Sustainable cotton, sustainable leadership
Client: Cotton LEADS™
The Project
The Cotton LEADS™ program connects businesses around the world with leading on-farm efforts in sustainable cotton production. They’d seen the website we designed for Field to Market™ – and they thought a website refresh would help them continue recruiting new partners and actively engage their existing partners in ongoing research, innovative new technology and more.
We agreed that a new website was a must – but from the very start of our engagement, we’ve been more than “just” a design team. We quickly became their agency partner who uncovers new opportunities, pushes them to try new things, and builds their leadership position in the global cotton and textile industries.
Client Challenge
The initial ask was to refresh their website. But after immersing ourselves in their business, we realized they were dealing with a much larger issue: they weren’t clearly communicating who they were or why businesses should partner with them. As a result, the program faced a fundamental visibility challenge within the industry.
Building the Cotton LEADSTM Brand
Messaging and
Website
Industry Goals
Video
Farmer Recruitment
Video
Partner Profile Videos
Outreach
Building the Brand
Messaging and Website
Reimagine messaging and recreate the Cotton LEADSTM website to drive companies from awareness of the program to active partnership and informed decision-making in their supply chains
Industry Goals Video
Announce U.S. industry goals
Farmer Recruitment Video
Recruit U.S. farmers to use the Fieldprint® Calculator
Partner Profile Videos
Tell the Cotton LEADS story from their partners’ point of view
Outreach
Spread the word – put the message in front of the right audiences
Building the Brand
Build the Cotton LEADS brand so they can make the greatest impact for sustainability
Building the Cotton LEADSTM Brand
Messaging and Website
Recreate the Cotton LEADSTM website to drive companies from awareness of the program to active partnership and informed decision-making in their supply chains
Industry Goals Video
Announce U.S. industry goals
Farmer Recruitment Video
Recruit U.S. farmers to use the Fieldprint Calculator
Partner Profile Videos
Tell the Cotton LEADSTM story from their partners’ point of view
Outreach
Spread the word – put the message in front of the right audiences
Building the Brand
Build the Cotton LEADS brand so they can make the greatest impact for sustainability
Shelton Solution
Our solution was, and continues to be, to build the Cotton LEADS brand via thought-leadership activities and trade advertising, ultimately raising awareness of what the program is and inspiring companies to take up the banner of sustainable cotton production.
The first step was to clearly, concisely reimagine how the program describes itself and invites partners to engage. We crafted the line “Committed to cotton. Committed to good” to capture the program’s value proposition, and then brought that to life through a combination of assets, including a website, trade advertising campaign, point of sale materials and videos.
To create those videos, we interviewed industry leaders from Cotton Inc., National Cotton Council, and brand and retailer partners. We edited and produced the videos to squarely position Cotton LEADS as an invaluable facilitator of sustainability – of “good” – up and down the cotton supply chain.
Critical Elements
- Crafted new “who we are” and “what we do” language
- Designed and built the new Cotton LEADS website with a fresh, modern look and feel
- Produced multiple videos (including interviews + story development + all production work)
- U.S. cotton industry sustainability goals video
- Field to Market Fieldprint Calculator® recruitment video
- Partner profile videos for Walmart, Hanes, Gildan, Fruit of the Loom and Wrangler
- Trade print campaign development and ad execution
- Digital advertising
- Apparel hang tags
The Payoff
The clear, cohesive branding we created across platforms has set the program up for increased brand awareness and more partners who actively rely on and engage with the Cotton LEADS program.