Roots Remastered

Corn is one of Canada’s most valuable crops. But corn rootworm—a pest dubbed “the billion-dollar bug”—was devastating crops across the country.

Bayer Crop Science offered SmartStax Pro—a product that keeps corn roots healthy. But since corn roots are below ground, farmers couldn’t see if the product was working.

So we decided to break through the noise of the heavily regulated agricultural market.

With “Roots Remastered,” a technological innovation, Bayer Crop Science helped farmers tune into crop health by converting corn roots into country roots music.

The corn roots electrical biorhythms were translated into binary code. We then amplified the data into an ambient algorithm. Audio engineers and singer-songwriters extrapolated pitch, key, and tempo from the tones and synthesized them into a six-track country roots concert album.

The album was streamed thousands of times across digital music platforms. Over 36,000 farmers attended our “Roots Remastered” live concert, and the album was broadcast on country music radio stations.

Truth Well Told: Music and data innovation helped to distinguish Bayer Crop Science in a category largely devoid of creativity. Thanks to “Roots Remastered,” Bayer achieved +20% increase in product demand, and SmartStax Pro became the #1 product launch for Bayer in five years. Despite corn farmers not being able to see healthy corn roots, they certainly heard them.