Remember back almost 4 years ago when you first heard about new media (blogs and podcasts) being used in agriculture? You know where, right? Well that “fad” has certainly become much more mainstream than many thought it would.
My favorite place to keep up with what’s going on in my new media world is eMarketer. They’ve got a new report out, “The Blogosphere: A Mass Movement From Grass Roots,” which has some interesting information. Here’s a couple of excerpts:
More importantly, by 2012, more than 145 million people—67% of the US Internet population—will be reading blogs at least once a month. That is up from a readership of 94 million in 2007, or 50% of Internet users.
“A big factor driving the increases is the niche orientation of the blogosphere,” says Mr. Verna.
Like podcasts, blogs tend to appeal to specific audiences. Accordingly, much of the demographic targeting that marketers work so hard to achieve in the mainstream media is already done for them.
“Furthermore,” adds Mr. Verna, “the rates at which blog readers notice and click on ads suggest that they are a well-primed audience.”
Where are you placing your advertising these days? Same old, Same old or . . . . . .
During the BASF Media Summit there were several breakout sessions like the one presented by Paul Rea, Director, BASF Specialty Crops. Attendees got to choose one and I picked Paul’s. He spoke of new products, including Clearcast herbicide and flexible product packaging for the pest control, vegetation management and turf and ornamentals markets. I was interested to see several of the journalists I had just met the week before in Minneapolis at the TOCA meeting.
Dr. Hans Kast, President/CEO, BASF Plant Science Holding GmbH, spoke at this week’s Media Summit about plant biotechnology and the work the company is doing in R&D. Picture courtesy of 
Marcus Heldt is Group Vice President, North America, Crop Protection Division, for BASF. He spoke at this week’s Media Summit about how the company is putting innovative knowledge gained in marketing to one crop area to use in targeting other market segments.
One of the questions I get asked very often is, “How can you make money with new media?” If you read AgWired often then you probably have a good idea of some of the ways that can happen.