Just back from the National Agri-Marketing Association’s annual Best of NAMA Region III awards ceremony held at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, January 26.

What an incredible night it was for Paulsen Marketing! Not only did we have six agency clients recognized with awards for their work, we also were the most awarded agency or company with 19 awards, including seven First Place Awards and 12 Merit Awards.

Paulsen clients who were recognized included Kubota Tractor Corporation, Torrance, Calif.; Wheat Growers, Aberdeen, S.D.; AgStar Financial Services, Mankato, Minn.; The Soil Science Society of America, Madison, Wis.; South Dakota Corn Utilization Council, Sioux Falls, S.D.; and South Dakota Soybean Research and Promotion Council, Sioux Falls, S.D.

There were 235 entries in NAMA’s Region III competition that includes North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa. You can view the entire summary of all categories and winners at http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/reg3win.htm.

Our First Place and Merit Award entries will next be judged in the national Best of NAMA Competition with winners announced during the awards ceremony that kicks off the 2012 Agri-Marketing Conference, “Acres of Innovation,” April 18-20 in Kansas City.

Needless to say I’m incredibly proud of our clients, their award-winning work and our entire agency staff who continue to amaze me with their talent, creativity and determination to excel in this very competitive industry.

This is the fourth blog I’ve written about our Region III NAMA showing, and in each of the previous years’ entries, I have always been careful to put awards in the proper perspective—they are nice to win, but generating results for our clients’ investments in us is Priority #1. But, when your industry peers recognize the quality and creativity of your efforts, you can’t help but take a few brief moments and bask in the satisfaction of the moment.

I’m especially pleased to see how our digital work fared with five of the nine awards given in the Interactive Marketing category going to Paulsen. One of our agency initiatives over the past five years has been to grow and excel with our offerings in this critical and fast-growing area of marketing communications. If our recent NAMA wins are any indication, we are certainly making good progress toward this goal.

Okay, enough basking in the glow of awards achievement and back to reality!

A busy week lies ahead at the National Cattleman’s Beef Association’s annual convention in Nashville. Sara Steever, VP, digital services, and I will be assisting the folks at the Crystalyx^® and Sweetlix^® trade show exhibits introducing a new app for tablets and smartphones for Cow Body Condition Scoring we helped create with Dr. Dan Dhuyvetter, director of marketing at Ridley Nutrition Solutions.

If you’re at the NCBA trade show, stop by for a visit!

I like surprises as much, or maybe even more, than anyone—although I admit I prefer being on the giving end rather than the receiving end.

Well, this weekend at the South Dakota Corn Growers/Corn Utilization Council’s Annual Meeting, our agency was on the receiving end of a huge surprise. Paulsen Marketing received the Corn Grower’s annual Excellence in Agriculture Award for our “exceptional leadership contributions to the agriculture industry.”

Every first weekend in January for the past 10-12 years, a group of Paulsenites attends this meeting as our way of showing support for a client we so enjoy working with. Besides,...

Guest blogging today is Kelli Betsinger, account executive.

Did you know that soil – yes, that ground beneath your feet – has a story to tell? In response to growing concerns about the condition of some of the world’s soils, we have been working with the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) and recently launched a campaign called, The Story of Soil.

The Story of Soil campaign features a series of three Public Service Announcements (PSAs) in English and Spanish to celebrate SSSA’s 75th Anniversary.

“Soil is a very complex ecosystem that supports life and is often associated with food...

Thanksgiving.

Time to take inventory again of all that has transpired this year, and give thanks for the many blessings that have come our way.

For a strong, healthy agricultural economy.

For clients who place their trust and confidence in us.

For media partners and vendors who support us throughout the year.

For hardworking and talented employees who give us their very best every day.

For the opportunities and possibilities that enable us to grow our agency.

Yes, it’s been a good year. And for that, we are indeed thankful.

From all of us at...

Several of us from Paulsen Marketing just returned from the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) fall “Trends in Agriculture” conference, followed by the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) annual convention, both in Kansas City last week.

As always, a great opportunity to re-connect with old friends (such as Al Johnson of Agri-Pulse, a faithful reader of this blog, I’m told) and other industry associates. I believe this was the 20th consecutive NAFB Trade Talk event that I’ve attended—probably the best example of media and agri-business working together that I can think of.

There was one theme that...