Successful Farming Has Customer Insight

Chuck Zimmerman

Successful Farming TeamAgricultural media and marketing is a team sport. Here is the Successful Farming team in the Agri-Marketing Conference Connection Point. Believe me when I say it’s not easy getting them all together and I know we were still missing a few. I’ll let you guess who. These folks are constantly on the go.

One of the team members I spoke with during the conference was Scott Mortimer, Publisher, Successful Farming. He is included in the photo. Successful Farming partnered with us again this year to provide coverage of the event.

I asked Scott what their support of NAMA means to them. He says it is very important to the future of the industry and they contribute more than just dollars but staff support as well. He says it this way, “We not only support NAMA with our pocketbook but our people.”

In light of the changes in communications technology Scott says the company continues to work on customer insight to understand what the needs of their readers and agribusiness partners are and then developing solutions around that. They do this via market research which really helps drive their business. This includes multiple Successful Farming Market Research Panels. They have new research available now which you can obtain by contacting them.

You can listen to my interview with Scott below.

2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference
is sponsored by: Successful Farming. They know.

Audio, NAMA

AGCO Blog

Chuck Zimmerman

You learn things at a NAMA convention. I ran into Sue Otten, AGCO, and learned that they now have a blog.

Could Sue (right) and Jamy Johnson look happier over the fact that they’re now blogging for AGCO?

I’m Sue and we’re thrilled to launch AGCO’s blog. Agriculture is a strong community-oriented industry and a perfect fit for social media. Farmers are not competitive, but quick to help each other. I have early memories of lots of neighbors helping build our cattle shed. Today’s Facebook-YouTube-Blogger sites are becoming the modern-day equivalent of helping neighbors. Farmers visiting these sites help extend agriculture knowledge across the worldwide landscape, offering a helping hand of advice, information, pictures, comments, experiences to global neighbors.

Uncategorized

NAMA Recovery

Chuck Zimmerman

Like a lot of people, we’re in NAMA recovery mode. Catching up on email, unpacking. You know what its like.

I’m still learning how to use my iPad. Using it for this post btw. I think I’ve got all my photos and interviews archived now. Time to work on some new posts! I just got the adapter that allows me to connect to my camera or connect an sd card. I’ll be using it this weekend and will let you know how that goes.

National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference
is sponsored by: Successful Farming. They know.

NAMA

Leading Chapter Leaders

Chuck Zimmerman

NAMA Chapter LeadersChapter leaders attending the NAMA convention get some special motivation and training. This year one of people doing the training was Luann Pisarik, J. L. Farmakis (left). I’m just guessing by all the road signs in the room that they were navigating road blocks to get to their destination.

Luann says they had a varied group and their goal was to provide a networking opportunity to discuss common challenges. The theme was to “look at the road signs.” She says “everyone drives” and they hope to help these leaders reach their goal. She says chapter membership and getting people to meetings is a common concern.

You can listen to my interview with Luann below.

2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference
is sponsored by: Successful Farming. They know.

Audio, NAMA, Uncategorized

NAMA 2010 Marketer of the Year

Cindy Zimmerman

Stephanie LiskaWith all the focus on new media and new ways of marketing, the winner of this year’s NAMA Marketer of the Year is one who uses the oldest method of marketing known to man, and the one that still works the best – word of mouth.

Stephanie Liska, co-founder of Beck Ag, grew up on a farm in Iowa and is married to an agronomist, so she knows agriculture. “Word of mouth is not knew to agriculture or to business,” she says. “Purdue University has validated that the most influential person that a grower or a veterinarian or someone in our industry looks to to make a decision on what they are going to use or recommend is their peers.”

Stephanie has been involved in NAMA since she was a student at Iowa State University and was chairman of the NAMA conference last year. She also credits her faith and her husband for supporting her with the business.

Listen to an interview with Stephanie in the player below.

2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference
is sponsored by: Successful Farming. They know.

Audio, NAMA

ZimmComm Booth Drawing Winners

Chuck Zimmerman

Sara SimsAt this year’s NAMA Connection Point we gave away a Barnes & Noble Nook eReader and a Zoom H2 digital audio recorder.

Here’s Cindy with Sara Sims, Valmont Irrigation, who won the Nook. She said it’s another gadget her daughter can teach her how to use.

We also drew Kathryn Tokarz, Penn State University, for the digital audio recorder and will get it to her this morning.

We saw a lot of good friends and clients once again during the Connection Point and would still recommend companies consider participating next year. It has always been well worth it in our opinion.

2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference
is sponsored by: Successful Farming. They know.

NAMA

Cindy Gives John The Bird

Chuck Zimmerman

John Walter Successful FarmingWe all know that John Walter is a social media superstar. Now he has his very own Twitter Bird. Cindy presented John with Ollie the Twitterbird at the end of the NAMA Connection Point trade show.

Cindy found the birds online several weeks ago and we brought some along to decorate our booth. After drawing for our main prizes we also drew names for the birds. So now we can say we’ve given John “the bird.”

John is editor of Successful Farming’s Agriculture.com and our sponsor for AgWired coverage of the NAMA Convention.

2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference
is sponsored by: Successful Farming. They know.

NAMA

NAMA Agribusiness Leader of the Year

Chuck Zimmerman

David SeehusenNow that the NAMA Connection Point is over maybe I can find some time to get caught up on my posts. The attendance here is tremendous and the activity level has been at an all time high.

We honored an outstanding leader in agribusiness, David Seehusen, Land ‘O Lakes, with NAMA’s highest honor, the Agribusiness Leader of the Year Award. David has made significant contributions to the industry and made a really fantastic Earth Day speech which I will be adding to this post as soon as I get a copy of it. Dave included a lot of statistics about food production comparing today to years past. He made a great point of saying how new technology can continue to increase food production to feed a growing world population but only if farmers are allowed to use it.

You can now listen to David’s speech below.

2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference
is sponsored by: Successful Farming. They know.

NAMA

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The Tulare Kiwanis Club will honor local dairy farmers and Tulare County Farm Bureau members Joey Airoso and father Joe with their annual “Farmer of the Year” Award on April 28.
  • AG CONNECT Expo 2011 has been named to the U.S. Commercial Service’s International Buyer Program (IBP).
  • The Florida FFA state officer team was treated to a taste of agricultural media, venison, pheasant and more with a visit to Southeast AgNet, one of the last legs of a four-day educational/leadership tour designed to expose them to all areas of Florida agriculture.
  • Wyffels Hybrids has selected Woodruff Sweitzer to be a partner in brand management and creative development. True Media has been chosen to handle media planning and buying.
    Zimfo Bytes

    MO Colleges Fund President: Novus Gives Students Look at Real World

    John Davis

    Some students in Missouri are getting a look at the real world of agriculture during Novus International‘s 2nd annual “Science: A Foundation for Dynamic Careers” days at the company’s St. Louis-suburb headquarters.

    During tonight’s welcoming mixer, Mike Backer, President of the Missouri Colleges Fund … a group that helps get money and resources for students at the state’s 16 private colleges … told those gathered that they would get to see how a real agri-business operates.

    “This gives a good opportunity to our students. They’ve been in the classroom, and they’re getting good book knowledge and working in labs, but that’s in a controlled environment. Here, they get to actually come out into the real world and see a live company, that has a lab, is doing research. So they get to see what the possibilities are for them after they get that diploma in their hand and they get out and look for a job.”

    Backer says the financial support of a company like Novus is vital to keeping science students funded.

    “Education doesn’t come cheap,” he says. Backer points out that 85 percent of the students attending Missouri’s 16 private schools covered under the Missouri Colleges Fund get some type of financial aid. “It’s a big help when companies like Novus and Monsanto help students pay for their education.”

    Backer says that assistance is more important than ever as tightening budgets cause cuts to higher education.

    Listen to more of my conversation with Mike below.

    2010 Novus International Science: A Foundation for Dynamic Careers Photo Album

    Audio, Novus International