Lantmännen is a textbook example of how a company can go from being known within its own silos to becoming one of Sweden's most respected sustainability brands. During the Nepa Breakfast Session, Mark Robinson, Director Group Brand & Marketing, and Andreas Befrits, Manager Brand Planning & Insight, opened the hood on the 2025 100-watt award winner.
"You're never really finished." – Mark Robinson, Lantmännen
What emerged wasn't the story of a single hit campaign – but of nearly 20 years of consistent work on one and the same brand platform.
1. The starting point: strong name – weak overall picture
In the mid-2000s, Lantmännen faced a challenge:
- The brand was well-known in certain parts of the country and within agriculture.
- But very few were aware that Lantmännen was a broad food industry player.
- The general public mostly saw an agricultural company, not a group with mills, bakeries, and strong consumer brands.
At the same time, several rising trends were identified:
- Increased focus on responsibility, origin, and sustainability
- Growing interest in the journey of food and the quality of raw ingredients
With operations across the entire chain from farm to fork, Lantmännen realized they were sitting on something unique – but that it wasn't visible to the outside world.
2. The bold decision: one shared Lantmännen everywhere
The solution came in the form of a number of strategic decisions:
- Unite all operations – mills, bakeries, machinery, etc. – under Lantmännen as a clear sender.
- Use Lantmännen as an endorser/guarantor on consumer brands such as:
- Kungsörnen
- AXA
- Start
- and others
- Invest in a long-term brand platform, where the promise "Från jord till bord" (From farm to fork) ties together the chain from farmers to the store shelf.
This was far from obvious. Many product brands had strong positions of their own, and there was internal concern that a group brand would:
- Take up too much space on packaging
- Create confusion in communications
- Be hard to coordinate across different business areas
But they chose to stay the course, and over time contribution studies have shown that awareness of Lantmännen as a sender contributes positively to virtually all important attributes for the product brands: quality, value for money, sustainability, and so on.
"Our strength has been that we've had the opportunity and the conditions to stay the course for a very, very long time." – Mark Robinson, Lantmännen
3. From "Jord till bord" to "Länge leve jorden" ("Farm to fork" to "Long live the earth")
The "Från Jord till Bord" (From farm to fork) platform has been stable, but Mark described how a few years ago they saw a need to evolve the expression:
- Consumers were placing higher demands on companies taking responsibility.
- The "foundation" in agriculture was well-liked but sometimes perceived as conservative.
- The brand partly lacked forward momentum, innovation, and modernity.
Instead of changing strategy, they landed on adding a new layer:
- "Länge leve jorden" (Long live the earth) – a concept that:
- Talks about why Lantmännen exists.
- Focuses on the future of agriculture and food supply.
- Holds everything together from TV ads to digital campaigns and PR initiatives.
"This feels new, but it's also very familiar and a natural step forward." – Mark Robinson, on the first execution of "Länge leve jorden"
What's important here is how the shift was made:
- Through iterations, not abrupt swings.
- Through systematic pre- and post-tests of new creative executions.
- By measuring impact over several years, not just campaign by campaign.
The result has been a sense that every new phase of "Länge leve jorden" feels both new and familiar – a natural step on the same journey, rather than a new chapter with a new protagonist.
4. A robust framework: how Lantmännen measures and steers over time
Behind the communication sits a clear framework where different types of measurements interlock across the year.
Some central building blocks:
- Continuous tracking
- Monthly and quarterly follow-up on brand strength, trust, and associations.
- Shows long-term trends – e.g., the "Trust over time" graph where each year and major campaign can be linked to shifts in the curve.
- Contribution studies
- Measure how Lantmännen as a sender contributes to the business and to the various product brands.
- Used in discussions with internal stakeholders about how much space Lantmännen should have in things like packaging design, campaigns, and storytelling.
- Campaign tests (pre/post)
- Pre-tests ahead of major new executions or concept shifts.
- Post-tests after launches, often in several waves (post 1, 2, 3) to see wear-in effects.
- MMM and other effect studies
- Link media investments to business results and help optimize budget over time.
All of this is placed within a two-year planning window, where they:
- Build the framework for measurement and follow-up.
- Plan major creative shifts well in advance.
- Use recurring internal reviews to adjust focus without losing the whole picture.
5. Long-term thinking + quality = a mandate to be bold
A common thread in Lantmännen's story is the combination of long-term thinking and quality:
- The concept and brand platform live for a long time, which makes it worth investing in high production quality.
- They accept that new creative steps sometimes lead to a short-term dip in certain metrics, but at the same time track how impact builds over 1–2 years.
- External validations like the 100-watt award, the Sustainable Brand Index, etc. are used as additional internal proof that the course is right.
Mark described it as a way to both:
- Create pride internally and among members, and
- Earn yourself a mandate in the boardroom to keep investing in what works.
6. What does it take to stand on the 100-watt stage again in 2026?
Looking ahead, Lantmännen sees themselves:
- Continuing to develop "Länge leve jorden" into a third phase.
- Doing multiple campaign measurements on the same campaign to track wear-in effects, not just the one-off effect of a launch.
- Sticking with the same brand platform while letting the expression evolve in step with the world around them.
The goal is that every new case:
- Should feel clearly anchored in Lantmännen's core, and
- Still take the brand one more step forward – both creatively and commercially.
"If you're going to win a 100-watt award, well, then it has to really land. It has to be the kind of thing where you're seriously nervous when you broadcast that film." – Johan Öhlin
7. Three principles from Lantmännen you can copy
- Build from the core – not from the next campaign idea. Start with questions like "Why do we exist?" and "What's our contribution?" and let the campaigns become chapters in the same story.
- Set up a measurement framework that spans at least two years. That way you'll see real brand impact, not just short-term campaign peaks.
- Dare to be consistent – and demand quality. A strong, enduring concept creates room to invest in good production. That gives more impact per krona over time and makes it easier to argue for brand budget in next year's planning.
Want to know more?
If you're curious about how Nepa can help you work more data-drivenly with brand, campaigns, and media investments – contact us.
Published on: 25TH MAY 2026