My digital edition of the new Successful Farming magazine just arrived today. I have not read it as of this post but the cover caught my eye. A story headline tease like “Smartphones put all the ag information you need in the palm of your hand” gets my attention, especially when the graphics above contain another phrase, “Hot new tool for your farm,” within iPhone icons!
I just scanned the story and it contains some good information including how farmers are using their smartphones with specific examples, recommended apps and more. Of course I would like to see the AgWired App in those recommendations but . . .
I use the Zinio app on my iPad to read digital magazines btw.
Successful Farming magazine has promoted Curt Blades to national sales manager. In his new role, he will oversee and lead all advertising sales initiatives and research activities for the Successful Farming brands, including Agriculture.com and the Successful Farming Machinery Show. He was previously the sales and marketing manager with Successful Farming.
“Curt has a proven track record of providing exceptional customer service and helping bring creative solutions to our marketing partners,” said Scott Mortimer, publisher of Successful Farming. “I am very pleased to announce his promotion and look forward to him leading all advertising efforts at Successful Farming.” Blades will also continue to oversee the research efforts of Successful Farming, and the new database venture SFMiD.
“We will continue to be the most customer-oriented advertising sales and marketing team in agriculture,” said Blades. “I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to serve our customers and internal team in this new position.”
As Chuck mentioned in a previous post, Curt started off his career in the agribusiness world as an intern with us at Brownfield Network – many, many moons ago. But, while we keep getting older, he still looks like that fresh-faced college kid to me!
This year marks the 38th anniversary of National Ag Day on March 15, an event which will be celebrated in classrooms and communities across the country as well as in the nation’s Capitol.
The Agriculture Council of America (ACA) has three major Washington DC events planned this year – Coffee with the Secretary, the Mix-and-Mingle Luncheon, and the National Celebration of Agriculture Dinner. John Deere will once again partner with ACA, as well as Successful Farming and DTN-The Progressive Farmer, to sponsor the DC events.
The events honor National Agriculture Week and mark a nationwide effort to tell the true story of American agriculture and remind citizens that agriculture is a part of all of us. A number of producers, agricultural associations, corporations, students and government organizations involved in agriculture are expected to participate.
In addition to public service announcements and other educational programs, ACA and partners will sponsor students to attend the Washington D.C. events. Representatives from FFA, 4H, AFA, the Consortium, and Student NAMA will visit with legislators, participate in a mix-and-mingle luncheon, and attend special events throughout the day.
The winners of the National Ag Day Essay Contest will also attend the events. High school students around the country have submitted written or video essays about the importance of agriculture with the theme “American Agriculture: Your Food. Your Farmer.” One winner in each category – written and video – will receive $1,000 and round-trip airfare to Washington, D.C., for recognition during the Celebration of Ag Dinner. The Ag Day Essay Contest is sponsored by CHS Inc., the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal, National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB), National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA), Country Living Association and McCormick Company.
What do consumers think about food? Betsy Freese, Living The Country Life, told AG CONNECT Expo attendees about the results of recent survey results from the Better Homes & Gardens magazine editors. They mainly focused on women readers and their food habits in the last two year.
Betsy says that between 2008 to 2010 they found that the economy had an impact but that they’re still interested in organic and locally grown food although their use of those foods hadn’t really increased during this time. The economy is probably the reason as they are making fewer trips to the grocery store. They also looked at what types of meat they were consuming and found that beef and pork were stable while chicken had declined very slightly. Fresh fruit and vegetable use went down also probably due to the economy. There was a whole part of the study on food safety. In the past two years food safety confidence was steady although it had declined in the time period before this survey. She says the local food movement seems to have hit a plateau in the last couple years. She says that there is a lot that farmers can take away from the study. She thinks it is very important that farmers don’t try so hard to segment what kind of farmer they are, as in organic vs. non-organic and try to work together more.
Successful Farming® and Farm Market iD have joined forces to create “SFMiD,” what they are calling “the most comprehensive agricultural and rural lifestyle database in the industry.” SFMid will offer a wide variety of options for multi‐sourced farm and rural lifestyle data, as well as customized solutions to help agrimarketers better understand owner/operator relationships, establish electronic communication data points, and know the farmer as an individual person.
That got our attention, so we called John Montandon, President of Farm Market iD, to find out more about what this new partnership has to offer. In this ZimmCast, John talks about how they are using the latest technology – both in communications and agriculture – to offer agrimarketers the most comprehensive information about their customers.
Successful Farming® magazine was announced the Media Industry News (min) b2b Wow Award-winner at the Integrated Marketing Awards ceremony in New York City amongst more than 300 top-level media executives. The Wow Award is presented to the most innovative integrated marketing campaign or idea.
“We hear a lot today about social media and social networking – users interacting with other users,” said Scott Mortimer, Publisher of Successful Farming. “In ‘All Around the Farm’, farmers have been sharing ideas for over 80 years. You might say it’s the great-grandfather of social media. It has continuously been a resource for our readers and is recognized as a favorite editorial feature in every issue.”
“All Around the Farm” began in 1929 as a forum in which farmers and ranchers could share problems and brainstorm solutions. While it first ran exclusively in the print version, the program has since expanded throughout the years into all of the brand’s formats. Besides being a regular feature in the monthly magazine, it has a presence on Agriculture.com, on the “Machinery Show” on RFD TV and is a popular book.
Former intern does good. That’s how I describe Curt Blades. Yes, Curt was an intern for me once upon a time. He was also my guide for my day at Successful Farming headquarters and this behind the scenes look at the new Agriculture.com. We toured the building so I could see the studios and the prop shops for the various publications and programs produced here by Meredith Corporation.
To wrap up my web remote from Agriculture.com Curt and I talked about what the newly designed website means to advertisers. All of us in the media know how important they are to our success and Successful Farming has some very interesting opportunities for advertisers now and in the future. Curt says they’ve not only included more traditional advertising options like leader boards but also some creative ideas that don’t make an advertiser rely on click through’s only. There are new units available so the messages can stand alone. Additionally, advertisers have an opportunity to own a section. There are also opportunities for sponsored news. Listen to my interview with Curt to hear how your company can take advantage of the new Agriculture.com. Curt Blades Interview
Jason says that in addition to current markets, weather, and news, the new mobile site will include some new features like:
* Ag Poll: Join in polls that will give you a snapshot of what’s happening with other farmers today.
* Photo Sharing: Share your photos from the field and help show the world what’s happening out on the land.
* Ag Reminder: Receive timely reminders of topics that will help you manage your farm business on a daily basis.
When it comes to markets Mike McGinnis is in a unique position, literally. He’s the only farm magazine/website reporter with a desk on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. This allows him to provide up to the minute information from traders and a video wrapup of the markets a couple of times each week on the new Agriculture.com. You’ll find him on the website where he’s known as Marketeye. Mike McGinnis Interview
When it comes to multimedia content on the new Agriculture.com you will find lots of it. Talk about media convergence! Successful Farming magazine not only has an online home but in the latest issue of the printed publication you’ll find video content! Yes, it’s true and I got away without taking a photo of it to share. I’m pretty sure I can get one though. Okay, let’s get back to the website. Jason Meeker is the manager of multimedia content. He says they’re now able to feature video on all of the various sections and pages. In fact, visitors will be able to add their own videos very soon. Right now they can upload their own photos and share them.
Jason says the new Agriculture.com is all about sharing content within and without of the community. He says they’re continuing to produce regular feature content like Machinery Pete. I had to look in envy at Jason’s Mac Pro which he uses to edit a lot of their video content. Jason’s also very involved in the Successful Farming Machinery Show on RFD-TV. Jason Meeker Interview
Continuing my behind the scenes look at the new Agriculture.com let’s meet Jeff Caldwell, Jeff helps manage the “community” that makes up the online home of Successful Farming magazine. One of the interesting things he’s found about the members of the community are how they get involved. As you might imagine if you think about it as a group of people sharing common interests and ideas, some are very active and some aren’t. According to Jeff the very active members make up about one percent of the total with almost twenty percent willing to do posts and comments. That leaves almost eighty percent who “lurk” which means they’re reading, watching and listening. I think this is very common to most online communities and why I don’t recommend measuring success of your online efforts just on how many people may comment on a blog for example. Unless you realize that the percentage of people doing so is very small.
Within the new Agriculture.com there continues to be a number of topical forums like the award winning Farmers for the Future targeted to young farmers. Jeff is the “hall monitor” for these forums which is very important. Successful Farming doesn’t just set up a forum for discussion and then walk away. Jeff monitors the conversation, contributes and even encourages participants.
Another way Jeff utilizes the information posted by community participants is for his own editorial purposes. By seeing what they are talking about he learns what’s important to them and that is a big help in determining the type of editorial content he should be focusing on with his own writing. All in all, I think you’ll find that Jeff and his team are very in tune with their audience by being part of the online family. Jeff Caldwell Interview
If you don’t have an iPad then just ask your Successful Farming and Agriculture.com representative to show you theirs. Here’s the team with their tablets all showing the new Agriculture.com.
I’m going to continue my coverage of the public launch of Agriculture.com tomorrow with several more behind the scenes interviews talking about the community, multi-media tools, markets and the mobile version. It’s time to head back to ZimmComm World Headquarters for this agriblogger. See you from there tomorrow.
John Walter is the Executive Editor of Agriculture.com but in reality he’s the philosopher for the home of Successful Farming online.
John is showing off his new iPad which he used to show me some of the new features on the website. John says there are three legs to the the website, the farmer, the publisher and the agrimarketer and they all interact on an equal basis. He calls it the Co-Active Network as shown by the graphic.
Anyone can create a “persona” on the site that then allows them to use the interactive tools for the purposes of activities like commenting or selling something via a classified ad. Farmers can even comment on the markets. I’m betting there will be some very interesting thoughts shared there! John Walter Interview
Meet the creative team for Agriculture.com. I walked in on a strategy and planning session with them. I’ll let them introduce themselves and tell you a little bit about the newly re-engineered Agriculture.com.
The first office I visited here at Meredith Corporation headquarters was that of Scott Mortimer (left). Visiting with us were my guide for the day, Curt Blades and Successful Farming Editor In Chief, Loren Kruse (right).
We had a conversation about why they rebuilt Agriculture.com, the online home of Successful Farming magazine. Scott says it had been about 6 years since a major change of this magnitude had been conducted and the current effort actually started 2 years ago. I agreed with Loren that content is still king and even though the new website is employing some interesting new technology, farmers and ranchers will still find the same level of agricultural news and information they’ve always expected from Successful Farming. Interview with Scott Mortimer and Loren Kruse
Yes, one website can promote another! Today AgWired is promoting Agriculture.com.
Of course a little screen shot is nice but you need to visit Agriculture.com and start clicking away to get the full effect. I’ll be doing it myself while talking with members of the design team today to learn what they’ve put together and why.
Please feel free to post your comments. What do you think? New and improved? Like it?
Successful Farming announces the new Agriculture.com. I’m at the headquarters in Des Moines and will be working throughout the day to bring you a behind the scenes look into the new website. Think of it as a live web remote that will features photos and interviews. We’ll learn what Successful Farming has done and why it’s important to farmers and advertisers.
My host is Curt Blades who is escorting me around the building to meet with different people who have worked on the philosophy and design of the new Agriculture.com. I’ll post interviews as they become available so don’t go away.
Yesterday was the anniversary of Agriculture.com. I did not know that until Curt Blades sent along this image of the site from way back then. I can remember the Netscape browser.
It’s hard to believe the #1 community for farmers launched a decade and a half ago. When we went live, only 46% of farms had computers.
Our first measurement of internet access among farmers was in 1997 – and it showed 13.1% of farmers with some sort of internet access.
To put things in perspective – here is an image of the site from 15 years ago (note the Netscape browser).
It looks a little different today in my Firefox browser!
While most of the seed decisions have come and gone for the 2010 growing season, farmers are always thinking about the next year and marketers are always thinking about how to encourage farmers to buy their seed. This year, Successful Farming (SF) conducted a seed study, (and they also do a Farmer Insight Study each year) one that they have done every two years for the past 12 years. This year, there was a pretty big surprise.
What wasn’t a surprise said Curt Blades, the Director for Sales and Marketing for SF, is that farmers continue to have a favorite seed company and this has remained consistent for the past six years. But what has changed is the loyalty to that seed company. SF’s research has shown that in the past, a farmer’s favorite seed company mirrored the farmer’s loyalty to that seed company. Yet this year’s research has shown that company loyalty has fallen sharply in the last three studies.
So what does this mean? “In the past six years there’s been some pretty phenomenal advancements in the technology and there have been some wide swings in the genetics some companies have had, explains Blades. “Also, in the same token, there have been some ownership changes and changes in the way seed has been brought to market.”
It will be interesting, continued Blades, to see how it all plays out.
Another interesting element of the Seed Study was that for the first time SF asked if the price of seed was justified and 40 percent said yes. This is good news for the seed companies said Blades.
To learn more about the Seed Study, listen to my interview with Curt below. Still want to learn more? Current SF advertisers have access to the study for free.
In this week's program Chuck talks with Mike Adams, AgriTalk.
Chuck and Mike often wind up at the same events all over the country so it seemed like a good idea to do a little AgriTalking about the changes they've seen in the ag media landscape.
My digital edition of the new Successful Farming magazine just arrived today. I have not read it as of this post but the cover caught my eye. A story headline tease like “Smartphones put all the ag information you need in the palm of your hand” gets my attention, especially when the graphics above contain another phrase, “Hot new tool for your farm,” within iPhone icons!
This year marks the 38th anniversary of 
What do consumers think about food? Betsy Freese, 
That got our attention, so we called John Montandon, President of Farm Market iD, to find out more about what this new partnership has to offer. In this ZimmCast, John talks about how they are using the latest technology – both in communications and agriculture – to offer agrimarketers the most comprehensive information about their customers. 
Successful Farming® magazine was announced the Media Industry News (min) b2b Wow Award-winner at the Integrated Marketing Awards ceremony in New York City amongst more than 300 top-level media executives. The Wow Award is presented to the most innovative integrated marketing campaign or idea.
The newest member to the 
When it comes to markets 
When it comes to multimedia content on the new 
Continuing my behind the scenes look at the new 
If you don’t have an iPad then just ask your Successful Farming and Agriculture.com representative to show you theirs. Here’s the team with their tablets all showing the new 
In this week's program Chuck talks with Mike Adams, AgriTalk.
