The Best of NAMA 2024
The Best of NAMA awards program honors the best of the best work in agricultural communications with national winners chosen from regional competitions. There are 63 categories ranging from print to broadcast to social and winners are judged by a panel of agri-marketing professionals.
Here are the Best of NAMA national winners:
Grand Champion
John Deere
Agency – Signal Theory
Entry title: Women In Ag “A Different Kind Of Crown” campaign
Public Relations
Channel – a Bayer seed brand
Agency – HLK
Entry title: Seedsmen Ignite 2023
Digital
BASF
Agency – VML
Entry title: Layered Residuals Keep Pigweed Away
Consumer
IL Farm Families Coalition – IL Beef Assn, IL Corn, IL Farm Bureau, IL Pork Producers, IL Soybean Assn and Midwest Dairy
Agency – MorganMyers
Entry title: Illinois Farm Families We Are The 96: The Corporation.
Specialty
Environmental Sciences U.S., Inc.
Agency – HLK
Entry Title: Share The Spark Project Campaign
NAMA Presents Highest Honors
The National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) presented its three highest honors Thursday for Agribusiness Leader of the Year, Marketer of the Year, and Ag Association Leader of the Year.
Todd Frazier, Vice President of U.S. Marketing for Corteva Agriscience, is the 2024 Agribusiness Leader of the Year.Frazier credits his success to a listening first approach, using each day as an opportunity to strive for newer, better solutions. His career is highlighted by unique experiences with industry-leading companies, including American Cyanamid, DuPont Pioneer and Corteva, lending a broad and diverse perspective that serves him well in his current role as Vice President of U.S. Marketing at Corteva.
NAMA24 Todd Frazier, Corteva 2:54Brian Torrey, Advertising & Marketing Communications Manager at John Deere, is this year’s Marketer of the Year award recipient.
Torrey has held three key roles in his time at John Deere, overseeing both creative and media activities. During his tenure in these roles, he’s demonstrated a passion for customers that is consistently reflected in the creative work produced, and the relationships he’s built with industry professionals and social media influencers — all while keeping John Deere’s customers and marketing goals top of mind.
NAMA24 Brian Torrey, John Deere 3:32Richard Guebert Jr, Illinois Farm Bureau, is NAMA’s Ag Association Leader of the Year.
In December 2023, Richard Guebert Jr. took a step back from a 40-plus-year career serving agriculture when he wrapped up the end of his decade-long term as Illinois Farm Bureau President. Guebert spent the last 20 years at the highest level of IFB, serving maximum terms of 10 years as Vice President and 10 more as President. He also served as President of Country Financial, Illinois Agricultural Service Company and the IAA Foundation.
NAMA24 Richard Guebert Jr, Illinois Farm Bureau 3:35First Golden Mic Awards Presented at NAMA
We will be giving out more Golden Mic awards later this year because there are lots of people we have interviewed even more than the individuals on this first list – such as Bob Dinneen, former President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, who we interviewed over 300 times between 2005 and 2019!
Ag Management Solutions and Minnesota Soybean CEO Tom Slunecka was the very first person to be interviewed with the ZimmComm Golden Microphone at the NAMA conference in 2007 and deserves some of the credit for making that our trademark since he encouraged Chuck to use the gold windscreen on the new Heil mic we had just gotten. Slunecka and Curt Blades with the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) received the highest of this first batch of Golden Mic Awards – the coveted gold mic trophy. An additional ten NAMA members received the Golden Mic gold medal. Next we need to come up with some kind of award for the people we have the most photos of in our photo albums! Pretty sure Tom Vilsack would win that one.Here is the complete list of all the 2024 ZimmComm Golden Mic Awards presented at NAMA:
Tom Slunecka – 26+ interviews since 2005
Curt Blades – 19 since 2009
Amy Bradford – 20 since 2011
Beth Burgy – 12 since 2008
Sara Steever – 11 since 2010
Matt Coniglio – 10 since 2007
John Rozum – 10 since 2008
Don Tourte – 10 since 2008
Lynn Henderson – 9 since 2007
Kenna Rathai – 8 since 2007
Stephanie Gable – 7 since 2007
Gardner Hatch – 4 since 2006
Precision Ag News 4/25
Grounded in Ag Training Platform Introduced
Communications and training firm Grounded Communications LLC is launching Grounded in AgTM, a new online training platform to address the agricultural knowledge gap for organizations.
The platform is designed to meet the needs of anyone seeking a better understanding of agriculture starting with foundational topics, according to Janice Person, founder of Grounded in Ag and CEO of parent company Grounded Communications LLC.
“The goal of Grounded in Ag is to offer a new way for people to be more productive early in their tenure and help them avoid costly mistakes that jeopardize customer trust or, more importantly, their own credibility or that of their employer,” Person said, noting that the audiences for the platform primarily include professionals who serve agriculture organizations, in functional areas including marketing, communications, human resources, legal, regulatory and even finance. “The diversity of sources and topics is incredible – we have 40 plus experts offering more than 700 years of experience in ag teaching in these courses,” Person said.
The platform includes easy-to-follow videos (most ranging from 5-20 minutes in length) augmented with a full range of curated, vetted links to resources online that can add more depth to the understanding of a given topic. In addition, downloadable PDFs are available to provide additional information and for future reference. Because applying this information to their current organization is so critical, there are other PDFs provide areas of inquiry for the employees to dig into what impacts their segment most and why. All of this coursework is paired with a community that lets people interact with peers and stay current on real-time industry developments.
2024 Agri-Marketing Conference Underway
Don’t let your future pass you by at the 2024 Agri-Marketing Conference April 24–25 in Kansas City, Missouri. There will be lots of photos and some interviews for you.
The theme this year is Bright Horizons and it’s a beautiful day in Kansas City as the students are working on their presentations and the exhibitors are setting up booths for the big kick off tonight with the Best of NAMA awards and Connection Point opening reception. We’ll be exhibiting in the Connection Point in booth 202.
The photo album is started so stay tuned for more!
Animal Ag News 4/23
ZimmComm Celebrates 20th Anniversary
ZimmComm is celebrating 20 years of serving the agricultural business, marketing, and media industries in 2024.
The company was founded in 2004 by former farm broadcasters Chuck and Cindy Zimmerman with the idea of helping agribusinesses and organizations reach media outlets with their message in a new way.
“What is now social media was called ‘new media’ at the time,” said Chuck Zimmerman. “The idea of using the internet for communications was just starting with blogs and podcasts.”
First, ZimmComm created AgWired as an on-line publication for news and information from the world of agribusiness. It was the first blog targeted to agriculture, and still is a blog, which was a new term at the time that meant “web log” – a simple website that allowed users to post new messages in a chronological format. “We became agribloggers,” said Zimmerman, who adopted that name as his Twitter handle (@AgriBlogger) when the platform, now known as X, was launched in 2006.
ZimmComm started the first agriculture-focused podcast in early 2005 and coined the term “farm podcasting” with the ZimmCast, which continues to include interviews from around the agribusiness world.
ZimmComm developed “Talking News Releases” as one of its first services in 2005, creating AgNewsWire.com for posting and sharing content with audio, in addition to direct distribution by email. “As former farm broadcasters, we recognized the importance of having sound bites for stories,” Cindy said. “We wanted to make it easier for both the newsmakers and the news reporters to get quality audio without having to set up interviews.”
The first blog dedicated to the U.S. biofuels industry was developed by ZimmComm in September 2005, just one month after the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) was signed into law. Called DomesticFuel.com at the time, Energy.AgWired continues to work with the industry and includes the Ethanol Report podcast, sponsored by the Renewable Fuels Association since 2008. Both the ethanol and biodiesel industry were early adopters of new media.Read More
Farm and Biofuel Groups Pleased with E15 Waiver
The Environmental Protection Agency Friday issued a waiver to allow E15 (15 percent ethanol fuel) to continue to be sold this summer. The temporary waiver under the Clean Air Act was issued “to address extreme and unusual fuel supply circumstances caused by a confluence of events, including the ongoing war in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East, that are affecting all regions of the Nation.”
Ethanol organizations and stakeholders welcomed the action, which the Renewable Fuels Association says will help American consumers save money at the pump this summer, while also cutting greenhouse gas emissions and harmful tailpipe pollution. However, RFA Senior VP for Government & Public Affairs Troy Bredenkamp says the ultimate goal is to find a permanent solution to allow E15 sales in the summer. “We are certainly seeking some sort of legislative solution to solve this long term so we don’t have to keep begging and pleading to make sure that E15 does not disappear during the summer.”
Learn more in this edition of The Ethanol Report podcast with Bredenkamp and Chief Economist Scott Richman.
Ethanol Report 4-19-24 28:13
American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) CEO Brian Jennings said he was grateful to see the administration respond to the industry’s requests. “Earlier this year, the Biden administration finally confirmed E15 can permanently be offered in eight Midwest states, but postponed year-round access in those states until the summer of 2025….A permanent solution to year-round E15 will ensure these benefits aren’t left to the whim of ad hoc agency decision making in the future.”
The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and state corn grower organizations also praised the decision. “This waiver is good news for corn growers and those in rural America who will benefit economically from this decision and for consumers who will save money at the pump during a busy travel season,” said Minnesota farmer and NCGA President Harold Wolle.