Introducing the new Herdwatch brand
It is hard to believe 8 years have passed since our first brand identity was developed. At that time, a spreadsheet was passed around the office with suggested product names and logos, and the vote ended up with a clear winner, Herdwatch.
Since then, a lot has happened, and while we will always be very proud of our origins and first brand identity, we felt it no longer represented how far Herdwatch has come, and more importantly, how far we believe it can go. Therefore, the team are very proud to unveil a “brand new brand”, fit for the next chapter of the Herdwatch story.
To be clear, Herdwatch is not changing for the sake of it. In fact, we have made our name on constant innovation and evolution, so it is only natural that at some point this transfers to our visual identity. However, crucially, we will continue to spend most of our energy and resources on improving and innovating on our product, for farmers and for our members, by investing over half of our revenue in Research & Development.
So, why change at all? Here are some of the reasons we did it:
- To reflect and drive constant innovation for our members
- To guarantee a consistent Herdwatch experience no matter where in the world we operate
- To bring our product suite to farmers and industry around a common goal: simplifying farming.
- Innovation, Innovation, Innovation
Ever since our first app was released nearly 6 years ago, and the first members joined, we have been listening, and acting, on behalf of farmers, to make Herdwatch what it is today, and what it will be tomorrow. In fact, along with our new branding, we are also announcing the upcoming release of our next-generation Herdwatch App and Platform, codenamed “Version 6”. This project is a complete rewrite of the current platform, built to be faster, better, easier, and ready for the next wave of innovation – but we cannot say any more right now, just watch this space!
- A consistent visual identity
We have grown from a few part-time staff to over 25 full-time collaborators, and from a few dozen members to over 10,000, making us the leading farm management software provider in Ireland and the UK. Without divulging any secrets, we are going to scale and expand to other markets soon, and we needed a visual experience that could represent us throughout the world, backed by a platform and team that have a proven track record of delivering a world-class service in Ireland and the UK.
- Farmer and industry focus
Farmer-focus, and the digitisation of farming processes is in our DNA, and that is not about to change! However, the necessary technology and digital convergence in farming calls for an industry-wide approach, so we wanted to broaden our focus on the complete farming supply chain, from farm to fork, while keeping farmers at the very centre of it. In other words, our goal is to simplify not just on-farm but also off-farm processes.
The process of updating our visual identity
While re branding was a hard decision to make, it also felt like the right one, so we worked with great Irish design consultants at Red Dog, also responsible for the recent and extremely successful re-branding of our “cousins” at FRS Recruitment and FRS Network – And together, this is what we came up with:
At the same time, we worked internally as a Team on our value proposition, which took some weeks, and we eventually settled on what was a natural fit for Herdwatch, with this slogan: Simplifying Farming. Simplicity is the single, biggest reason why our members love Herdwatch, we know this because we have been listening and collecting feedback for the past 5 years. We really loved the word “simplifying” because it includes an element of movement, capturing our continuous drive to simpler ways of farming, and we felt that described our value proposition very well.
You will notice some changes from today. Currently, our website and blog are the biggest visual changes, but the Herdwatch app icon and logo have been updated too. Here is the new app icon in case you are looking for it on your phone, tablet or computer:
We hope all our existing and new members like our new brand identity, but more importantly, we hope they like what is coming soon with our new app and platform over the coming weeks and months!
This is just the beginning; our new visual identity will help guide us as we build new and better products and reach new milestones and markets, and continue to grow, for and with our farmer members.
Happy Herdwatch’in!
The Herdwatch Team
New to Herdwatch? Why not get started for FREE
The Free-Plan allows farmers to:
- Download their Herd from APHIS (NI), BCMS (UK) or Agfood (IRL)
- Record 10 calf registrations
- Record their medicine purchases
- Record Heat detection and general tasks
