February 22, 2002
 

Advanta Seeds has gained national recognition for last year's marketing campaign for Xi19, which was launched a year early ahead of its addition to the UK Recommended List last December.

Advanta's marketing campaign for Xi19 was recognised with a Highly Commended in the Arable Marketing Awards, sponsored by NIAB and Farmers Weekly, and was the only cereal variety marketing campaign to receive recognition in the awards, in which the overall winner was Simba International.

Xi19 was commercially launched a year early on account of its superb yield and potential Group 1 quality characteristics. Central to the marketing campaign was the ability to take advantage of a relaxation in the rules governing the naming of varieties, which enabled Advanta to utilise a unique name - Xi19 - to stand the variety apart from other varieties in the market place.

To capitalise on this and raise awareness of the variety and its superb technical characteristics, a wide ranging marking campaign was adopted, especially when it became apparent that it would not be possible to see the variety "in the flesh" at Cereals and other events around the UK last summer.

This encompassed an eye-catching advertising campaign, direct marketing, a concerted press campaign covering technical attributes and the creation of a technical website, which was the first variety-specific website to be launched in the UK. A final unexpected boost was given to the campaign when, by chance, a crop of Xi19 grown by Paul Steer of C G R Booth (Farmers) won last year's Crops World Class Wheat Grower Competition.

Needless to say, an equally robust marketing campaign is already being planned to support sales this year.