Nebraska Corn Board
The Nebraska Corn Board (NCB) is a state agency devoted to promoting the value of corn by creating opportunities through research, communication, market development and education. We are honored to be NCB’s agency of record.
Content Creation
As Nebraskans, we take corn very seriously – and as digital marketing professionals, we don’t waste time developing substantive content for the Nebraska Corn Board’s multiple audiences. We record each interview to generate print articles, online stories, videos, and social posts. With each new topic, we work to identify ways to connect with consumers who aren’t familiar with the agriculture industry.
Photography + Videography
Photos and videos are one of the best ways to capture attention online. Whenever we tell a story about corn, we look for as many ways as possible to repurpose that information into various multimedia packages.
NCB’s “Facts, Not Fear” video series features volunteers from CommonGround — a network of farm women — debunking common misconceptions about GMOs, antibiotics, hormones and more. Every episode of this series is available on YouTube!
Print + Digital Design
We’ve heard that “print is dead.” While we don’t believe that’s true, we do know that print is an expensive medium that is not necessarily the right choice for every audience.
Our digital strategy flips the script for Nebraska Corn Board. Instead of writing a few articles for a costly print publication each year, we use our billable time to produce as much substantive online content as possible. Our content strategy team uses social media analytics and web traffic to measure the success of CornsTalk content and build the print publication accordingly.
BCom’s vision for the “CornsTalk Newsletter” has been to transform it from a newspaper insert to a data-driven digital content hub.
In 2021, our “Sustainability” edition of the CornsTalk was honored at the Region II NAMA Awards (National Agri-Marketing Association). The consumer-focused multimedia campaign earned first place in the “website directed to consumers” category and second place in the category of “company or producer-funded PR campaign directed to consumers.)
Digital Ads
After our content is live online, our design and paid media teams unite to build ads that will boost website traffic with multiple audiences in mind. Our advertisements cross all the major social media platforms from Facebook to Snapchat.
Consumer Outreach
As our nation’s urban areas grow, consumers in the grocery store are increasingly separated from the producers who grow the meat, fruit and vegetables they buy. As a result, this growing knowledge gap has become filled with pseudoscience and misinformation about modern agriculture.
We are proud to partner with NCB to tackle this communication challenge head-on. One of the primary vehicles NCB is using for direct consumer outreach is a publication called CornsTalk.
This engaging publication is distributed in print to every newspaper (weekly/daily) subscriber in the state of Nebraska, as well as online to thousands of consumers and producers. We create this digital/print content from start to finish including research, strategy, expert interviews, design and publication.
Sustainability Defined
In spring 2020 we took on the subject of “sustainability.” Our goal was to show the ag industry is not only taking action to achieve global sustainability – it is experiencing measurable results. Every year Nebraska corn farmers are growing more with less – less water, fewer chemicals and a lower impact on the environment. Our team transformed research and expert interviews into compelling creative that shed light on topics such as cover crops, irrigation, cow manure and pollinator habitats. These stories were printed and distributed to every newspaper subscriber in Nebraska.
We also implemented a digital strategy that brought the online CornsTalk content to over 400,000 Nebraskans on Facebook alone and served over 16 million impressions across all digital platforms.
Connecting consumers to producers
We’re continuing to build on our consumer education strategy by taking a deeper look at food, where it comes from, and addressing questions consumers have surrounding the topic. This fall we are partnering with like-minded Nebraska groups to provide opportunities for consumers to tour farms and ask questions they have surrounding food and farming. Our goal with this upcoming project is to provide an authentic environment for consumers to ask questions and get answers directly from farmers. Content around this series will be available later this fall.
Producer Sellback
It’s critical farmers know their check-off dollar contributions (½ cent per bushel of all corn marketed in Neb.) are being used proactively to capitalize on opportunities for Nebraska corn producers.
One way to do this is by explaining how checkoff dollars are being used to discover new uses (and markets) for corn. For example, we’ve highlighted how Dr. Mark Wilkins, the Corn Checkoff Presidential Chair (a faculty position at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln funded by NCB), is discovering and developing new ways to bring value to corn by creating new renewable plastic products.
In addition to scientific research, we actively look for ways to highlight NCB funded partnerships. Investments in groups such as Field to Market, Farmers for Monarchs, Soil Health Partnership and Renewable Fuels Association (to name a few) work for Nebraska corn farmers by creating more sustainable farming practices which benefit the environment and future generations.
We love learning more about an industry that is so important for our state – and digging into the science that matters to both farmers and consumers. Most of all, we love bringing our digital-first perspective to the table in a partnership with this unique state agency!
