Background
John Deere was founded in 1837 and has grown into the world’s largest manufacturer of agricultural equipment.[1] The company’s longevity and market leadership are not the product of equipment quality alone. Over nearly two centuries, Deere has also built one of the most deliberate and integrated media strategies in agribusiness, one that spans all four pillars of the PESO model simultaneously.
What makes John Deere a useful case study for agribusiness marketers is not its budget. It is the way the four media types connect and reinforce each other. A live field day demonstration generates independent press coverage. That coverage travels across social platforms. The story then lives permanently on owned channels such as the company website and YouTube channel. Each investment extends the value of the others.
This case study draws on primary sources including John Deere’s own newsroom and official publications, as well as verified reporting from agricultural trade press and marketing industry outlets. Any figure that could not be confirmed through a primary or credible secondary source has been omitted or clearly labeled as unverified.
Read more about the PESO model and the different media types.
Earned Media: Credibility Built in the Field
Earned media is the coverage, recognition, and word-of-mouth a brand receives without paying for the placement. For John Deere, earned media flows from a consistent record of verifiable innovation and a strategy of putting real results in front of journalists, agronomists, and farming communities where they can see them directly.
Key Examples
- Autonomous 8R Tractor Launch: John Deere announced the commercial availability of its fully autonomous 8R tractor in 2022 and continued expanding the program through 2024. The launch generated significant press coverage across agricultural trade media, mainstream business outlets, and technology publications, extending the story to audiences that paid placements alone could not have reached.
- Farm Progress Show: Deere participates as a major exhibitor at the Farm Progress Show, the largest outdoor farm show in the United States. Live equipment demonstrations at events like this generate independent press coverage and farmer word-of-mouth that the brand does not pay for directly. This is a clear example of earned media that grows from a paid presence at an industry event.
- Creator and Agronomist Partnerships: Deere works with farming content creators and credentialed agronomists on social platforms to generate third-party endorsement. According to industry reporting, this approach was central to the Chief Tractor Officer campaign strategy. When an independent voice recommends a product or technology, it carries weight that a brand’s own content does not.
The Lesson for Agribusiness Marketers
Deere earns press not by pitching products but by doing things worth writing about and then making it easy for journalists, extension agents, and agronomists to witness those results firsthand. Any agribusiness brand can use this approach by hosting field days, sharing yield trial data publicly, and building relationships with trade reporters before a product launch rather than at the moment of one.
Paid Media: Reach When It Matters Most
Paid media gives John Deere control over timing, audience, and message. Rather than waiting for organic discovery or press pickup, paid channels allow Deere to reach farmers and buyers at specific moments in the agricultural decision-making cycle.
Key Examples
- Trade Publication Advertising: Deere advertises consistently across major agricultural trade publications, maintaining visibility in the environments where farmers and ag professionals actively seek product information and industry news.
- Farm Progress Show Sponsorships: Paid sponsorships and exhibit space at major industry events such as the Farm Progress Show place Deere at the center of farmer attention during periods of high purchase intent.
- Digital and Broadcast Advertising: Deere runs paid placements across YouTube, digital display networks, and broadcast television. iSpot.tv, which tracks national TV advertising, documents an active and ongoing broadcast advertising presence for the brand across multiple product categories. The breadth of these placements reflects an understanding that farmers consume media well beyond dedicated agricultural channels.
- The Run Autonomous Campaign (2024): Following the commercial launch of the autonomous 8R, Deere ran a paid campaign using real farmer testimonials to shift buyer perception from skepticism to confidence in autonomous farming technology.
The Lesson for Agribusiness Marketers
Paid media earns the strongest return when it is timed to match how farmers actually make decisions. Pre-plant and pre-harvest windows are the highest-intent periods in the agricultural calendar. Concentrating spend there, then measuring cost per lead rather than cost per click, is the discipline that separates effective paid media from wasted spend.
Owned Media: A Foundation Built Over 130 Years
Owned media is every channel a brand fully controls. John Deere’s owned media operation goes far deeper than a website and an email list. The company has spent more than a century building media assets that it controls outright and that continue delivering audience value regardless of what any third-party platform decides.
Key Examples
- The Furrow Magazine (1895 to Present): John Deere launched The Furrow in 1895 as what it described as a journal for the American farmer. Today the magazine reaches more than 550,000 readers across North America and approximately 2 million readers globally, distributed across more than 100 countries in 14 languages. John Deere’s own readership research found that 40 percent of readers read every word of every issue, including the advertisements, generating an estimated 25 million impressions per year in North America alone. The editorial approach is intentional: the magazine almost never mentions John Deere products in its editorial pages. The content is about farming, not about selling equipment. That distinction is widely credited as the reason for its durability.
- Official Website and Newsroom: John Deere’s website at deere.com serves as the primary owned hub for product information, dealer connections, customer support, and corporate communications including press releases about product launches and company milestones.
- YouTube Channel: The John Deere YouTube channel publishes consistent content across product demonstrations, how-to guides, and technology explainers. The channel has built a substantial subscriber base and serves as a permanent archive of owned video content that continues attracting views over time.
- Specialty Publications: Beyond The Furrow, Deere operates The Dirt for construction audiences and The Landing for forestry operators, each following the same education-first editorial model. This signals a content strategy built around segment-specific relevance rather than a single broadcast approach.
The Lesson for Agribusiness Marketers
The Furrow’s 130-year run is the clearest argument for owned media investment that the agribusiness industry has ever produced. A publication that educates readers rather than advertising to them built more durable brand loyalty than any campaign could. Agribusiness marketers at any scale can apply the same principle: produce content that helps farmers do their jobs better, publish it consistently, and own the distribution relationship rather than renting it from a platform.
Shared Media: Making a Legacy Brand Feel Accessible
Shared media refers to content that lives on platforms a brand does not own but where it can actively participate. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and TikTok are the primary shared media channels in agribusiness today. The defining characteristic of shared media is that the audience participates in shaping how a brand’s message travels.
Key Examples
- The Chief Tractor Officer Campaign (2024): In April 2024, John Deere announced it was hiring a Chief Tractor Officer, a one-year paid position to serve as the face of the company’s new TikTok channel. After receiving applications from hundreds of candidates across 40 states, Deere appointed Rex Curtiss, a recent environmental studies graduate and social media content creator, to the role in June 2024. The position carried a salary of approximately $200,000 for a one-year contract.
- TikTok Growth: The John Deere TikTok account grew from 73,000 to more than 366,000 followers within two months of the Chief Tractor Officer campaign launch and crossed 500,000 followers within three months. By the end of the first year, the account had reached approximately 700,000 followers and surpassed 100 million total video views. The campaign received a Silver Honor at the 17th Annual Shorty Awards in the Brand Awareness Campaign category.
- Content Strategy: The approach on TikTok deliberately avoided polished corporate advertising. Content focused on authentic depictions of farm life, behind-the-scenes access, and the personality of the Chief Tractor Officer rather than product promotion. According to John Deere Global Director of Strategic Public Relations Jen Hartmann, the goal was content that would ‘first and foremost celebrate our customers and all they do to impact each of our lives.’
- Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn: Deere maintains active profiles across all major platforms. Facebook remains the dominant social network for reaching established farming communities in rural America, while LinkedIn serves B2B relationships with dealers, distributors, and agricultural buyers. Instagram carries the visual storytelling of equipment in use, harvest scenes, and field-level content.
The Lesson for Agribusiness Marketers
The Chief Tractor Officer campaign demonstrates that authenticity is a strategy, not an accident. Deere made a deliberate decision to put a non-farmer with a creative background in front of the camera because they understood the TikTok audience responds to people, not brands. Any agribusiness marketer can apply this by featuring real farmers, real results, and real personalities in social content rather than scripted corporate messaging.
John Deere PESO Model at a Glance
The table below summarizes each PESO pillar as it applies to John Deere, what it achieves, and the practical takeaway for other agribusiness marketers.
| Media Type | John Deere Example | What It Achieves | Trust Level | Lesson for Marketers |
| Earned | Autonomous 8R tractor press launch; Farm Progress Show demonstrations; agronomist and creator partnerships | Third-party credibility that no advertising budget can manufacture | Very High | Do things worth covering. Make it easy for journalists to see your results firsthand. |
| Paid | Trade publication advertising; Farm Progress Show sponsorships; broadcast and digital placements | Controlled reach timed to peak buying moments | Moderate | Concentrate spend around high-intent windows. Measure cost per lead, not impressions. |
| Owned | The Furrow magazine (since 1895, 550,000+ North American readers); deere.com; YouTube channel | Direct audience relationships no platform change can disrupt | Moderate-High | Build your email list and produce content that educates rather than sells. |
| Shared | TikTok: 700,000 followers and 100 million views in year one; Chief Tractor Officer campaign; creator partnerships | Presence and personality with audiences not yet reached through other channels | Variable | Authenticity and consistency outperform production budgets on social platforms. |
What This Means for Your Brand
John Deere’s media strategy works because each pillar reinforces the others and no single channel carries all of the weight. The Furrow builds trust with an existing farming audience over decades. Paid advertising reaches new buyers at the right moment in the buying cycle. The autonomous tractor launch earns press that no budget could have purchased. The Chief Tractor Officer campaign gives a nearly 190-year-old company a human face on a platform built for the next generation of farmers.
That is the PESO model functioning as it should. The architecture is replicable at any budget and any scale. The difference between John Deere and a smaller agribusiness brand is not the approach. It is time and consistency. Every element of Deere’s media strength today was built by showing up in all four pillars, year after year, and letting the compounding effect do the work.
Cited Sources
All specific facts and figures used in this case study are cited below. Sources are listed in the order they appear in the document. Any claim that could not be verified from a primary or credible secondary source was removed from this document rather than included without proper attribution.
[1] Deere and Company. Official corporate website and newsroom. Retrieved from deere.com. Primary source for company history, founding date, product information, and press releases.
[2] Deere and Company. (2022). John Deere Introduces the Most Autonomous Lineup of Equipment in Its History. Press release. Retrieved from deere.com/en/news. Primary source for autonomous 8R tractor announcement and commercial availability.
[3] NetInfluencer. (June 2025). From Farm to Feed: John Deere’s Digital Storytelling Strategy Amasses 100M Views, 700K Followers in One Year. Retrieved from netinfluencer.com. Reports on Deere’s creator partnership strategy including collaboration with content creator David Cogen.
[4] iSpot.tv. John Deere TV Commercials. Retrieved from ispot.tv/brands/john-deere. Third-party TV advertising tracking platform documenting Deere’s ongoing broadcast advertising activity.
[5] PortersFiveForce.com. (2025). What is the Sales and Marketing Strategy of Deere Company? Retrieved from portersfiveforce.com. Note: This is a third-party marketing analysis site, not a primary Deere source. Referenced only for context on the Run Autonomous campaign objective. No specific performance figures from this source have been included in this document.
[6] Deere and Company. The Furrow Magazine. Retrieved from deere.com/en/publications/the-furrow. Primary source confirming the publication’s founding year and editorial mission.
[7] The Drum. (2018). John Deere, the OG content marketer, on how its 123-year-old magazine endures. Retrieved from thedrum.com. Cites David Jones, John Deere publications manager, for North American readership figures and editorial independence policy. Global distribution figures of more than 100 countries in 14 languages cited from Print Power (printpower.eu).
[8] Print Power. John Deere: Content Marketing Master. Retrieved from printpower.eu. Reports John Deere’s own readership survey finding that 40 percent of readers read every word of every issue, generating approximately 25 million impressions per year in North America.
[9] Deere and Company. (April 2024). John Deere is Hiring a Chief Tractor Officer. Press release. Retrieved from deere.com/en/news. Primary source for the Chief Tractor Officer position announcement and application details.
[10] Deere and Company. (June 2024). John Deere Reveals First-Ever Chief Tractor Officer. Press release. Retrieved from deere.com/en/news. Primary source for appointment of Rex Curtiss, including quote from Jen Hartmann, Global Director of Strategic Public Relations and Enterprise Social Media.
[11] Agriculture Dive. (June 2024). Deere names TikTok influencer first Chief Tractor Officer. Retrieved from agriculturedive.com. Reports salary of approximately $200,000 for the one-year contract position.
[12] Shorty Awards. (2025). The John Deere Chief Tractor Officer. 17th Annual Shorty Awards submission. Retrieved from shortyawards.com. Documents follower growth from 73,000 to 366,000 within two months and past 500,000 within three months.
[13] NetInfluencer. (June 2025). From Farm to Feed: John Deere’s Digital Storytelling Strategy Amasses 100M Views, 700K Followers in One Year. Retrieved from netinfluencer.com. Reports 700,000 followers and 100 million views at end of year one. Also notes Silver Honor at 17th Annual Shorty Awards.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the PESO model and why is it relevant to agribusiness?
PESO stands for Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned media. It is a framework developed by communications strategist Gini Dietrich that helps marketers plan how the different types of media they use work together rather than in isolation. In agribusiness, the PESO model is particularly relevant because trust is the foundation of most buying decisions in agriculture, and trust is built across multiple channels over time. No single media type builds a complete picture on its own.
What does John Deere’s Chief Tractor Officer actually do?
Rex Curtiss was appointed as John Deere’s first-ever Chief Tractor Officer in June 2024 after a nationwide search. His role is to create authentic social media content, primarily for John Deere’s TikTok channel, that reflects the farming lifestyle and introduces younger audiences to the brand. Curtiss is not a traditional marketer. He is a content creator whose appeal to Gen Z and millennial audiences was the primary reason for his selection. The position was a one-year contract at a salary of approximately $200,000.
How long has The Furrow been published and is it still active?
The Furrow was first published in 1895, making it one of the longest-running branded publications in any industry. It is still actively published today and reaches more than 550,000 readers across North America and approximately 2 million readers globally across more than 100 countries and 14 languages. John Deere’s own research indicates that 40 percent of readers read every word of every issue. The publication is notable because it almost never mentions John Deere products directly in its editorial pages. The content is about farming, not about selling equipment.
Can a smaller agribusiness brand realistically apply the same PESO approach as John Deere?
Yes, though the scale will be different. The PESO model is a framework, not a budget requirement. A smaller agribusiness brand might start by building one owned media asset well, such as a monthly email newsletter with genuinely useful agronomic content. Over time that newsletter becomes the foundation for earned coverage when the content is cited by a trade journalist, for paid amplification when a new product is ready to launch, and for shared media when readers forward it to other farmers. John Deere’s version of this approach took more than a century to build. The underlying strategy is available to any brand willing to start and stay consistent.
How did John Deere grow its TikTok following so quickly?
The growth came from a combination of strategic investment and authentic content. John Deere created the Chief Tractor Officer role specifically to avoid producing corporate-feeling content on a platform that rewards personality and authenticity. Curtiss’s third TikTok video alone reached 36 million organic views, and a subsequent video reached 23 million views, according to the Shorty Awards campaign submission. The account grew from 73,000 to more than 366,000 followers within two months of launch. The content worked because it featured a real person with genuine enthusiasm for the subject matter rather than scripted advertising.
Why is earned media considered the highest-trust form of media in agribusiness?
Earned media carries higher trust because it comes from sources the audience perceives as independent. When a university extension agent recommends a product at a field day, or when a trade journalist writes about a technology breakthrough, the audience knows that recommendation was not paid for by the brand. Farmers in particular are skeptical of advertising and place heavy weight on peer recommendations, agronomist endorsements, and independent test results. This makes earned media not just valuable in agribusiness but often the deciding factor in a purchasing decision.
Agribusiness Marketing Insights | John Deere PESO Case Study | 2026
