We Asked Farmers How to Best Reach Them Today. They Told Us.

We always try to make the most effective ag media recommendations possible for our clients. That’s what they hire us to do— reach the greatest number of qualified producers within a specified target audience, as frequently as possible, for the least cost. That’s called maximum media efficiency.

Our media director here at Paulsen is pretty darn good at that. For over 15 years Kristi Moss has been planning, negotiating and placing media buys that deliver results for our ag clients. Over the past year or so, Kristi has mentioned her concern that more traditional media strategies—print, radio, TV, direct mail—are not reaching the ENTIRE ag producer audience.

“Here’s my dilemma,” she told me. “I know we’re doing a good job of reaching 40-60+ year-old producers. But something tells me that younger farmers are using the Internet a lot more than we realize. I think we’re missing an important chunk of the market without including an Internet advertising component in each of our media plans. Likewise, we’re missing older producers with Internet-only strategies.”

With that concern in mind, we decided to do some research. We hit the road January-March, attending many of the larger winter ag shows such as the National Cattlemen’s Convention in San Antonio, Tex., the World Ag Expo in Tulare, Calif., the Commodity Classic in Anaheim, Calif. and several regional ag producer meetings in South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.

With a small video camera and a list of questions, we asked lots of farmers—young and old, male and female, crop and livestock—their usage and reliance on various ag media sources for general information, and for making major purchases for their farming operations. The results of these interviews are very interesting.

Based on this research, Kristi has written an informative article titled, “The New Ag Media Model: Conventional + Contemporary Strategies.”

We’re so excited about the results of this effort that we’d like to share them with the entire ag marketing community. You can view her article, along with video excerpts of the producer interviews, by going to www.paulsenmarketing.com/agmedia.

I think Kristi’s article and the video interviews should be a “must see” for all agri-businesses, ag media representatives, and yes, all agencies serving the ag market. It’s proof that our business continues to change in many important ways. Take a look, and let me know what you think.

Looking forward to attending the National Agri-Marketing Conference in Kansas City this week along with five of my fellow Paulsenites. Always a great time to see old friends!