Nichols Tillage Tools / Brand Refresh / Advertising

Nichols is the maker of Tillage Tools, and they have a decent chunk of the farm tool market, but the sod industry is truly a niche market in which they hadn’t been very visible, from a marketing standpoint, for years.

Nichols thought it was time to do something about this, so they called us and asked if we would be interested in helping them reestablish their presence in this market. How could we refuse the challenge?

First, we set out to learn as much as possible about the sod industry and its end-users. Believe it or not, there was lots to be learned about sod and how our client’s blade made a sod cutter’s job easier.

The Nichols sod blade is specially forged and designed to stay sharper longer. This reduces damage to the sod strips as they are cut and minimizes the need to change out the blade—two great benefits worth telling the sod guys about.

To get the word out, we landed on a pretty unusual concept, especially for this category, which mostly consisted of ads featuring sod-cutting machines and pallets of sod rolls. With our ad, we took things in a different direction, one that illustrated the benefits of a sharp sod blade by drawing a parallel with something every guy can relate to, shaving.

Result: Our strategy is working. The sod market is noticing. Inquiries into their blades and visits to their site have increased considerably.