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Joe Osborn says, half-jokingly, that the agricultural and rural-marketing shop he co-founded two decades ago basically used to shut down during the slow summer months.

Not anymore. There’s too much money to be made off the growth in agriculture.

Agribusiness has emerged as a lucrative sweet spot of the marketing industry, thanks to strong global demand for grain and meat and the huge amounts of capital sloshing around the ethanol market. Those factors — and others — have generated bounty for "ag" marketing shops from St. Louis to Kansas City and Calgary, Alberta.

Based in a Clayton high-rise, Osborn & Barr reaped a record $19 million in revenue last year. About 85 percent of its work comes from "agribusiness" clients such as biotech giant Monsanto, based in Creve Coeur.
"We’ve been real fortunate to have a good speciality," said Osborn. "That specialty is booming right now."

A 2006 survey by Chesterfield-based trade publication AgriMarketing found companies spending $615 million a year promoting products and services for agricultural producers. Spending on marketing rose 15 percent in 2007, with growth of 10 percent to 15 percent anticipated this year, estimated publisher Lynn Henderson.

Down on the farm, incomes are spiking. The Agriculture Department projected that net U.S. farm income would reach an all-time high of $87.5 billion in 2007, up 48 percent in one year. "The farm economy was strong" in 2005, Chuck Conner, deputy secretary of agriculture, said in a recent interview. "Obviously, it’s

tremendously stronger now."

Agriculture is a notoriously volatile industry, and it’s unclear what will happen to marketing dollars if a retreat in crop prices causes farm operators to pull back on their spending on John Deere tractors or fancy global positioning system devices.

"In our industry, we live in fear of the next year," said Willie Vogt, editorial director at Farm Progress Cos., a leading publisher of agriculture magazines. "Agriculture is the perfect industry of the other shoe dropping."

Some insiders caution that not all of the extra cash floating around is filtering over to agencies, since agribusinesses’ production costs have also gone up. Still, the agencies don’t seem too worried.

Clients "are all feeling more flush," said Bob Wilhelm, vice president for customers at AdFarm, a Calgary-based agricultural agency and one of the biggest players in the U.S. market. Agriculture is "a much happier place than it was maybe five years ago." AdFarm’s revenues have increased 10 percent to 15 percent a year for the past several years, Wilhelm said.

In Kansas City, McCormick Co.’s revenue from "ag" business grew 11 percent last year to $13.3 million, according to AgriMarketing. The roots of the country’s 14th-oldest ad agency go back to the oil and cattle businesses; McCormick still works for beef and pork producers.

Even if clients don’t expect to maintain current high commodity prices and land values, the worldwide demand for agricultural products is strong, said Michael Turley, executive vice president at Osborn & Barr. "It’s going to give us a good run for a number of years."

NOT YOUR

granddad’s farm

In what has become a highly technical industry, agribusiness has felt a sharper need for more sophisticated marketing.

Executives at agriculture-focused agencies say the demand for specialized knowledge can give them an advantage over the big consumer agencies that dominated ag marketing not long ago.

"We’re able to go deeper into the market" and clarify the industry’s nuances, said Steve Barr, chief executive of Osborn & Barr.

Clarity is valuable these days. It’s no longer enough to tout the horsepower on that new tractor, for example; today, agencies are expected to know all about the different transmissions and the auto-guidance technology, said Vogt.

And if you don’t have a grasp on the facts, don’t bother showing up http://us-no-fax-payday-loans.com. Farmers are sophisticated, sharp-eyed on product claims and shrewd on purchase decisions.

"Very little of what is sold to them is an impulse purchase," said Roger Yount, chief executive of Brighton, a Clayton-based marketing firm that works with Monsanto’s Delta & Pine Land cottonseed business.

Since consolidation has put big farmers and farm operators in the position to drive huge chunks of business, wooing them is imperative. In January, Brighton chartered a plane to transport 150 cotton farmers to Nashville, Tenn., from Texas for a commodities conference.

"The question was, ‘How important are these guys?’" said Yount. "They’re that important. We see value in treating them on that level."

Increasingly, agencies may be called in to help agribusiness navigate a swirling vortex of political issues — food safety, climate change, genetic modification and organic farming, to name a few. Agencies "have to know more than they used to," said Vogt. "Marketing is a much more sophisticated thing than it used to be."

On family farms, the reality often contrasts dramatically with familiar images of an older gentleman in plaid shirt, overalls and beaten-up cap, said Wilhelm.

Up-and-coming farmers, he said, are apt to have left the farm economy, graduated from a state college with a business degree, and decided to return. They don’t think being a farmer defines them. They admire a "beautiful piece of green iron" — the farm combine — but may subcontract the reaping work. They favor polo shirts over coveralls.

Understanding "who those people are (and) how they make their business decisions" is a major issue, said Wilhelm.

DIFFERENT APPROACHES

Much agricultural marketing is "business-to-business," generally seen as the homely and quiet cousin of hip and trendy consumer marketing.

Ag marketing remains dominated by print advertising, but it now includes marketing tactics honed in the consumer-products arena.

In 2006, Kansas City-based Nicholson Kovac Inc. tried guerilla marketing to push a new cotton-protecting insecticide called Carbine. The agency helped devise and coordinate a tour of a Volkswagen Beetle through Mississippi, Arkansas and the Missouri Bootheel. The car was painted to resemble a tarnished plant bug — all the better to catch the attention of growers and retailers.

"The world of media is changing so rapidly," said Sheree Johnson, senior vice president. "We’re looking at new stuff."

Phil Johnson, chief operating officer at Colle & McVoy in Minneapolis, knows people don’t consider agriculture sexy. But it’s hard to argue with the numbers: The marketing agency has reaped growth in revenue of 3 percent to 8 percent from agricultural clients in each of the past five years.

"We’ve found it to be a very solid category for us," said Johnson, who helps oversee work for CNH Global N.V., the maker of Case and New Holland heavy equipment.

Ditto for Chris Wirthwein, chief executive of 5MetaCom in Carmel, Ind. The 30-person marketing shop turns piles of technical data from, say, Elanco Animal Health into sales pitches.

"Do I want to go to a cocktail party and tell people I’m working on a swine antibiotic? Eventually, you stop telling people," said Wirthwein. "But when you’re into it, it’s pretty cool."

jmcwilliams@post-dispatch.com

314-340-8372

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