Formahoof Shaping the future of hoof care

Formahoof is a company that’s been a decade in the making. Co-founded by farrier and inventor, Robert Stevenson, whose passion for equine rehabilitation led to the creation of a revolutionary range of hoof care products. His pursuit for treating common equine hoof conditions, some which can be fatal, encouraged him to collaborate with a 3D printing company to develop the range of products whilst he was working as a farrier in the UAE.

The way the product works is that the hoof of the horse is placed into a specially sized mould and liquid thermo-setting advanced polymer is injected into it. The liquid encapsulates around the hoof and sets solid in 2 minutes providing the horse the support it needs. From a health and kindness point of view, it’s much safer and more comfortable than traditional horse shoeing methods and keeps the hooves in better condition because it mimics the natural hoof function, whereas the metal shoe doesn’t, giving the horse a better chance of rehabilitation.

Now the company has become more established in the equine healthcare marketplace and the products are gaining good traction in quite a few territories around the world, Formahoof needed a brand to help them further grow the business in newer regions like the UK.

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The idea

The Blacksmith tradition has been around for thousands of years, with the practice of replacing horse shoes being pretty much the same as it ever has been, apart from some improvements to products, tools and techniques over the years. Formahoof are not aiming to replace horseshoes altogether with their new product, but they do want to encourage Farriers to adopt a different approach when treating hoof ailments.

With that it mind, we wanted to give the brand a distinctive style that can resonate more with the target audience. We created a hand drawn brand identity that communicates the fluid nature of the product. We kept the colour palette quite bold and earthy, taking our cues from the different colours of horses coats, with a base colour of black on white to fit in with the ironmongery tradition. A bold typeface was also chosen to be more impactful and photography was art directed to bring warmth to the brand. Overall, we’ve purposely avoided the brand looking too high tech to give the product greater chance of being adopted.

The delivery

The main strategy was to engage with farriers based in the UK as they’re pretty much front line with the horses. We also wanted to focus on vets, from a medical side, and horse owners, from an emotive side, as they’re key to recommending the product to a farrier when equine health issues arise.

The message is simple, the product is disruptive, so we created an impactful campaign based around Formahoof being ‘The Hoof Care Revolution’ and we wanted farriers, vets and horse owners to be a part of it. Our early research revealed that people are more likely to purchase the products once they’ve seen a demonstration. This led to setting up a series of events around the country where the farriers could see the product first hand and be encouraged to have a go at applying it as well as learning more about the key benefits.

Location photography with horse and horse owner at stables

Farrier with horse at stables - Formahoof - hoof care is in safe hands

The result

In terms of brand touch points, we designed and built a corporate website that houses all the information about the company, the product range, equine health issues and has areas of important resource available to the customers. We also created a separate shop website which has the full range of products and kits, including sizing options to help with purchasing the correct moulds for your horse.

Our targeted campaign is currently engaging with farriers to encourage them to sign up to regional demonstration events and to find out more about the new product range, along with our PR strategy that’s raising brand awareness. We’ve also produced branded collateral for each of the live events, which will also be broadcasted on social media at the same time.