Ken Anderson VP of PR at Ayres Kahler

Chuck Zimmerman

Ken AndersonMany of you AgWired readers probably congratulated Ken Anderson last week at the NAMA Convention for his new position with Ayres Kahler as VP/Director of Public Relations. I saw him the first night I was in KC and learned the news. Feel free to send him your congrats when you get a chance.

In his new position, Anderson is responsible for interpreting clients’ strategic marketing plans through PR and publicity efforts. This includes building and strengthening media relationships in broadcast, print and on-line venues in order to deliver appropriate messages for the agency’s clients.

Anderson will also serve as an account director for several of the Ayres Kahler’s key clients and contribute to the agency’s new business task force.

Anderson has nearly 30 years of communications and marketing experience in Nebraska, including positions with Lexington radio station KRVN and Lincoln-based seed company NC+ Hybrids. Most recently, he was an account executive with a Hastings advertising firm.

Agencies

Podcasting’s Solid Growth

Chuck Zimmerman

Speaking of podcasting, an article out today on eMarketer speaks to the value of the niche audiences created by topical podcasts.

According to long-tail theory, these targeted audiences should be especially valuable to advertisers and marketers. Although the audiences are small, each listener or viewer is very interested in the subject, and the audiences should therefore carry commensurately higher ad pricing.

In fact, eMarketer predicts that US podcast ad spending will grow to $435 million by 2012 from $165 million in 2007.

The article quotes information from recent studies by Podtrac, a service we use, and TNS Global, that shows why having your ad or message in a podcast is well worth the investment. This seems to be so difficult for traditional marketing folks to “get.” In order to do so you really have to understand the Long Tail and why small audiences of highly motivated consumers (could be farmers) is so valuable. The bold highlights are mine.

The companies studied podcast advertising from February 2006 to March 2008 across multiple product categories and ad types. Unaided awareness for podcast ads was 68%, compared with 21% for streaming video and 10% for television.

“The data suggest audiences are paying close attention to show content and the embedded ads within them which greatly increased ad effectiveness in the studies,” said Doug Keith, president of Future Research Consulting. “The high unaided ad recall figures are no doubt the results of a less cluttered environment.”

“The studies showed a 73% increase in likelihood to use or buy an advertised product,” said Velvet Beard, vice president at Podtrac. “The studies showed that 69% of audience members have a more favorable view of in-show advertisers.”

“Podcasting is, by its nature, a niche medium, and this is not likely to change,” said Paul Verna, senior analyst at eMarketer. “But podcasting delivers a level of end-user engagement that is rare in today’s multi-format world.”

Uncategorized

USDA FSIS Begins Podcasting

Chuck Zimmerman

USDAPodcasting is becoming more mainstream all the time. Now USDA’s FSIS is using this great new media communications tool.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) today launched a series of educational podcasts tailored to address food safety and education issues for consumers and other stakeholders.

As a part of the Agency’s ongoing outreach efforts to small and very small establishments, FSIS will initially focus on providing small and very small plant owners, operators and employees with important information through the use of podcasts.

Subscribers will receive the latest additions through an RSS feed, or Web feed collector, with news and information about Agency work to ensure public health protection through food safety. FSIS podcasts will be short, factual audio and video files featuring scientists, policy experts and other specialists.

To listen to individual podcasts or sign up for a free subscription, visit http://www.fsis.usda.gov. For assistance or details concerning FSIS podcasts, please send an e-mail to podcast@fsis.usda.gov.

Podcasts, USDA

Willie Vogt Wins iPod touch From ZimmComm

Chuck Zimmerman

Willie VogtI haven’t forgotten that we had a drawing at our NAMA booth. A winner was drawn (fair and randomly). I did not do the drawing. We had daughter Chelsea handle those duties.

So, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, Willie Vogt, Farm Progress Companies, wins a brand new, personalized iPod touch. You know he wants and needs one.

I want to thank everyone who entered at the booth and online. We appreciate it and I wish I could buy you all one. Hey, hire the agriblogging farm podcasters of ZimmComm New Media enough and who knows what could happen.

Willie, congratulations and fyi, it’s the only photo I had of you from the convention. I cropped it tight btw.

Uncategorized

Alltech Symposium Wrapup

Chuck Zimmerman

Dr. Pearse LyonsThe 2008 Alltech International Animal Health & Nutrition Symposium is over and Alltech President, Dr. Pearse Lyons, provided the final remarks.

He summed up the key concepts that were focused on at the Symposium like the greenest generation, re-defining the industry, new technologies, new business practices, having fun and being socially responsible, supporting young people and re-defining education. Then he left a take away message which was “To have a dream, to conspire with them, to let them make that dream come true.”

The show this morning was great and you can find more from it on the Alltech Symposium Blog. Here are links to some key posts there:

Superbranding – The KFC Story
Erase Apathy
Emission Farming

Reginald Smith, Jr.To add punch to the dream concept we had one final chance to hear from opera superstar Reginald Smith, Jr. from Decatur, GA.

You can hear Dr. Lyons’ concluding remarks and Reginald’s song here: alltech-symposium-08-lyons-close.mp3

What a blogging extravaganza this week has been. Besides all the posts on the Symposium you’ve seen here I think I posted 40 times on the Alltech Symposium Blog. I took almost 700 photos, of which over 260 made it into my photo album, did 16 YouTube video clips and I lost count of audio files that were posted (interviews/speakers).

I want to thank Dr. Pearse Lyons and all the Alltech staff for allowing me to be their Symposium blogger. I’ve learned a lot more about this company and their culture and I hope you have as well.

Alltech, Audio

Conversations With Alltech Symposium Speakers

Chuck Zimmerman

Here at the Alltech Symposium I did a series of video interviews with educational session speakers in addition to participants. They have all been posted to Alltech’s YouTube account.

Here’s an example of one of them with Charlie Elrod, Ithaca, NY.

Alltech, Video

Type-A Cranberries

Laura McNamara

Cranberries pack a lot of punch. No, not juice, well, not just juice anyway. The Cranberry Marketing Committee reminds consumers how cranberries are packed with vitamins and antioxidants.

Do you know anyone who’s a Type-A personality? A multi-tasking, go-getter? Well, if fruit could take personality tests, the cranberry would turn out to be Type-A. There’s a lot of good stuff in these little red gems. But the antioxidants deserve some special attention.

Cranberries have a wide array of antioxidants, but one kind that is unique to cranberries is proanthocyanidins. This type of flavonoid antioxidant keeps certain bacteria from adhering to the walls of your bladder, helping you maintain a healthy urinary tract.

In addition to proanthocyanidins, they also contain another type of flavonoid antioxidant – anthocyanins. While more research is needed on the effects of antioxidants on health, preliminary studies suggest flavonoid antioxidants may work by helping to maintain healthy cells, tissues and arteries, which means helping you maintain a healthy heart.

Advertising, Ag Groups, Food

Kids Go for Flavor

Laura McNamara

The Dairy Council of California says flavored milk does a child’s body good. That’s because, children drink up when chocolate, strawberry or vanilla is in the cup.

Kids and teens, pour yourselves a tall one. Chocolate, vanilla or strawberry milk, that is. New research shows that drinking flavored milk increases overall milk intake and improves nutrition without adding extra weight.

A study of nearly 8,000 children and adolescents published in this month’s Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that those who included flavored milk in their beverage selection actually drank more milk overall — both flavored and plain — when compared to peers who only drank plain milk. Because milk is a good source of calcium and potassium, two “nutrients of concern” lacking in the diets of most Americans, drinking more milk leads to better nutrition.

“These findings should come as a relief for parents torn between serving their children foods that taste good and those that are good for them,” said Andrea Garen, M.A., R.D., with Dairy Council of California. “At home and at school, flavored milks provide the nutrients your child needs without increasing risk of obesity.”

This study reviewed overall diet and found no significant difference in added sugar intake between flavored milk drinkers and non-drinkers in the study. Additionally, body mass index (BMI) measures of milk drinkers were comparable to, or even lower than those who did not drink milk.

Advertising, Ag Groups, Dairy, Food

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • SelectVAC®, one of the industry’s top branded preconditioning programs, recently enrolled its 3 millionth calf. A calf from John Putnam’s southwest South Dakota ranch received the unprecedented distinction. Putnam, a fourth generation cow/calf producer who works with his father, Lloyd, was eligible to win a year’s supply of SelectVAC products from Pfizer Animal Health.
  • DuPont announced it has purchased an equity stake in Farms Technology as part of its strategy to create additional value for its customers and grain buyers. DuPont business Pioneer Hi-Bred recently began partnering with Farms Technology to develop MarketPoint resource, a new online market service that allows growers to post their high-quality grain for sale to local buyers who make competitive bids based upon quality and quantity information posted to the site.
  • Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said that USDA donations will exceed $100 million in a swap of government surplus raw commodity stocks for domestic and international food through USDA’s “Stocks-for-Food” initiative. Internationally, the barter initiative will benefit more than 700,000 children through the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program. To date, USDA has bartered 1 million bushels of corn, 1 million bushels of soybeans, 7.3 million bushels of wheat, 456 tons of peanuts, 1,987 hundredweight of rice, and 79,329 bales of cotton.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Discussion Group Dinners End The Day

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Discussion DinnerThis evening the Alltech Symposium ended with a series of simultaneous discussion group dinners. I went to the one on biofuels which was moderated by Dr. Mark Lyons.

    Here’s my table. Prior to the general discussion we ate and talked at our individual tables. At mine we had folks from the Dominican Republic, Philippines, Korea and the United States. It was interesting to hear the perspectives on biofuels of people living in countries that don’t have our capabilities or feedstocks for conversion into fuel.

    You can hear a short sound bite here of what our discussion sounded like: alltech-symposium-08-biofuel-dinner-cut.mp3

    Alltech Symposium Photo Album

    Alltech, Audio