Creative B2B > Creative B2B

NATIVA METER

L&C, New York / BAVARIA / 2023

Awards:

Shortlisted Cannes Lions
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Overview

Credits

OVERVIEW

Why is this work relevant for Creative B2B?

90% of the people who drink Cerveza Nativa are small farmers in Northern Colombia. But they’re also businessmen who grow a wide variety of crops, including cassava, the main ingredient in Nativa beer.

In 2022, Colombian farmers lost 4.9M acres during the 2022 rainy season due to the effects of rapid climate change, including most of the cassava harvest.

The people who drink Nativa aren’t just farmers, they’re our business partners. So, we repurposed the bottle of their preferred beer and created a tool to protect one of the most important industries in Colombia: the farming industry, and our cassava.

Background

Situation:

Farmland in Northern Colombia’s mountainous Cordoba region is suffering from unprecedented heavy rainfall due to rapid climate change.

In 2022 alone, over 4.9 million acres of Colombia’s crops were lost during rainy season, including cassava, the main ingredient used to make Cerveza Nativa.

Unfortunately, traditional tools used to predict bad weather can’t keep up with climate change. And uneven mountain terrain renders modern weather radar practically useless.

The inability to proactively protect their fields puts farmers’ income and their crops — including cassava — at great risk.

Brief:

Help Nativa support cassava farmers better protect their crops from the devastating effects of climate change.

Objectives:

Fight the war on climate change and help small farmers protect cassava – and all their crops.

Strengthen crop and financial security for farmers and have enough cassava to make Cerveza Nativa.

Reinforce brand loyalty amongst the small farmers who grow Cerveza Nativa’s cassava.

Describe the creative idea

Nativa Meter is a beer bottle that’s been repurposed as a rain gauge that gives farmers vital rainfall information they can’t see with the naked eye, or learn from a weather app.

Working with Bavaria-Ab InBev agriculture experts and National University of Colombia MSc. Meteorologist Jhon Jairo Valencia, we transformed the manufacturing and design of our bottle to help farmers measure precipitation more accurately and make better decisions to protect their crops from the devastating effects of climate change.

Rainfall markers on the label indicate if precipitation is light, intermediate or heavy. This helps farmers track rain patterns to better predict the unpredictable climate change effects, and estimate crops groundwater levels. This helps farmers take action by adjusting planting and harvest times, irrigating crops more efficiently and knowing when to open drainage systems, to prevent overwatering – and killing – their crops.

Describe the strategy

• Data gathering

Collected data wasn’t used for marketing purposes, but instead, for better farm production that benefits everyone.

A WhatsApp number on the label connects farmers with our team of agricultural experts who analyze weather data and give farmers realtime advice. That data is then shared with Colombia's National Meteorology Institute to help them build a realtime weather database for each municipality, to to help better predict weather and avoid future disasters.

• Target audience

Small independent farmers in northern Colombia

Men and women 18-55

Minimally educated, but literate

Average income: about $1700 USD/year

• Approach

Cerveza Nativa’s relationship with consumers isn’t a monologue from brand to consumer. Instead, it’s a conversation between friends and business partners, helping each other in a neighborly win-win manner.

Describe the execution

• Implementation

Because Nativa Meter is printed on the bottle, implementation was as simple as manufacturing beer, loading delivery trucks and delivering them to local stores using Bavaria/AB InBev’s extensive distribution system.

• Timeline

March 2022: heavy floods strike Colombia

May 2022: concept approved, manufacturing analysis begins

July 2022: prototyping and testing begins

October 2022: design approved, production begins

February 2023: Nativa Meter distribution begins in time for cassava harvest

• Placement

Nativa Meters were placed on the side of the bottle and sold in local markets for farmers to buy, drink and then use the bottle to protect their crops.

• Scale

Initial production run was 20,000 bottles, which now protect 280,000 acres of crops – 4% of all of Colombia’s farmland. Our goal is to cover 50% of all Colombia’s farmland in 2025. We are also taking the innovation to other local crop brands of our portfolio.

List the results

• Sales

38% increase from March-April 2023. The initial run of 20,000 Nativa Meters sold out in less than a week and were immediately put to use.

At $0.34 USD per beer, farmers save 98% on a rain gauge versus $18 USD.

Net savings from the initial run of 20,000 bottles: $353,200 – the equivalent of 208 Colombian farmers’ annual incomes.

• Engagement

200% increase in brand interactions from March-April 2023.

• Reach

280,000 acres of Colombia’s Cordoba region are now protected by the Nativa Meter, with a goal of covering 50% of all Colombian farmland in 2025.

We're also sharing Nativa Meter's innovations with other AB InBev local crop beers in countries whose farmers also suffer from the effects of climate change, starting with Ecuador's Nuestra Siembra and Peru's Golden.

• Achievement against business targets

75% increase in brand favorability in northern Colombia

81% increase in purchase intent

Please tell us how disruption in your market inspired the work

In the case of the Nativa Meter, disruption comes from a very unique place: the weather.

The tools and methods northern Colombia’s small farmers have traditionally relied on to measure rain and prepare crops for oncoming weather are simply no match for the heavy rains associated with the severity of rapid climate change.

And even the most modern weather radar can’t accurately depict current conditions or forecast what’s next because of the uneven mountain terrain.

All of which left farmers unprepared for record amounts of rainfall in 2022, when 4.9 million acres of crops were lost during rainy season. Harvests and incomes alike were completely washed away.

Because local small farmers are our friends and business partners, we knew we had to find a way to help them better manage and prepare crops for future bad weather.

From this, the Nativa Meter was born.

Is there any cultural context that would help the jury understand how this work was perceived by people in the country where it ran?

Because Colombia’s farmers live well below the poverty line, washed out crops mean wiped out income. Being able to help protect their crops with a rain gauge for almost nothing is huge. Getting one that’s already on the bottle of something farmers already buy and drink is massive.

Lastly, uneven mountainous terrain makes the most advanced up-to-date weather radar tracking systems unable to accurately depict current and precise weather patterns. This makes the Nativa Meter’s reportage of conditions in these areas crucial to helping farmers in the region prepare for bad weather.

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