USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS): 2022 Census of Agriculture

Situation / Challenge

The Census of Agriculture is conducted once every five years and tells the story of the American farmer, rancher, and producer over time. The complete count of these farms and ranches is crucial as it is a comprehensive national effort undertaken to inform policy discussions that will impact the future of American agriculture.

Achieving this outcome requires a broad, targeted outreach strategy that can reach the world’s largest audience of producers while also reaching underrepresented groups and meeting Congressional mandates that NASS maintains a minimum 80% response rate.

Approach

Sage delivered a research-driven, omnichannel outreach strategy that engaged partners; macro and micro-influencers; and agricultural earned and paid media at the national, state and local levels. We prioritized the necessity of gaining participation from target audiences while mitigating message fatigue.

To deliver on this approach, Sage developed a message hierarchy focused on specific stakeholder audiences, distributed through a tactical plan that included storytelling, radio and podcast segments, print and digital media, industry media pitches, and paid and organic social media campaigns. We developed a campaign narrative theme, “The Ag Census counts because…,” featuring personal quotes from farmers, ranchers and industry professionals, and amplified that messaging through a series of creative assets.

Sage’s earned media-strategy had its own strategic forks. The first fork focused on broadly educating audiences 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 would hear consistent themes from multiple sources. This included an emphasis on storytelling that used newsworthy angles to tell why achieving a comprehensive and inclusive Ag Census count matters, the diverse and valued stakeholders it represents, and the impact Ag Census data has on farming and ranching communities. This coordination also helped further nurture the agency’s existing partner relationships while making new connections with underrepresented groups.

Our earned media strategy’s second fork focused on building relationships among macro and micro-influencers who have significant reach inside the ag community, especially underrepresented groups. Key to this effort was winning the attention and participation of these highly independent voices to support these themes at a time when large segments of the ag community were concerned about the validity of federal data.

With respect to the paid media efforts, Sage planned and managed a multi-flight advertising campaign across social media, programmatic buys, and ag radio. We catered and segmented the creative and scripts per audience, focusing on a mix of static and video content.

Results

Paid media efforts, over the course of a one-year campaign, garnered over 4.8 million estimated impressions and 845k plus engagements. Radio also generated 485k estimated impressions with 566 total spots.

Earned media efforts generated over 333 million potential impressions in national and local earned media. Partner and influencer outreach led to strategic engagements with Food Tank, Rural Coalition, CAST, AALA, and chef Andrew Zimmern, and garnered over 8.7 million potential impressions.

Sage’s creative efforts also resulted in a 2023 Gold Hermes Creative Award.

Coverage