Vol 74. John Deere: Cultivating a Gen Z audience 🚜

Many legacy brands are using digital-native strategies to connect with younger audiences. We saw Stanley do this with user-generated content. Coke did it with their “Share a Coke” campaign. And we recently covered how Heinz did it with an AI experiment. 

Last year, John Deere dabbled in this arena by reviving the brand’s dormant social channel: TikTok. 

This week, Case Studied explores how John Deere boosted relevance and connection with Gen Z with a breakout social campaign.

_{Free Subscriber Perk}

Who has 20+ hour to interview agencies? We do!

2025 is shaping up to a very challenging year for marketers.So if trying to research and vet agency partners feels like a waste of time, we feel you.

That’s where we can help - Case Studied conducts agency searches on your behalf, for free (the agency pays us), so you can avoid the hours of researching and vetting agencies. You’ll receive:

• 10+ agency proposals handpicked for you

• Recommendations to agencies with case studies of brands like yours

• Access to the best performing agencies you WON’T find on Google

Chat with the Case Studied team, and you’ll receive a $100 Amazon gift card after we kickoff your initial agency search.

The Brief:

Founded in 1837, John Deere is synonymous with farming equipment, construction machinery, and its iconic green-and-yellow color scheme. While the brand has long enjoyed loyalty from older and rural customers, that wasn’t the case with new generations. Research in 2024 revealed the brand had low affinity with Gen Z and millennials. 

To build awareness and consideration among this younger audience, John Deere turned to Gen Z’s favorite, TikTok. The brand historically had minimal presence on the platform so they set out to bring on a creator that could serve as the voice of the brand and connect young social media users.

The Execution:

John Deere partnered with The Goat Agency to launch the Chief Tractor Officer campaign. The idea was to recruit a CTO who would serve as “the face of John Deere’s social media.”

John Deere partnered with NFL quarterback Brock Purdy to announce the opportunity on TikTok as well as in an interview on The Pat McAfee Show. The video featured Purdy’s teammate, Colton McKivitz, explaining the opportunity and putting out a call to action for candidates to apply. 

Other notable influencers and athletes were shown in the video calling Purdy’s phone to ask for the job—including NBA player Tyrese Halliburton, Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas, tennis player (and Purdy look alike) Anna Frey, Corporate Natalie, and Tariq the Corn Kid. In its 185-year history, this marked the first time John Deere partnered with celebrities ever. 

To apply, folks had to create a video and submit it to JohnDeereCTO.com, then share it on social, and tag the brand. The role was advertised as a year-long position with a salary of $200,000. 

After receiving hundreds of video applications from 40 states, The Goat Agency helped vet the applicants and an internal committee narrowed down the applicant pool until one candidate was chosen: Rex Curtiss. 

Curtiss was a recent graduate from the University of Washington who majored in environmental sciences. His parents were fourth-generation farmers, and Curtiss himself had 122,000 followers on TikTok when he was hired. To get the job, sang a song in his application video outlining his skills and his passion for the John Deere brand. 

@rextrocreative

@John Deere let’s plow a bigger picture together! As Chief Tractor Officer, I will inspire this generation. #CTO #johndeere #johndeerecto

“[Curtiss] clearly understood the assignment and how we were trying to connect an audience closer to his age [Gen Z] with all the ways Deere’s customers and the products we make impact all of our lives,” said Jen Hartmann, John Deere’s global director of strategic PR and enterprise social media. “He did it in such a creative way.” 

To announce that he’d gotten the job, John Deere posted a TikTok featuring Brock Purdy calling Curtiss in a draft-style video. 

@johndeere

Here's the moment you've been waiting for... say hello to our first-ever Chief Tractor Officer, @Rex Curtiss!

Since he was hired, Curtiss has showcased his journey in the role, doing things like:

• meeting 8-year-old TikTok influencer Jackson Laux for lessons on all things tractors 

• taking a trip to Vermont to learn how maple syrup gets made explaining how AI is used in autonomous John Deere equipment

The Results:

The announcement about Curtiss getting the CTO job racked up 1.6 million organic views on TikTok. The video featuring Laux, which was Curtiss’s third TikTok for the brand, went viral with 36 million organic views. Another one with Laux got 23 million views. 

Within two months, John Deere’s TikTok went from 73,000 to 366,000 followers. Soon after that, it surpassed 500,000 follower mark. The campaign also saw earned media coverage from outlets like PRWeekly, AgDaily, and Adweek.

Key Takeaways:

1) Legacy brands can win with creator-led storytelling

John Deere’s success hinged on finding a Gen Z creator who could translate brand values through a voice that felt authentic to younger audiences. Rather than simply advertising to Gen Z, they invited a Gen Z representative into the brand. Rex Curtiss wasn’t a polished celebrity endorsement—he was a TikTok-native with farming roots and content chops. His journey became the brand’s journey, creating a narrative arc that followers could engage with over time.

As a marketer, consider tapping into creator-led storytelling by giving creators a starring role in your brand’s social presence—not just a brief cameo. Look for emerging talent with an organic connection to your brand’s ethos. Instead of assigning them a script, empower them with a mission. Let them bring your brand to life through their lens, and let the audience grow with them.

2) Platforms matter—but tone matters more

John Deere’s foray into TikTok worked because they respected the platform’s cultural norms. From the playful “Chief Tractor Officer” title to the draft-style announcement video and the use of familiar TikTok humor, every moment felt native to the app. The brand didn’t repurpose polished ad content—they built moments designed for the feed. And they didn’t try to explain their product—they made it part of a larger, ongoing narrative.

Marketers often rush to be on TikTok without mastering its tone. Before launching a campaign, immerse your team in the platform’s culture. Develop ideas that earn attention by being funny, weird, educational—or all three. Build content that’s designed to live in someone’s “For You Page,” not just a media plan. Speak with the audience, not at them.

3) A smart campaign earns exponential reach

What started as a creator search turned into a cultural moment. By involving athletes, influencers, and an application process that played out publicly, John Deere built a campaign with social sharing baked in. The journey—from the Brock Purdy announcement to the influencer cameos to the viral kid collab—was engineered to drive conversation and media pickup. Importantly, all of this was organic. And the follower growth? 500% in two months.

Think about campaigns not as one-off moments, but as multi-act stories with lots of shareable hooks. Build opportunities for your audience to co-create or apply. Partner with creators who already have momentum—and give them reasons to talk about you beyond the initial post. When campaigns are designed to travel, they don’t just reach—they resonate.

Find your fit: Whether you’re hiring a new social media manager or launching your next big campaign, Vendry helps you find the right agency partner fast. Just tell them what you’re looking for and they’ll match you with top contenders at no cost.