ADM Futures of Food

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Project Summary

ADM, a global leader in the agribusiness sector, was looking for ways to showcase their research and development in low-carbon impact food science. ADM's Marketing & Communications Team partnered with Near Future Laboratory to conduct a comprehensive interview series with their Chief Scientists and a team of food science experts so as to imagine ways to translate their analytic work into some forms that would be grounded, legible, and relatable to the general public.

Client:

Team: Near Future Laboratory

Project Year: 2022

Project Dates:

1/10/2022 - 5/10/2022

Published On: Aug 12, 2022, 14:12

Updated On: Oct 3, 2023, 10:57

Written By: Julian Bleecker

adm-futures-of-food

Project Semantic Tags ARTIFACTSARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCEFOODFUTURE OF XMARKETINGPROTOTYPE

The Project

ADM's Marketing & Communications team commissioned Near Future Laboratory to conduct a series of interviews with their Chief Scientists and their temas of food science experts to represent their work on future food processes and primary ingredients and the implications of global needs and constraints using Design Fiction.
The overall objective was to develop reputational awareness, and develop several concepts for activations and communications programs, including: A series of possible storyboards for print and video communications; prototype food packaging designs; concept products that were proposed for actual short-run development to be used for communicating to internal stakeholders (food from the future); store signage to be used at a proposed OmegaMart-like 'pop-up' location; vending machine designs proposed for manufacturing & development for use at trade events; future food product packaging and descriptions to be used for 'haul video' style influencer presentations.

The Outcomes

This collaboration aimed to highlight ADM's efforts in pioneering future food processes and ingredients through the lens of Design Fiction.
ADM's Chief Scientists and team members sensed the value of this approach to making their often terse and highly analytic work tangible and relatable, elevating their own abilities to communicate their important research to a wider, more general audience.
Additionally, ADM Marketing & Communications was able to help communicate ADM's R&D thought-leadership and reflect the important science of low-carbon impact ingredients manufacturing, processing and logistics that they were working on in order to position themselves as forward-thinking and environmental sustainability oriented.

With research and development in food science what are ways ADM can contribute to providing healthful, nutrient-rich food. What might the future of food look and taste like? We created concepted a line of biscuits from the future that represented ADM's work on food science, alternative ingredients with low carbon impact on the entire food harvesting, processing, and distribution chain. — Biscuits from an ADM Food Fuutre

The Brief

ADM and their communications partner Edelman approached Near Future Laboratory to help them explore opportunities to develop assets that could contribute to a reputational awareness campaign.

The Process

Near Future Laboratory proposed focusing on the R&D work that was being conducted within the R&D and Food Science laboratories at AMD. We develp a series of Design Fiction workshops with their Chief Scientist and research leads to travel into possible futures in which their primary research was now implicated in the consumer food marketplace through various products we might see in the future, and how these products might be represented in quotidian archetypes. Besides the ‘science’ of future food ingredients, what might the implications of their research look like in normal, ordinary, everyday terms. How would the products be represented in advertising? What characteristics of the food science would be explicated in packaging design, and how? What benefits to health and wellness would need to be translated in such a way as to communicate to the marketplace?

This led to providing a wide range of contexts by which the analytic characteristics of the food science could be represented in a compelling, consumer-first form and the kinds of stories that could be told that would generate reputational value to ADM.

Deliverables

We developed a series of possible storyboards for print and video communications, prototype food packaging designs, concept products that were proposed for actual short-run development to be used for communicating to internal stakeholders (‘food from the future’), store signage to be used at a proposed ‘pop-up’ location, vending machine designs proposed for manufacturing & development for use at trade events, future food product packaging and descriptions to be used for ‘haul video’ style influencer presentations.

Vending machine from the future concepts — King Vend-o-Verse 3200 MkIV UX

The Artifact

Several artifacts were concepted for development for a variety of potential communications channels. The Machine — a conceptual vending machine that formulates food & beverages based on personal specifications defined by characteristics such as ‘Recharge’, ‘Ride’, ‘Calm’, ‘Imagination’, ‘Savory’, ‘Intuition’, ‘Get Well’, ‘Resolve’, ‘Wind Down’. Additionally, by integrating personal data analytics, machines would forumlate based on additional parameters based on health and wellness needs.

ADM and Edelman settled on this concept and integrated it into a series of video-based media campaigns in the fall of 2022.

Vending Machine Concept Rendering — Future food concept vending machine for development and installation.

Want to learn more? Curious how we work? Feel like your organization could use a bit more Imagination to help make sense of the dynamic character of a kinetic marketplace?
Use the Contact Form below to discuss how you can engage Near Future Laboratory to help you make sense of your organization's possible futures.