Farming has gone high-tech, and for good reason. A growing planet needs smarter food production to yield more crops, use less chemicals and help our world grow better in general. As the leader in AgTech, John Deere sought to draw top-tier technologists away from Silicon Valley mainstays with a recruitment brand that could speak to their tech culture and show how they are breaking new ground, literally.

Turning John Deere into a tech company

Deere is well-known for bringing agriculture into its modern state, but they’re plowing into the future as well—with autonomous driving that could rival any Tesla, as well as machine vision and sensor fusion systems powered by the latest in AI. Deere is bringing all of this to the field; we had to bring it to the fore.

Traina created the Tech@Deere brand, along with a recruitment strategy, messaging framework and a dynamic digital experience to support the grand opening of Deere’s new tech office in Austin. The end result is a comprehensive recruitment platform in which the company’s ethos is well-defined from the very start.

Many think recruitment begins and ends with the right resumes coming in and final offers being accepted, but the benefits go far deeper. Creating a recruitment brand allows you to engage with applicants in a relatable, personal way, and make a lasting impression on the people who will carry your company through its future. This sets a foundation not just for a fruitful career, but for a clear sense of meaning in the work—a reason to believe in being there and staying there.

This makes strong ideology and compelling messaging key to good recruitment. In today’s purpose-driven job market, if a new hire signs on for salary and perks but has to search to find meaning in the work they do, it won’t be long before that search for meaning will include other companies. But when someone is attracted from the start with a clear understanding of how the company makes a difference, and how they and the work they do fits within that difference, it builds an authentic sense of belonging and believing.

“That’s why you’re Deere”

Through a process of interviews and exploration exercises, we uncovered the commonalities of the tech divisions: a deep-seated purpose to sustain our planet, to get hands-on with tech and make real things that make a real difference. The Deere teams were collaborative, iterative and earnestly sought to help improve the lives of farmers, because doing so also helped the global populations who rely on their harvests. The reaches of their work were clear: their end users are not just farmers, but humanity.

This was their reason to believe, and became the core idea behind what “being Deere” is all about. The ideology and messaging of Tech@Deere centers on offering a different sort of career for a different kind of technologist: one who wants to make tech today that hits the ground tomorrow, and who enjoys real collaboration, especially if it means hopping in the cab of a tractor. This is what Deere technologists were doing behind the scenes every day, and we made it what a prospective applicant could expect from day one.

Dynamic opportunities, front and center

We brought the Tech@Deere brand to life with a new digital experience that purposefully defied what audiences might expect of a company founded in 1847. Traina created a custom, experiential microsite that gives potential employees the opportunity to “choose their own adventure” in a career at Deere.