Work / Aptus
Aptus · Plant nutrition
The best product in its market, behind a brand that hid it.
400%rise in sales in the first month after the relaunch
Strong product, weak market perception. A respected Dutch nutrient range, sold only through trade, behind an identity that had gone tired.
Repositioning, identity, packaging, photography and a Shopify store, so the range could sell direct to growers.
Sales up 400% in the first month, with the store live in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada.
Before and after
Aptus made the finest product in its category and looked like it had not been touched in a decade. The new identity keeps the strength of the old mark and gives it colour, order and a system that works from a bottle cap to a billboard.
From trade to direct
The Aptus team ran the business. I led the rebrand and built the store. Together we saw the chance to move from selling only through distributors to selling direct. I designed the store in Figma, built it on Shopify, and carried the new brand through every page, post and piece of print. It now sells in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada, and paid social runs from a modular ad system, so a new ad is assembled from approved parts instead of designed from scratch.
Bottles built in 3D for the US launch
Launching in the United States meant a steady run of ads on social and digital, and a photo shoot for every one was never going to keep up. So we had the whole bottle range modelled in 3D. I briefed and art directed it, and a 3D artist built the models.
Once the bottles existed in 3D they could spin, pour and turn on cue, and the same renders now feed the US launch ads, the online store and print.
One product, one simple explainer
Growers want to know what a product does and how much to use, without a chemistry lesson. So each product in the range got its own short video, made for the website and social, that explains its use and function in the simplest terms possible.
I organised the series and set its tone and feel, cast the presenter, helped shape the scripts, and directed the 3D bottle animation that opens and closes each one. Dosage guides appear on screen as he speaks, so the numbers are there when they matter.
The Fasilitor explainer, one of the series made for each product in the range.
Brochures and product guides
Fertiliser is a technical buy, so the brochures had to do two jobs: sell the range on the shelf and teach growers how to use it. Each feed program got its own colour, blue for the Clean Program and green for the Premium Program, and each product guide picks up its label colour, like the yellow for Peakboost.
Dosage tables, substrate notes and tips from the field are laid out to be scanned, not read. The same guides sit in store for retailers, go home with growers, and download from the website.
Print that carries the range
The same system runs into trade print. One ad sells the whole Clean Program with a grower's own words; the other puts a single product, Fasilitor, front and centre with a limited time offer. Both use the orange bottles, the dark hexagon labels and the block wordmark, so they read as Aptus before anyone reads a word.
“From our initial engagement, Fusion Media showcased an unmatched understanding of our brand’s needs. They seamlessly transformed Aptus from a fading image into a vibrant market contender. The feedback post rebranding has been exceptional.”
Mike, owner, Aptus Bio Science