Posts Tagged ‘Culture’

AdFarmers help out Calgary’s kids with a luncheon on August 27th

By Melissa Sawatzky, August 16, 2010

A characteristic of the agricultural world that we take to heart is the notion of helping a neighbour in need, and that’s why AdFarm is partnering with an important organization called Brown Bagging For Calgary’s Kids (BB4CK). This group is dedicated to fueling Calgary’s children with nutritious lunches year-round, providing food to over 70 schools/camps and delivering over 1,500 lunches every day in Calgary. These lunches are prepared to high nutritional standards and are provided discreetly with a no-strings-attached policy.

To help support the work of BB4CK, we’ll be hosting a fundraising luncheon on August 26, 2010 with the Executive Director of BB4CK, Bob McInnis, and AdFarm employees, clients, vendors, and friends. This event will kickstart a campaign that lasts until the end of 2010 with a goal of raising $5,000.

If you feel that this is important in our community, please consider attending our event or contributing some needed funds to BB4CK: to find out more information about the luncheon, please contact gillian.hale@adfarmonline.com; to donate directly to the organization, CLICK HERE to be re-routed to a safe and secure website; and above all, please contact us or comment back if you have any questions or something to add to this post!

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Are Creative Agencies Keeping Creative?

By Heather Koehler, May 3, 2010

Glenn Kaworski, Founder and Managing Director of The Business of Ideas, took some time to talk creative with us at the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference. He asserts that creativity doesn’t spring magically from “creative” people, but that agencies (and organizations) need to make creativity happen.

We caught up with Glenn after his presentation to get his thoughts on what agencies do well — and not so well — when it comes to helping ideas happen.

At AdFarm, we refuse to work in silos, although we are fans of silos (on a dairy farm). Working in teams that bring together creative, account management, strategy, digital, public relations and social media departments, gives us a healthy dose of what Kaworski calls “creative abrasion” — opposing ideas, various perspectives, and un-group think. Glenn’s presentation was a helpful reminder of why that model works and how we can make it work even harder.

What tiny improvement could an organization make to help creativity happen?

Heather Koehler and Jacob Edenfield are co-writers on this blog post. And while they share many of the same opinions about creative abrasion, they differ in their views on creative scarification. You can find them tweeting — and retweeting one another — at @hlkoehler and @jacobedenfield, respectively

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Agriculture, the original community. Dot com.

By Glenn Dawes, January 27, 2010

AT LAST, WELCOME TO ADFARMONLINE.COM –FARMING’S NEWEST COMMUNITY.

But is it really a community? Or an online website? Social interaction? Or modern marketing?

To quote Adam Broitman (circ.us), “We now live in a culture of participation. A culture where all mediated touch points are interaction points. The result is that all media becomes social, and subsequently, all marketing is social.”

I like this observation, because it implies that brands (including our own) have to come down off the mountain and actually participate in the discussion, which, we’ve all heard, is happening with or without us. And so, here we are, doing what we do best as an agricultural company. Talking to farmers and clients. Asking for input. And, of course, participating in the discussion.

The world really has changed. But what better way to participate in agriculture than to create an online community dedicated to agriculture? Participation may be the new interruption. However, I sincerely hope that the content we provide here helps to advance agriculture into the 21st Century, not just market it. And not that it needs our help. Agriculture practically invented community, although its origins don’t stem from a website. Rather, they evolved from the honest support that ancient farmers offered their peers.

Oh, well. Enjoy our community. Take part. Or watch as we figure out our roles in this thing.

Reminds me of another quote, this time, from a farmer: “Lettin’ the cat out of the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in.”

What do you think is the best part of participating in an online community?

Glenn Dawes is Creative Director for AdFarm. He can be contacted directly at Glenn.Dawes@adfarmonline.com

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