THE CHALLENGE

To increase awareness of the agricultural community, particularly in urban areas of Nova Scotia. Also to educate the general public on the importance of supporting local farmers and establishing a relationship with the farming community.

THE SOLUTION

The creation of a campaign branded “Meet Your Farmer” with the primary focus on digital and social media and secondary focus on print collateral.

The heart of this campaign is the website where we focus on profiling local farmers in the Nova Scotia agriculture community. Our goal is to put a face on local agriculture and reconnect with the urban population by providing profile stories, articles and videos as well as access to local resources.

To reach our urban target audience we have developed a fun, friendly and educational campaign. To drive traffic to the website we have produced several print pieces such as trade show display, posters, ads, rack cards and magnets. Although print is a necessary piece of the puzzle to raise awareness, we find that most of our traffic comes from the implementation of Facebook, Facebook ads, Google Adwords and Constant Contact newsletters.

THE RESULT

The Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture was recognized nationally at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture Annual Meeting & Harvest Banquet on Oct 20th 2010 in Ottawa. They were the recipient of the 2010 Agriculture Awareness and Education Award. In addition thousands of visitors have gone to their new website and are reading their newsletter. This is an ongoing project and the results continue to improve.