the main TVC recording, we were prepared to react fast, be adaptable, and work to what we knew Katy Perry fans and JET audiences would positively respond to. 

We defined the key creative and production elements that would fuel our ways of working on set in LA, and ensure our content and assets were hyper-relevant to the platforms being utilized: 

01 Minimal narrative, maximum impact
02 Fully immersive point of view and transitions
03 Hypnotizing editing techniques
04 Simple messaging, unique platform-first shots
05 Nostalgic and culturally relevant references

For the launch phase, where we amplified the TVC across all digital channels to drive users to discover the track, we understood that audiences are super savvy. They can tell straight away if they’re being sold to, often within the first second, forcing them to tap or scroll away. 

So our aim was to capture attention first, then share our message. This is where our predefined creative and production elements shone, ensuring distinctiveness and consistency to help increase positive brand sentiment. 

We put the talent front and centre as planned, capturing 10 unique, social-first edits on set; facilitating a clear connection between the TVC and the first phase of the digital and social launch, while bringing JET’s audience closer to the action at Katy’s ‘home’. 

Our aim in sustaining the momentum of the launch was to drive talkability of Katy Perry and the ‘Did somebody say…’ platform, beyond the TVC. 

To further amplify the feeling of joy, we extended the campaign by creating 12 globally relatable, social-first scenarios across a five-day shoot. 

The scenarios depicted more of the everyday possibilities to create “doorbell moments” and drive home the message that JET is the answer to any ordering-in situation; from having too much washing up, to moving house, or simply running out of snacks. 

We also leveraged JET’s AR lens that helped bring the TVC to social in a fun and engaging way, using it to help fuel TikTok remakes of the ad and bringing it to the top of consumers’ minds in an entertaining way.

To effectively and efficiently create these in 21 different languages for 17 markets, we leveraged Lightspeed, our proprietary creative automation tool. 

Lightspeed combines a data feed containing all content (footage, images, copy, translations, logos), with a library of AfterEffects and HTML templates built based on the needs of different JET markets. The assets are delivered to our proprietary front end tool, allowing JET’s internal teams across each market to review, feedback on or approve each individual asset. 

Once signed off, Lightspeed plugs into various ad manager APIs, allowing assets to be set up based on the business needs of that market, all in all streamlining the process and enabling us to produce, deliver and launch thousands of creative assets in hours rather than weeks. 

‘Did somebody say…’ featuring Katy Perry achieved incredible results across digital channels, driving 1.2 billion impressions globally and achieving above benchmark results across multiple brand lift studies, social listening and in-flight metrics for measures like ad recall, view through rate and message association.

Twitter dominated mentions throughout the whole campaign, accounting for 75% of the total. Sentiment was predominantly positive (59%) with only 13% negative mentions.

Our purpose-built, social-first creative drove conversation and global TOMA on TikTok’s ‘sound on’ environment, gaining an average (and higher than benchmarks) 7.5% uplift in ad recall across all markets, as well as an average 5.6% increase in brand association. 

Brand awareness shifted in most markets, with the Netherlands seeing a particularly high increase of 6.9% and 2.2% in Germany. We also secured an average view through rate of 24.8% across all markets.

We aspire to be the best agency we can be, for the world. We are honored to take a big step forward in a journey that is only just beginning. Today, DEPT® becomes a Certified B Corporation®.

B Corp’s balance purpose and profit. We are legally required to consider the impact of our decisions on our workers, clients, governance, community and the environment. We are proud to join a community of leaders like Ben & Jerry’s, Patagonia and Allbirds that are driving a global movement of using business as a force for good.

And we are proud to lead the way for the digital community. Personally, I believe that we must find more ways to use digital technologies as a key enabler for some of the biggest challenges of our times – from climate change to inequality. By using digital technology, we can help our clients to do better, build smarter and greener. 

Driven from the inside

Mostly, we are proud of this achievement because it was brought forth and carried out by Depsters. Because what started as a suggestion from a few Depsters turned into more than a year’s worth of work by a team of over 40 colleagues. While we’ve always tried to operate as a good company, we had lots of work to do and improvements to make in order to become certified. And the B Corp™ process is no joke! It’s as rigorous as a financial audit, and you better damn well be transparent. There’s no cheating the system.

B Corp™ looks at everything your company is doing and assesses it across a number of categories, like sustainability, energy consumption, diversity, labor conditions, etc. This requires pulling together tons of information from across the organization and then outlining changes and improvements that need to be made.

But our B Corp™ team came together, on top of their normal responsibilities, to lead the way, create what eventually became our DEPT® Impact strategy, and complete the certification process.

Outside our agency borders

In addition to our people, we also chose to pursue B Corp™ certification for the brands that we work with. We are lucky to work with a number of impact brands and non-profits who are focused on important issues, like Patagonia, the United Nations, Terra Neutra, Indigo Ag and Justdiggit to name a few. Brands today are serving consumers who want to do business with companies that serve a purpose and are environmentally conscious. They need their agency partners to have more defined policies in these areas. B Corp™ provides us with an independent auditor and a framework to manage, assess and improve our impact and ensure we are accountable to the brands that we work with.

It’s just the beginning

Becoming certified is not the end goal of our journey. The minimum B Corp™ assessment score to achieve certification is an 80, and we scored 10% above that. Although we are proud of that score, it leaves plenty of room for improvement. But, together with our team and with the B Corp™ organization, we will keep finding ways to increase our positive impact and use our business as a force for good. We believe this is our responsibility. Therefore, with our new journey as a certified B Corp, we are focused on the following initiatives for next year:

• We will protect the climate: we are carbon neutral today and want to be carbon negative by the end of 2023. We’re actively working on reducing our CO₂ emissions, and we compensate for the footprint that is left. We offset our carbon footprint via partner Terra Neutra by investing in one of their projects in Kenya: the Hifadhi Livelihoods Cookstoves projects in Embu and Tharaka Nithi Counties.
• We will accelerate responsible production & consumption via the work we do for our clients: in 2023, projects with a positive social or environmental impact will compose more than 15% of our total revenue. In 2020, nearly 9% of our revenue came from more impact projects, including work with sustainable fashion brand hessnatur, Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE) COVID-19 tracker app, Honig’s charitable Live Eet virtual event to support the Dutch Foodbank, Justdiggit’s digital marketplace linking donors to African farmers, and Terra Neutra’s ClearSky carbon positivity app.
• We will be a diverse, equal and inclusive organization: by 2023 our workforce will be a solid representation of society at large and more than 40% of our managers will be female or nonbinary.  As part of our DE&I efforts in 2020, we piloted two new initiatives that we rolled out globally in 2021: faceless recruitment and adding more demographic information to our employee satisfaction monitoring that will help us measure our progress in achieving our DE&I goals. Other focus areas include: reviewing our equal pay policies to lessen our gender pay gap and the launch of a global diversity calendar.

Over the last year, so many Depsters have worked hard to champion this cause, strongly driven by the combination of creating great work for clients and making a positive impact on the world. I’d like to thank everyone on our B Corp™ team as we reach this milestone, and invite all Depsters to celebrate that we are part of a company helping, one small step at a time, to build a more inclusive, sustainable economy.

Together we will reduce our footprint, create impactful work for and with our clients, and create a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion: a place where everybody feels welcome. Because, in the end, a sustainable future is ours to create.