New Digs For AdFarm Kansas City

Chuck Zimmerman

AdFarmThis message just came in from Steve Mercer. When you grow sometimes you gotta go!

Hello Friends:

AdFarm is relocating our Kansas City office. We have outgrown our original KC space and are moving a block or so south from our current location. We’re really excited about the move, the new space and the reason for it. As of Monday August 29th, our new address will be as follows:

AdFarm, 100 East 7th Street, Suite 301, Kansas City, MO 64106

Phone numbers will not change (main number is 816-842-5983; fax is 816-221-5833), but please be advised that our phones will temporarily be turned off starting at noon central time Friday, August 26 then be active again starting the following Monday.

Agencies

GoE Gone

Chuck Zimmerman

GoE GuysIt looks like the GoE Summer Roadtrip is over (at least for this year). I’ve been following them on their blog (have you?). They took a lot of pictures which you can see on their photo album.

What do you think of this use of a blog in a marketing campaign? Post your comments. Come on now. That’s what the blog thing is all about you know.

I wonder how you measure the success of this campaign. Are more people buying ethanol blended gas in North Dakota? Is it how many stories got published about the campaign? These guys not only personally interacted with people throughout the state but online through their blog. If I can find out any statistics I’ll pass them along.

I think it was a great idea and pretty well executed. I would have like to have seen more consistent posting on their blog though. There were some big gaps of inactivity for example. This is due to just conducting a few multi-day trips but for subscribers it meant we could almost forget about it before anything new comes along. They took a lot of pictures and should have featured them on the blog. I liked their humorous writing style including the typos which really didn’t bother me considering who was writing (although no typos is always better).

On the GoE website there’s a link to “GoE Guys In The News” that only shows their press release. I know they had news coverage and links to it would be appropriate and expected here.

It is a good looking promotion overall though. I’ll see what else I can find out and report.

Ag Groups

Interactive Leader For Swanson Russell

Chuck Zimmerman

Swanson Russell AssociatesMore and more agencies are building an interactive team and with good reason. Here at ZimmComm that’s me so far. However, we do have people like Eric we can go to when needed.

Swanson Russell Associates (SRA), Nebraska’s largest marketing communications firm, has hired Eric Gautschi as interactive supervisor for its Lincoln and Omaha offices.

Gautschi will lead SRA’s interactive team in helping clients design and develop Web sites, develop e-mail marketing campaigns and conduct online surveys and research.

For more information contact Renee Sprengeler.

Agencies

ZimmCast Features IFAJ Congress Organizer

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 30The International Federation of Agricultural Journalists Congress 2005 is getting closer. In this week’s ZimmCast I interview one of the organizers. He’s Markus Rediger, Agricultural Information Center, from Switzerland. I met Markus at the Ag Media Summit and he clued me in on what we have to look forward to and why he thinks any ag journalist should consider attending.

You can listen to the ZimmCast here Download MP3 File (2.5MB) The ZimmCast is our weekly podcast which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar.

While I was visiting the Agricultural Information Center website I found links to a few of the television commercials they had produced targeting consumers and showing them how food gets to their town from the farm. As the site says “As a result of the whole campaign we want consumers to feel that – Swiss Farmers welcome them.” You can see the spots here.

Pioneer Hi-BredAgWired reports on IFAJ Congress 2005 are sponsored by Pioneer Hi-Bred.

Audio, IFAJ, Podcasts, ZimmCast

Podcasts On Your Mobile Phone

Chuck Zimmerman

MobilCastSubscribing and listening to podcasts is getting even easier. MobilCast, a Melodeo product, just makes sense to me. As long as I can install this on my Treo 650 and save the audio to the SD card I’m good. I will be looking into it more.

Also, if you’re a Treo owner, you can now get RSS feeds on your phone.

Podcasts

New Website Design For AgWeb.com

Chuck Zimmerman

AgWebThe folks at Farm Journal Media announced a whole new site design for AgWeb.com this week. I don’t have a “before” shot to compare it to but you can visit and see for yourself. Here’s what they say about why they changed it:

AgWeb.com Site Manager Derek Benthem points to a new user-friendly design to make navigation and utility easier. “AgWeb has greatly expanded its editorial content this past year and now features more than 40 agricultural editors and contributors,” says Benthem. “The new design makes much of this content accessible with only one click offering our users faster and easier access to information and editorial commentaries.”

“Adoption of the Net among America’s top farmers now exceeds 70% – and we’re seeing strong growth in broadband. This medium is changing right before our eyes!” says Jerry Shafer, AgWeb Vice President of Sales. “Producers want information at their fingertips. To stay ahead of these needs, we have to constantly adapt.”

For more information contact Jerry Shafer.

Internet, Media, Publication

New USDA Communications Staffers

Chuck Zimmerman

USDAThe USDA office of communications has some new staff members. Kristin Scuderi will serve as Deputy Press Secretary; Harry Phillips serves as Director of Speechwriting and Jessie Nicholson as Speechwriter in the department.

Welcome to the staff!

USDA

Heads Up You Lonely Farmers

Chuck Zimmerman

Farmers OnlyThis is just too funny but serious. I just received a news release (through PR Web) for FarmersOnly.com, a dating service for farmers. I might have to do a ZimmCast with this guy. For now I’ll just leave it that I’ve brought it to your attention.

August 18, 2005 — FarmersOnly.com is the brainchild of Jerry Miller, owner of the marketing and public relations firm for the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association. Jerry works with thousands of farms and ranches across the country. While talking to one of the farmers, Jerry made quite a discovery.

“A recently divorced farmer revealed that she was becoming frustrated with being single and the difficulty of meeting someone new.” Jerry recalled.

“I’m ready to give up!” She said. “How am I going to meet someone new if I am out in the middle of nowhere, working on a farm all day? Maybe I’ll try online dating.”

For more information Jerry wants you to visit the website.

Farming

Blogging 101 At Boot Camp

Chuck Zimmerman

NAMA Agri-Marketing Boot CampOkay. It’s a little self-promotion. But hey, if I don’t promote myself how are you going to believe I can help you promote yourself?

The NAMA Agri-Marketing Boot Camp is over for me but still going on in KC, MO for over 60 registrants from companies, agencies and ag groups. I really wish I could stay for the full program but I’ve been wanting to attend this Blog Business Summit for a long time too. I look at it as my own extra professional development so I can bring you better consulting/training/blogging services.

Hey, students, if you want more I will be happy to arrange to visit your shop and conduct some more personalized training. Just give me a call.

That’s all for now. Remember to keep an eye on the NAMA Boot Camp Blog and register your comments.

NAMA

Boot Camp Demo Post

Chuck Zimmerman

Agri-Marketing Boot CampHere we are blog training at the the Agri-Marketing Boot Camp. This is a demo post.

As a further demonstration to my students I’ve now added a picture to this post. I’m at the airport getting ready to head out to San Fran for the Blog Business Summit.

I hope the class was worthwhile. Love to have your feedback.

NAMA