Always Good to See Old Friends

Just back from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) annual meeting and trade show in San Antonio. This convention is one of my favorites and always an enjoyable time. I had an opportunity to meet with so many friends, clients and media representatives during my three-day visit. It was a nice break from the unusually hard winter we’re experiencing in the North Central states.

Everyone agrees that the business outlook is better than that of one year ago, but there still seems to be plenty of room for improvement. Many of my media friends note that advertisers are making shorter-term commitments—quarter by quarter, rather than annual schedules.

I sat in on several of the general sessions, and key issues for the beef industry continue to be animal welfare, environmental regulations, food safety and limiting the role of government in the production of beef cattle. There seems to be a lot of interest in social media, with several break-out sessions devoted to this topic.

As we’ve been saying for some time here at Paulsen, there’s a very active and vocal on-line conversation taking place, much of it led by those who oppose agriculture as we know it today. That’s why we encourage agri-businesses to join the conversation as active participants to address much of the misinformation going on “out there”.

We attended the opening general session, sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim, which featured a tremendous presentation by Chris Gardner, whose life story inspired the major motion picture The Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith and his five-year old son. What an incredible, heart-warming story, as Mr. Gardner shared his experiences of living on the streets of San Francisco with his 14 month old son in pursuit of his dream of becoming a stock broker. The life lessons he shared had a profound impact on all who attended the kick-off session.

During the NCBA meeting, we had the opportunity to interview several cattle producers to learn more about their use of media—how, where and when they want to receive information about their beef production business. We asked about their media preferences and how they use the Internet as an information source. We learned a number of very interesting things from these interviews.

Kristi Moss, media director at Paulsen Marketing, is preparing a white paper on “Ag Producers and Their Use of Media”. We will be making this information available to all who are interested. For agribusinesses wondering where they should invest their media dollars and how to best target and reach their audience, this should be a “must read”. Be watching for this report; I’ll keep you posted as to its availability.

Back “On the Road” to Minneapolis this week to meet with a former client who is doing a complete “make over” of their Web site. They plan to build a state-of-the-art site to maximize their Internet presence. We’re hoping to resume a 20-plus year relationship with this client by working with them on this important new initiative.

As I said at the top of this installment, “It’s always good to see old friends”.
 

Sara Steever, VP interactive services, Greg Guse, president, and Chris Gardner, author of The Pursuit of Happyness, share a moment at the NCBA Tradeshow in San Antonio.	Social media has become a hot topic among ag producer groups as evidenced by this special educational session during the NCBA convention.

Mindy Dale, Paulsen account executive (left), and Jennifer Kraywinkel of Ridley Block Operations appear at the Crystalyx®/Sweetlix exhibit where NCBA attendees registered to win a free saddle.