Situation
The Census of Agriculture (known as the “ag census”) is conducted once every five years. Its purpose is to collect information that tells the story of the American farmer, rancher, and producer over time. Getting a complete count of American farms and ranches is crucial, as the ag census is the most comprehensive national effort to inform policy discussions that will impact the future of American agriculture. It requires a broad, targeted outreach strategy that will reach the largest and most comprehensive audience of producers, while also reaching underrepresented groups as Congress mandates that NASS maintain a minimum 80% response rate.
Approach
The goal was to educate a broad audience of farmers, ranchers and producers on the role of the ag census—and motivate them to respond to help inform future policy decisions and programs that will benefit them and their industry.
Sage conducted 60 in-depth interviews with internal and external stakeholders to inform the strategy for the ag census outreach program. Given the length of the campaign, a key concern for NASS was preventing message fatigue among audiences. Sage proposed an iterative PR and marketing approach that evolved the message throughout the various stages of the campaign. This ensured audiences would receive messages that were consistently relevant and fresh and delivered in measured cadence. Sage dubbed this campaign “Rolling Thunder” to represent this steady and progressive flow of messaging.
To deliver on this approach, Sage developed a message hierarchy focused on specific stakeholder audiences, delivered through an omnichannel tactical plan that included storytelling; radio and podcast segments; print and digital media; paid and organic social media; national, state and local partner engagement; macro- and micro-influencers outreach; and national, regional and targeted media relations. We developed a campaign narrative theme, “The Ag Census Counts Because…” featuring personal quotes from farmers, ranchers and industry professionals. We then amplified that messaging through a series of creative assets.
Sage’s earned media strategy had its own strategic forks. The first fork focused on educating audiences at a broader scale and encouraging all demographic groups to respond to the ag census. We coordinated program messaging between NASS’ national staff and state statisticians and their national and state partners, so farmers, ranchers, and producers heard consistent themes from multiple trusted sources. This included an emphasis on storytelling that used newsworthy angles to tell why achieving a comprehensive census count matters, the diverse and valued stakeholders it represents, and the impact census data has on farming and ranching communities.
Given partners’ affinity, credibility, influence and reach, partner engagement at the state, local and national level was a major linchpin throughout the integrated marketing communications approach. The partner strategy focused on nurturing existing partner relationships and making new connections with underrepresented groups critical to achieving a comprehensive and inclusive count.
The influencer relations outreach program focused on engaging macro- and micro-influencers who had a strong affinity with the agricultural community, a significant level of reach and engagement, a neutral platform and reach into underrepresented groups, and a willingness to support pro-bono efforts.
Results
The 2022 ag census launched in November 2022 and extended into May 2023. Over the Rolling Thunder campaign, Sage’s outreach secured more than 20 pieces of earned media coverage that generated more than 333 million potential impressions. Most articles were positive in sentiment and had strong message pull-through, including how and why to respond, key deadlines, how the data is used, confidentiality, the new questions added, and a variety of messages to overcome fatigue. More than half of the articles secured included a link back to the ag census website, increasing the potential for traffic to be driven directly to USDA properties.
Highlights from the secured coverage include tier-one national outlets such as the Washington Post, Reuters, Forbes and U.S. News & World Report; these articles had both a broad and deep reach into key audiences and the outlets’ strong reputations added validity to the ag census and call for responses. Extensive targeted coverage spanned numerous agricultural trade media and local news outlets. The radio segments with Minnesota Public Radio and the Dakota Radio Group were syndicated and reached a large segment of those key regions where the ag community is substantial. Another highlight is the article placed with Abasto. This was particularly impactful, as it marked a successful engagement a publication whose audience is one of the underrepresented groups in the census.
Outreach efforts to partners and influencers generated more than 8.7 million potential impressions. Most of the coverage had strong message pull-through, sharing the deadline and most important census details. The majority of coverage linked back to the census website, increasing the potential of driving traffic directly to USDA properties. It is also notable that many of the partners and influencers chose to utilize provided graphics, increasing the reach and value of USDA’s creative materials.
The most noteworthy engagements from the influencer outreach were posts from TV personality and celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern. He and his team were very open to utilizing USDA’s language and graphics across three platforms, reaching almost 3 million followers combined.
With partner outreach, each piece of coverage was important, as it directly reached the key audience of farmers, producers and ranchers; highlights included a podcast with Food Tank, which provided a unique platform for USDA’s messaging and the Rural Coalition’s website pop-up, which reminded all visitors to its website of the census deadline.