Doing creative television commercials doesn’t have to break your budget. That’s what the Florida Tomato Committee found out when they created this new tv campaign. The campaign will air beginning January 30 and run again in March on several cable networks targeting women, 25 – 54.
You can see the 4 15-second spots here (There is one called “Aphrodisiac”). The ads were produced by SenaReider.
When the Cattlemen’s Beef Board was looking into ways to better communicate with producers about the activities of the next week’s Cattle Industry Convention, especially their committee meetings, they turned to blogging and asked us to create and manage the site. There’s still some final pre-conference posting that will be done over the next couple days but the site is open and ready for activity. At the event next week, I’ll be blogging the CBB activities on Beef Board Meeting.com. One of the great things about this idea is that not only will information flow out to interested producers but each post and page of information has the comment feature enabled to allow them to provide their feedback. I have no doubt we’ll get some.
(Holts Summit, MO January 26, 2006 – AgNewsWire.AgWired.com) Cattle producers who are unable to attend this year’s Cattle Industry Convention February 1-4 in Denver can still stay informed and take an active role in decisions that are made through the Beef Board Meeting.com (www.beefboardmeeting.com) web log, according to Cattlemen’s Beef Board Vice Chairman Jay O’Brien of Amarillo, Texas.
“We’re trying to get information out to the producers to let them know exactly what’s going on at the convention and even allow them to have input back in to the committees, so that all of the people who pay the checkoff will be part of the process.”
The web log will feature postings throughout the convention following the various committee meetings to inform producers about discussions that are taking place and decisions that are made on how their beef checkoff dollars will be spent. O’Brien says the Beef Board wants all producers to have the opportunity to participate in decision-making at the national level.
“We have 108 producer members of the Beef Board who serve on the committees, who work hard to decide the best way to spend the checkoff dollars. But, of course, we have a lot more producers out there then those 108. We want every producer to be informed about what is going on and to be able to have input as to where the checkoff dollars are spent.” (Full Release)
You can hear a full interview with CBB Vice Chairman Jay O’Brien here. (2.2MB MP3)
A new website can be a beautiful thing. I especially like simplicity, ease of navigation. In other words, Don’t Make Me Think.
I can’t remember the old U. S. Grains Council website but the new one looks good to me. One thing I especially appreciate is this. They sent out a news release about it and the news release is on their website. You may not believe how often a company or organization overlooks putting their news releases on their own website. That can be very annoying for a reporter by the way. Good job Grains Council.
I wonder what everyone else thinks?
The Missouri Beef Industry Council’s weekly MBIC Report this week is with Marketing Director Dawn Thurnau who talks about sweepstakes contests for beef lovers that are being promoted in national magazines in addition to regular beef advertising.
You can listen to this week’s MBIC Report here: 
The MBIC Report is an AgWired podcast which you can subscribe to using the link you’ll find on our “Blogs & Podcasts” page or on the MBIC website.
Sounds like a phone book for farmers only more. This is the FarmIndex Directory for Iowa, which was just recently released. It claims to provide complete statewide producer and crop information.
Prepared and published as a joint venture of NewCentury Marketing Services and Cole Information Services, the Iowa FarmIndex Directory includes crop and livestock allocations and volumes, organized by county and then by production volume.
“The Cole-NCMS FarmIndex Directory provides a vast amount of information about crop and livestock producers,” says Claus Thiles, President, NCMS. “The FarmIndex provides a clear connection for the Iowa agricultural community, from individual operator to multi-crop farm enterprises. If you want to talk to corn producers in a specific county, the FarmIndex tells you who they are, how much crop they grow, and how to contact them.” The new Iowa FarmIndex Directory is designed to provide a single information resource for research and marketing projects. More states will be available in the near future.
“We developed this FarmIndex Directory as an entirely new tool for the ag business professional,” explains Jim Eggleston, Vice President & Publisher, Cole Information Services. “By bringing these multiple sources of information into a single volume, we provide an easy way for businesses to connect with new customers.”
Here’s a reminder for all you agricultural public relations professionals. The Agricultural Relations Council is holding a meeting in Memphis (one of my favorite towns) March 23 – 25. Can you say “Ribs & Blues?” Yeah, there’s the professional improvement thing too.
Join the Agricultural Relations Council as it goes to Memphis March 23-25 for Public Relations 101-404 with a full day and a half of professional education programming, PLUS the Making and Management of a Legend.
Registration — $300.00 for ARC Members, $350.00 for nonmembers, which includes the Thursday evening Graceland tours and reception, Friday speaker program as well as breakfast, breaks and luncheon, and Saturday program, breakfast and luncheon. Check www.agrelationscouncil.org for more detailed program information as it develops.
He looks like a computer guy. Those eyes have stared at a computer screen for a long time I’m guessing. He’s Mark Green and Osborn & Barr Communications’ newest hire to lead their new Digital Marketing Group. That would the the group that handles “Web-based initiatives and customer relationship management.”
Leading the new group is Mark Green, vice president, director of digital marketing. Mark is a technology-based business strategist with experience in interactive product development, e-commerce, co-op marketing tools and online promotional marketing. At Osborn & Barr, Mark is responsible for the development and implementation of interactive branding strategies, web-based promotions and CRM initiatives including interactive training, customized promotions to distribution networks and segmentation and analysis of customer information for the development of personalized services and marketing communications. Under his direction, Osborn & Barr is developing a multi-faceted digital marketing team.
Green was previously vice president at Brighton Agency where he built an interactive division serving clients such as BASF, Charter Communications and International Paper.
If you’re sitting there wishing you had something interesting to watch, try these new Got Milk hispanic ads. They’re set to begin airing January 30. I think Adrants describes these spots right with the word “quirky.” You can see a couple of them here: Amazing Hair Goddesses and Contortionist.
If you don’t understand spanish, don’t worry, they have english titles. I think they’re great. How about you? It’s nice to see good creative.
The hispanic campaign has run for many years and this is a pretty significant change in approach. The ads were produced by Grupo Gallegos.
A big announcement was made today and I think agricultural communicators should take notice. I really think you need to check this out.
A company that has a long standing tradition of delivering news items to reporters is PR Newswire. Today, their Multi Vu division announced that it was “re-inventing” the video news release and other forms of multi-media communication vehicles. Why?
New products extend reach to media and your target audiences… comprehensive multimedia communications packages help ensure success
In other words, so that you don’t have to depend on the radio and tv stations to deliver your message to your customers and members anymore! They’re offering audio and video podcasting services and specifically so you can communicate directly to your target audience. Where have I heard this concept before?
MultiVu has a new approach to VNRs, B-roll and SMTs that helps ensure success. Our Electronic Multimedia Kits (EMK) and Broadcast Multimedia Briefings (BMB) reach television, radio, print and online media and allow you to communicate directly to consumers and other target audiences over the Internet. They also feature audio and video podcasts. And, they help you get your message directly to your target audiences without having to depend solely on broadcast TV.
Wow. I’m sorry but I think this just validates the idea of using “new media” in your campaigns. Notice they don’t say you shouldn’t continue to distribute information to traditional media outlets. I wouldn’t say that either. However, you now have the tools to “go direct.” Why not?
Because you think farmers don’t have broadband internet access and aren’t sure if they use it right? Good thing to question. The facts show that of $100,000 plus farmers, over 20 percent do have broadband. That’s a pretty significant percentage. Looking back historically into the early days of internet access, farmers adopted and used it at higher percentage than the general public. The only reason they’ve lagged behind of late is the whole broadband access issue and that’s being addressed and is changing rapidly.
I’ll be writing more about this over the next couple weeks and have some information to share so you can see the facts for yourself. In the meantime, be a pioneer and get started with your use of new media. We have the tools and “time’s a wastin’.” I like the way Multi Vu says it and I echo it for the agribusiness community, “By adapting your message for multiple audiences on a variety of platforms, our goal is to help you maximize your multimedia ROI. “
I’ve seen this billboard in a couple of cities lately and had a chance to take a picture of it today in Chicago. I guess I think it’s interesting that AT&T is advertising that they deliver blogging. I think I also saw somewhere that they may be delivering it but they aren’t “doing it.”
So they’re delivering broadband is what this is really saying. Of course not out in rural America where the farmers are. But there is one company that is doing that and I’ll have a lot more information about what they’re doing and how, soon. Right now I’ve got some other web work to do so I’ll be back later this evening with some more of the latest from the world of agricultural marketing.
