The creative crew.

I aint afraid of no ghosts!

Whos ready for a bath?

"You'll say WOW every time!"

Happy Birthday Kristie!

• Opening of the pheasant hunting season. South Dakota is the only state that shoots its state bird. After all, we have 13 times more pheasants than residents of the state. The opening weekend is truly a time-honored tradition in our state.

• Submission of our entries in the “Best of NAMA” awards competition. We were very pleased with the entries we submitted for the competition, in spite of challenges we faced due to the serious economic recession of late 2008 and the first half of 2009. I suspect all agencies have experienced the same dilemma. We’re eagerly looking forward to the Region III NAMA Awards in January.

• Preparation for the NAFB Annual Meeting in Kansas City. We are helping three clients with their presence at the annual Trade Talk event. The NAFB gathering is always an enjoyable experience; those farm broadcasters know how to put on a good time!

As I write, I’m being summoned to an important planning meeting for a client presentation next week, so I’ll sign off for now. Back soon with more news from “On the Road.”

Truth is, I've made a conscious effort to be in the office for at least two consecutive weeks. I sorely needed the catch-up time to focus on several important fronts.

Remember those blog posts of February and March lamenting about the economic recession and overall business slow-down? Well, it seems that many clients and prospects discovered that the "wait and see" approach to marketing didn't work very well. We're now seeing projects that were put on hold last winter finally coming to life. And that outreach program to introduce our agency to new prospects has generated a lot of meetings and proposals.

Not that we're entirely out of this recession just yet, but we're certainly seeing signs of life that give us reason to be hopeful that better days are ahead. However, business seems different from pre-recession levels. We're bidding more specific projects with a definite start and end--clients seem reluctant to commit beyond a three month plan of activity. And everyone is watching costs more closely than ever.

This "new economy" is more cautious, more serious, and more sober. I guess that stands to reason. The term "business as usual" is one that I haven't heard for a long, long time and perhaps won't ever again. As a result, here at Paulsen we're working harder and smarter than ever before, trying to give our clients a competitive edge using new communication tools such as social media. This recession has taken everyone out of their comfort zones and I guess that's a "good thing" as Martha would say.

I did get back on the road to attend the World Pork Expo in Des Moines last week. Account Executive Heather Covrig and Marketing Strategist Susan Janos joined me for the trip. Several Paulsen clients including POET Nutrition and E.I. Medical Products were exhibiting, and as always, it was a good time to visit with a lot of people.

With so many changes in the swine industry over the past five years, the Pork Expo has changed accordingly. It seemed like fewer attendees, but also included many more international visitors. The swine industry has truly gone global, creating both opportunities and challenges for everyone involved.

We're "on the road" again next week with client meetings in Colorado and California. I'll be interested to see if these clients agree that the business outlook is indeed improving.

Kubota Tractor Corporation was well-represented at the World Pork Expo. This Kubota RTV 9000 has been equipped to serve as an emergency fire vehicle at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, site of the Expo.	Time-out during the World Pork Expo to visit the POET Nutrition Booth. Pictured here, left to right, Heather Corvrig, Paulsen Account Executive, Amber Haugen, Marketing Manager, POET Nutrition, Greg Guse, President, Paulsen Marketing, Jose Artigas, Director of International Business Development, POET Nutrition, and Susan Janos, Marketing Strategist with Paulsen Marketing.

Heather Covrig and Susan Janos were in “hog heaven” at the World Ag Expo. Everyone agreed, the barbequed ribs were fantastic!

Our associate creative director Katie Levitt and media director Kristi Moss did an excellent job in sharing the creative rationale and strategic thought behind the WildBlue "Out Here" campaign. The combined topics of high speed satellite delivered via satellite to rural America, and effectively targeting and reaching the rural lifestyle audience seemed to be of high interest to the 30 or so Iowa NAMA members who attended this monthly program. It was a great opportunity to meet fellow NAMA members and address the questions they had about the WildBlue campaign. We enjoyed our visit to Des Moines.

Also want to thank Janelle Buxton of Successful Farming magazine and Julie Schwalbe of Living the Country Life for meeting with members of our interactive and media teams to share ideas related to Internet advertising. So many new possibilities are evolving for our clients in this dynamic new area of marketing communications. It's a challenge to keep up with the latest developments, and we appreciate Janelle and Julie making their experts available for this discussion.

From Des Moines I traveled on to Madison, WI to meet with Kelli Betsinger, our remote account executive. Together, we went to Milwaukee for another new business capabilities meeting with a company that serves the livestock nutrition industry. Although we talked about a broad range of marketing communications needs, the priority again seems to be on digital strategies and services, much like other outreach conversations we've had with several agribusiness companies in the last few weeks. No doubt about it, the Internet is where the marketing opportunities are these days.

It's a great time of year to be on the road. New calves are being born, pickups full of seed are on the road, and you can see where several attempts have been made to get fieldwork started. It won't be long now; the annual Rites of Spring are about to begin!

As a result of the current slow-down, we've embarked on an active business development effort. We've identified a number of companies who we feel we're compatible with given our size, capabilities, experience and culture, and reached out to them seeking an introductory meeting. The pleasant surprise is that most of these companies have been gracious enough to give us an hour of their time to tell them more about our agency and for us to learn of their marketing and advertising needs.

This past week Kristi Moss, our Media Director, and I met with several prospects in Kansas. Later in the week I met with a prospect in Minneapolis. Each of these meetings was very enjoyable and very productive in a number of ways. There's a possibility that subsequent meetings to discuss specific proposals will evolve. During these meetings we briefly touch on each of the integrated marketing communications services we provide: market research and strategic planning, creative services, media planning/placement, public relations, digital strategies and "Big Ideas."

The common denominator from each of these discussions is the request to "Tell me more about digital strategies."

At this point we devote the discussion to the prospect's Web site and overall Internet presence with questions such as:

• Is your Web site accomplishing all you want it to do?

• Is your current site as interactive with your audience as it could be?

• Are you satisfied with your search rankings?

• What do you have in place for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?

• Are you leveraging the Internet to give your company an advantage over your major competitor(s)?

• Who in your industry has the best Web presence and why?

Clearly, this is an area of great interest for everyone we've met, with our meetings running much longer than the anticipated 45-60 minutes. It's not that research, strategy, media, creative and PR are not important, it's just that the digital discussion seems confusing to many people, and the future of marketing is so closely tied to this topic. I'm very glad that we are in a solid position to offer viable integrated solutions via the excellent team of professionals we have here at Paulsen.  

I'm really enjoying this "outreach" program. We're meeting some very interesting people and companies, and we're learning there is an awful lot of commonality among agri-business marketing departments. They're all looking for more effective and more efficient ways to communicate with their target audiences.

We're back "On the Road" again next week with a trip to Des Moines where we've been invited to participate in the Iowa NAMA Chapter's monthly meeting by presenting an interesting case history for one of our clients, WildBlue High Speed Satellite Internet. Then on to Wisconsin for another "outreach" meeting.

Recent travels from Kansas to Minnesota indicate that spring is on the way; agriculture is once again about to come alive with a new season of hope and activity!

"What do cows actually do?" was one of the questions posed by a fifth grader during the Ag Day event at Hayward Elementary School here in Sioux Falls. Our CEO, Thane Paulsen was on hand to help serve pizza, milk and pudding to over 100 inquisitive youngsters.  An area pork producer and dairy producer explained how they produce safe, healthy food for a hungry world. The questions that were asked are good indicators of the need to educate and inform the non-ag audience of the role and importance of agriculture in our lives today.

Ag Day has even greater significance to all of us here at Paulsen, since a large percentage of our total agency business is derived from agricultural and rural lifestyle clients.  We're proud to be a part of the contribution our clients, and their customers make toward the health and prosperity of our country.  It's only appropriate that on Ag Day, we salute American Agribusiness and our country's farmers and ranchers for the incredibly efficient job they do in producing food and fiber for all of us.

The local Kubota Tractor dealer has just delivered the tractors for our agency Ride-N-Drive.  We'll post photos of our agency staff demonstrating their expertise shortly.  

Lots of interesting "On the Road" trips planned for the next few weeks.  We'll keep you posted!

Also had the opportunity to visit with our friends at Bock and Associates, a media rep firm in Eden Prairie, MN. We spent some time discussing the ag economic outlook and the trend for today's media plans to include digital strategies as a key component of almost all ag media plans. I know it's a topic that's getting a great deal of time and attention at our agency as well.

Thankfully, we have some very knowledgeable people here that understand the value and importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and the role of Social Media in an overall marketing plan. I would never have believed how much the Internet would impact and change the advertising agency business. Most certainly, it's a whole new ball game.  

Maybe they CAN teach an old dog, new tricks--at least they're trying!

More news from "On the Road" next week as we meet with our good friends at Integra Seeds in Ames, IA.

First the World Ag Expo.  This show has a truly international flavor to it with lots of visitors from all over the world.  Because of the size and scope of the dairy industry in California, it includes a sizable focus on products, equipment and services targeted to the dairy producer.  In spite of terrible milk prices,  (less than half of last year's milk price at this time) our dairy-industry clients told us that booth traffic was quite strong and producer attitudes were reasonably good--all things considered.

The World Ag Expo also features a huge offering of farm equipment, with lots of very specialized equipment designed for the specialty crops grown in California and the Great Northwest.  It's always so amazing to experience the true size and scope of American Agriculture, and the World Ag Expo does a great job of showcasing it.

From Tulare, on to Louisville and the National Farm Machinery Show.  This was my first visit to this show and I have to say I was absolutely astounded with the sheer impact of so much equipment presented in such a huge indoor exposition.  From the large crowd attending this show I had to ask myself, "What economic crisis?"  I'm sure that everyone is feeling the effects of this economic downturn, but again farmer attitudes appeared to be upbeat and exhibitors seemed very pleased with the crowds inspecting their offerings.  Two of our farm equipment clients were very pleased with their participation in the show and came away encouraged by the interest in the new products they were introducing at the show.  The big question for everyone is whether this interest and enthusiasm for new products will be translated to sales this spring or not.

No doubt, there is a great percentage of marketing budgets allocated to farm shows and expositions. Exhibiting at these shows is costly when you add up booth space, exhibit graphics, sales literature, shipping and set-up costs, and personnel/travel expenses. It becomes a very significant investment.  

Several Paulsen clients have asked how to maximize their trade show investment.  Here are Five Ways to Make the Most of Your Trade Show Presence:

1. Be there with a purpose.  Define your communications objective--New product introduction? Re-positioning existing product? Build database of qualified prospects? Gather customer input? These are all good reasons to be there, but be specific with your purpose and objectives.

2. Be consistent with your look and message.  Your trade show presence should be consistent and uniform with your branding efforts. In other words, your booth graphics, pre-show advertising, and sales literature should all accurately present your brand and advertising message.

3. Be clean and simple with your graphics.  Too many trade show booth graphics appear to be enlargements of sales literature. You don't see many trade show attendees "reading a booth" as they walk by.  Large, simple and impactful graphics and messages are most effective.  Like a well-crafted print ad, you want to stop the viewer, deliver a single message and create an interest to learn more.

4. Train your team.  Think of your trade show presence as a very important sales presentation to an important new customer.  You would certainly prepare a plan and discuss roles and expectations with all involved in the presentation, wouldn't you?  Same goes for the sales team working the trade show exhibit.  Make sure everyone is on the same page with objectives, discussion items and post-show follow-up activities.

5. Follow up sales leads. Too often viable sales leads are ignored after the show.  What a waste of time and resources! Have a follow-up plan in place. Enter the names of people who register at the booth into a database.  Distribute the leads to sales reps and dealers for them to make personal calls.  Send a letter or postcard thanking them for stopping by.  Direct them to your web site for more information.  Offer to provide additional information or schedule a sales call.  Following up on sales leads is closing the loop on a time-intensive and costly investment in presenting your company and products. Remember, you can get business by asking for it.

If we can offer any assistance to your trade show activities, don't hesitate to give me a call or drop me an e-mail at gguse@paulsenmarketing.com

My last blog post indicated that I was headed to Phoenix for the National Cattlemen's annual meeting and trade show. Unfortunately, I had to change my plans when I learned by mother, who was recently hospitalized, had taken a turn for the worse. It was a good thing that I changed my plans as Mom passed away the day before I was to leave for Phoenix.  I was so glad that our entire family was at her side as she quietly slipped away.  It was a difficult day for all of us. The next few days were so busy with arrangements, visiting relatives and friends and participating in her memorial service.  We were so touched by the kindness of so many people.  We're so grateful for that outpouring of support and thoughtfulness.  Admittedly, it's taken a week or so to get back in the groove.  

I was surprised how the loss of a parent can so profoundly affect you.  My free advice to any and all who read this:  If your mother and/or father are still with you, be sure to make a special effort to thank them for all they've done for you and be sure to tell them that you love them.  You won't regret it.

We had many Paulsen staff represent us and our clients at the NCBA show.  Media Director Kristi Moss, Account Planner Shane Dailey, Account Executives Jessica Hutchinson and Mindy Scholz and PR Coordinator Nicola Freeman were in Phoenix to support our clients who were exhibiting at the trade show.  The feedback I received from our folks was that producers seemed to be pretty upbeat and optimistic in spite of the current economic turmoil and soft cattle prices. That's what impresses me most about beef producers--their eternal optimism and ability to hang in there despite the forces that work against them.  It's what makes the American Cattleman (and woman) such a respected group in our country.

Next up from "On the Road" is the World Ag Expo in Tulare, CA and the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville.  I plan to attend both shows this week as we have a number of clients exhibiting at either or both shows.  It will be a great opportunity to meet with clients, and media/industry representatives, and get a sense of how 2009 is shaping up for the ag sector.

It's always fun to see what's new and just visit with folks--it's the best way I've found to learn what's really going on. I plan to take lots of photos for my next blog and for the next issue of Paulsen Post, our e-newsletter, which will be distributed very soon.

Back soon with more news from "On the Road".

Katie Levitt, Associate Creative Director, and Kristie Weiberg, Senior Art Director, with several of the awards Paulsen won at the Region III Best of NAMA Awards Banquet.

• First Place, Advertising Campaign to Rural Lifestyle Audience, WildBlue Communications.

• First Place, Single Page Ads, Series, WildBlue Communications

• Merit, Single Page Ads, Series, POET Nutrition

• First Place, Radio, Single, AgStar Financial Services

• First Place, Radio, Series, WildBlue Communications

• First Place, Direct Mail to Dealers/Distributors, Grain States Soya (Soy Best)

• First Place, Customer Brochures/Catalogs, POET Nutrition

• Merit, Customer Brochures/Catalogs, Integra Seeds

• Merit, Trade Show Exhibits, WildBlue Communications

• First Place, Specialty Advertising Campaign, McCauley/Ridley Equine Products

• Merit, Turf and Ornamental Campaign, Kubota Tractor Corporation

• First Place, Advertising to AgriBusiness, North Central NAMA,

Paulsen Marketing was well-represented at the Regional NAMA Awards with eleven staff members and two clients attending the event.

From tractors to feed ingredients, today’s agribusinesses have a lot in common.  They all seem to be facing the same challenges in their marketing communications programs, especially today.

Case in point.  Last week we had the opportunity to meet with a potential new client in Texas.  Mark Smither and I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with their sales and marketing team to learn more about their challenges and opportunities to grow the business. 

This potential client has a lot of needs, a lot of potential to grow and operating in a very challenging economic environment.  After three hours of discussion, we realized this company in the ingredients industry, faces the same challenges as our tractor client, or our ag finance client, or our livestock feed client—they’re looking for answers to the same questions:

• How can we best utilize the Internet?  How should we redesign our site from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 to incorporate more interaction from our customers and prospects?

• We spend an awful lot on trade shows—how can we maximize our investment and determine if we’re generating a reasonable return?

• We work with a separate PR firm—how can we make sure that our branding, Web presence, public relations and governmental affairs are in synch with one another?

• Our international business is growing rapidly; how can we affordably translate   all our key messages to communicate with these audiences?

• We want to produce a video directed to different audiences—how do we  plan for that?

• Our marketing budget is under pressure.  How do we do more with fewer dollars?

The take-away message for us is that clients today want to seamlessly integrate all of their marketing communications efforts to present a single-voice, unified message for the sake of maximum effectiveness and cost efficiency.  And no matter what sector of agribusiness you’re in, managing budgets and controlling costs is everything right now.  We understand that, and are proposing recommendations to accomplish that directive.

So this installment of “On the Road”, like most, had a valuable lesson for us. Even though companies operate in seemingly very diverse sectors of agriculture, the more things are different, the more they are the same.

Big trip to Des Moines planned this week for the Region III “Best of NAMA” Awards Banquet.  Paulsen Marketing will be well-represented with a dozen of us attending.

Should be a fun road trip.  Will report all the news (and photos) that are fit to print from Des Moines, later this week.

This is an excellent time to complete those annual end-of-year tasks and think about the year behind and the one just ahead.

Without question, 2008 was a year of extremes. Record highs and record lows.  A real roller coaster ride that doesn't appear to be completed yet-- I read and hear so many conflicting comments on what to expect in 2009.

I recall the South Dakota Corn Grower's Association annual meeting in early January of 2008.  In my 30+ years in agribusiness, I had not seen such positive attitudes and such a glowing outlook for the prospects of the New Year. Corn prices were near $5 and heading toward record levels. New federal mandates for ethanol production painted an even rosier picture for both those producing corn and those who were invested in ethanol production.  It seemed that FINALLY farmers were going to reap the rewards of their efforts from the past 20 years to build increased demand for their product.

Then came July. $7 corn, $15 beans, $148 per barrel oil and $4 per gallon gasoline. Things started to seem too good to be true, except for energy prices which were just plain scary.

By Fall, it was a whole new ball game.  All that hope and confidence I felt at the Corn Grower's event had vanished, replaced by doubt, uncertainty, and in some cases, despair.

Which brings us to the last day of 2008.  What DOES 2009 have in store for us? Is the worst behind us or yet to come?  

It will be VERY interesting to look back one year from today to assess 2009 and reflect on all that has happened.  Yes indeed, 2009 will be a year to remember!

…and all through the agency things were pretty darn quiet.  Many Paulsenites have taken a vacation day for traveling to visit family and friends for the holidays.  Others are getting caught up with last minute shopping and gift-wrapping. 

For those of us here at the agency for the half-day, it’s a great time for getting the desk cleared off, scanning trade journals or just reflecting on the past year.

And what a year it’s been here at Paulsen Marketing. 

- Several new clients.

- Six new staff members. 

- A major name-change campaign for one client, including multiple markets across the country. 

- A hugely successful re-branding effort for another national client.

- Significant advances in the digital media world with a number of new web sites and several on-line advertising programs for still other clients.

- A research program for our ag financial services client that generated over 2500 customer responses.

But most importantly, we helped these clients achieve their marketing goals that we jointly established a year ago, going into 2008. 

The quality of the creative was stronger than the year before, and our production team’s ability to execute continues to amaze me. 

Yes, we truly have been blessed with clients that we love working with and an agency staff that you just won’t find anywhere else--talented people who care and are committed to creative and strategic excellence.  It sure feels good, and I’m eagerly looking forward to 2009, in spite of all the dire economic warnings you read and hear.

It certainly will be interesting to look back next year at this time and share my thoughts.

It appears that January will be very busy here at Paulsen with a number of client meetings and industry events already scheduled. 

We’re planning on taking a large group of agency staff to the Region III Best of NAMA Awards event in Des Moines, January 15. This event is always a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and learn the latest news in the world of agri-marketing. 

Be assured that we’ll have plenty of news to share from “on the road” in early 2009.

Until then, from all of us at Paulsen Marketing, we wish you and your family the Peace, Joy, Love and Happiness of this Christmas Season!

Check it out at http://www.whatsticks.net/top10.php    It’s good food for thought.

Just scheduled an interesting trip for the week of January 5th, and I look forward to sharing my observations from “on the road” in Texas.

Until next week…