Once again NAMA is pleased to report that we exceeded last year’s attendance numbers and brought even more agri-marketers to Kansas City for the 2013 national conference with a total of  1,248 professionals and students from across the country.  This is the highest attended conference since 2000!

Anders Sorman-Nilsson kicked off the conference with a discussion of  his concept of “digilogue.”  Simply stated it’s taking the measurability of digital communications and combining it with emotion and accountability of more analog style outreach.  Analog is needed for transformation, digital for information.  He urged conference attendees to take advantage of new media tools to embrace the transparency being demanded by customers and use them to tell the real story of American agriculture.

Josh Linkner explained the virtues of creativity calling it the “currency of success.”  He noted creativity is 85% learned and shared simple ways to nurture creativity in the workplace.

Throughout the rest of the conference, agri-marketers enjoyed time to meet face-to-face with clients, attend breakout sessions on diverse topics like developing web content and monetizing social media and walk through the Connection Point Trade Show.  Attendees were encouraged to visit each of the 65 exhibitors to enter to win great prizes.  Congrats to Teresa Roof, Rosemary Schimek, Cait Schneckloth and Justina Frost, who each won an iPad Mini.

The Closing Brunch speaker, Damian Mason, had the audience laughing out loud with his special brand of humor.  Each attendee received a special departing gift from Mason – a bumper sticker carrying the words, “Agriculture: Because Starvation Sucks.”

During the conference, NAMA presented two distinguished awards. Thad Simons, President and CEO, Novus, accepted the 2013 Agribusiness Leader of the Year.  Steve Vandeberg, Director, Edectocide Marketing, Merial Limited, was named 2013 NAMA Marketer of the Year.

Congrats to  Best of Show Winner – Advertising, Beck’s Hybrids; and Best of Show Winner – PR, Minnesota Pork Board and Minnesota Pork Producers Association! Click here for a complete list of winners.

Visit NAMA on Flickr to see the full Agri-Marketing Conference album.

Best of  NAMA Regional Winners

Congrats to all the Best of  NAMA winners!  If you placed first or merit at the regional level, you are eligible to advance to the national competition.  You should have received an email from the National office about advancing your entries.  If you have questions, call 913-491-6500.

Please click on a region below to view winners and check out photos at flickr.

Region I

Region II

Region III

Region IV

Region V

Region VI

Best of NAMA Highlights

Region II Best of NAMA

Nearly 150 people attended the awards banquet at the Boulevard Brewery on January 28 in Kansas City, MO.  The ceremony honored the best work for the Rocky Mountain, Southwest, Missouri-Kansas, Great Plains, Gateway, and Cornhusker chapters.

Best of Show Advertising
Category:  Point-of-purchase materials
Company:  Cal-Ann Farms
Agency:  Sullivan Higdon & Sink
Campaign:  Cal-Ann Packaging

Best of Show Public Relations
Category:  Public Affairs/Issues Management Program
Company:  Missouri Corn Growers Assn./Missouri Corn Merchandising Council
Agency:  In-house
Campaign:  Underwater and Overlooked: Crisis on the Missouri River

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Region III Best of NAMA

With over 120 people in attendance at the awards banquet on January 31 at the Embassy Suites in Des Moines, the ceremony honored the Cornbelt, Iowa, North Central and Northern Prairie Chapters.  Additionally, it was amazing to see five National NAMA President and past presidents coming together to kickoff the celebration -  Beth Burgy, Paul Redhage, Tom Smull,
Vicki Henrickson and Susie Decker.

Best of Show Advertising
Category:  Television – Single or Series
Company:  South Dakota Corn Utilization Council
Agency:  Paulsen Marketing
Campaign:  SD Corn:  Feeding the World TV

Best of Show Public Relations
Category:  Public Affairs/Issues Management program
Company:  Minnesota Pork Board and Minnesota Pork Producers Assn.
Agency:  Weber Shandwick
Campaign:  Building Trust from Farm to Fork

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Region IV Best of NAMA

Badger, Chicago, Heartland and Mid-America Chapters celebrated their Best Work on January 24th at the Eaglewood Resort & Spa in Itasca, IL.

Best of Show Advertising
Category:  Multimedia Campaigns – Regional
Company:  Beck’s Hybrids
Agency:   In-house
Campaign:  Suspect of Success

Best of Show Public Relations
Category:  Events – Media
Company:  Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board
Agency:  Stephan & Brady
Campaign: National Grilled Cheese Month Kick Off Event

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Carolinas/Virginia Best of NAMA

The Carolinas/Virginia Chapter celebrated its annual Best of  NAMA awards ceremony on January 22nd at the Hamner Conference Center in Research Triangle Park, NC.

The Best of Show Advertising award was presented to Arysta LifeScience and Woodruff Sweitzer for the EVITO Fungicide Multi Media Campaign.  The Best of Show Public Relations was awarded to Cotton Incorporated and
Harvest PR & Marketing for their Cottonseed Marketplace  interactive marketing tool.

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Southeastern Best of NAMA

The Norcross Station Café was the site for the Southeastern Chapter’s Best of NAMA Awards ceremony.  Nearly 30 people gathered on January 24 to receive awards and congratulate the winners.  Merial Limited and Sullivan Higdon & Sink won Best of Show in Advertising for EDF.com Web Banners, Series, in the category for advertising on
the web directed to farmers, growers, ranchers
or other’s serving agriculture.  Best of Show in Public Relations was awarded to AGCO Application Equipment and Osborn Barr for their SpraCoupe – Ushering in the Era of Modern Agriculture news release.

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Midsouth Best of NAMA

The Midsouth Chapter gathered at Texas de Brazil on January 17 to celebrate winners in more than 20 different companies, organizations and agencies for their work in Midsouth agriculture.  Best of Show in Advertising was awarded to Monsanto and Brighton Agency for their multimedia local campaign, Deltapine 4-Bale Campaign, Georgia.  Best of Show Public Relations was awarded to Tennessee Farmers Cooperative for their in-house annual report “I’m Co-op.”

NAMA Regions and Chapters are making plans for their individual Best of NAMA Awards events.

We know you won’t want to miss these fun events, so we’re providing the various dates so you can add as many as you’d like to your calendar.

Region I (Desert Southwest and Western Pacific Chapters) – February 12, 2013,  in the Wine and Cheese Pavilion at the World Ag Expo, Tulare, CA, with a reception from 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm.  Visit http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/reg1invite.html

Region II (Cornhusker, Gateway, Great Plains, Missouri-Kansas, Rocky Mountain, and Southwest Chapters) – January 28, 2013, at Boulevard Brewing Company, 2501 Southwest Boulevard, Kansas City, MO  64108, at 6:00 pm.  For more details, visit http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/region2.htm.  You can also register online at https://www4983.ssldomain.com/nama/ConferenceRegistration/Default.aspx?confid=56.

Region III (Cornbelt, Iowa, North Central, and Northern Prairie Chapters) -  January 31, 2013, at the Embassy Suites Des Moines Downtown, 101 East Locust, Des Moines, IA  50309, starting at 6:00 pm.  Visit http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/region3.htm for hotel and registration information.

Region IV (Badger, Chicago, Heartland, and Mid-America Chapters) – January 24, 2013, at the Eaglewood Resort & Spa, 1401 Nordic Road, Itasca, IL  60143, starting at 6:00 pm.  Visit http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/region4.htm for hotel and registation information.

Carolinas/Virginia Chapter – January 22, 2013, in the Dogwood Room, of the Hamner Conference Center at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, 15 T. W. Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, at 5:30 pm.   Online registration for the banquet is available at http://www.nama.org/store/index.php?p=catalog&parent=16&pg=1.  Visit http://www.nama.org/chapters/carvir.htm for banquet details.

Midsouth Chapter – January 17, 2013,  event will be held at the Texas de Brazil, 150 Peabody #103, Memphis, TN 38103  (901)-526-7600.  Register at http://www.nama.org/store/index.php?p=product&id=140&parent=21

Southeastern Chapter – January 24, 2013, at The Norcross Station Café, 40 South Peachtree Street, Norcross, GA  30017, at 6:00 pm.  Online registration for the banquet is available at http://www.nama.org/store/index.php?p=product&id=118&parent=20.

Visit the NAMA calendar frequently (http://www.namablog.org/?page_id=16) for updated information and links.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at 913-491-6500.

There was a thunderous response to the call for Best of NAMA entries with over 1400 submitted for Regional Judging on November 6th & 7th.  This is the  highest amount we have seen since 1999!

Thank you to every agency and company that submitted their best work for consideration.  Every submission strengthens local NAMA chapters and showcases the talent and vitality of NAMA members.

A special thanks to our 40 plus wonderful judges who participated in the judging process that took place at the Sheraton Crown Center in Kansas City.   This program could not be successful without their help and expertise.

We hope to see you at a regional or chapter banquet in January to see the results of your hard work.  Check out  http://www.namablog.org/?page_id=16 for banquet dates and locations.  Be sure to check back often as  details are still being finalized.

Are you a Kansas City local?  Would you like to see the industry’s hot ideas? We are looking for a few local judges to take part in the Regional Best of NAMA Judging, November 6-7. If you have 3 or more years of experience in the agribusiness industry and are a NAMA member, you’re eligible to be a judge.

The judging will be held at the Sheraton Hotel at Crown Center Exhibit Hall in Kansas City.

Judging Schedule:
Tuesday, November 6 from 12:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. (Dinner at 6:30)
Wednesday, November 7 from 8:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

To sign up to be a regional Best of NAMA judge visit, http://www.nama.org/amc/judging.htm.

The deadline for the 2012 Best of NAMA competition is October 12.  Regional judging is set for November 6-7, 2012.

The Best of NAMA awards program honors the best work in agricultural communications. Actually, the best of the best, since companies/agencies must first qualify through regional competition in order to advance to the national level. The national awards ceremony will take place April 17, 2013, at the Sheraton Crown Center in Kansas City.

Thanks to a new microsite created by Paulsen Marketing, you can upload digital entries for Best of NAMA this year. So your best work from radio, TV, broadcast news, blogs, websites and banners can be viewed—or heard—and judged in the medium for which they were created. Submissions for the print ads and collateral will still require physical samples for judging.

Click here for  Call for Entries details.  Thanks to Broadhead for the design of the Call For Entries.

A luncheon presentation featuring Chet Slump, iNet Solutions, brought MoKan members together on July 18 at 2000 Grand, in Kansas City.  Chet, who actively designs and develops mobile and web applications for leading agriculture companies, shared his expertise about mobile apps.

He noted that apps, like web sites, are seldom a finished work.  Instead, they are ever-evolving.  Depending on the complexity of an app, it can easily take from two weeks to several months to design a new app.  And the cost, of course, varies accordingly.

As he explained, a single app design will not work on all platforms.  Apple and Android are two very different markets, as are phones vs. tablets for running a mobile application.  Attendees found it interesting to learn about the approval steps that must be undertaken for Apple or Android to actually launch a new app. Chet finished his presentation walking through a few apps that are popular within the agriculture industry today.