Agency overview
In this era of rapid change, we are reinventing core tenets of our business while fiercely guarding and enriching the assets that have propelled us forward for 32 years. In particular, the digital revolution has redefined the communications landscape and fundamentally altered how all of us consume information. It’s not just about print ads and news releases anymore.
Rhea + Kaiser opened its doors as an agricultural advertising agency on May 1, 1978. Today, we are a full-service marketing communications agency with expertise in agriculture, equipment, home and garden, animal health and nutrition, healthcare and education. We’re equally comfortable working in Milan, Tenn., or Milan, Italy – and everywhere in between.
New agency activities
The velocity of change we’re encountering – and must affect – is occurring at warp speed. It’s also driving two distinct initiatives at our agency.
First, we are expanding our digital competencies by creating a digital-centric culture. Digital is, literally, not a department at R+K. We operate under the premise that digital literacy must occur and be nurtured within everyone in the agency, regardless of level or job title, under the direction of a digital champion. Further, we recognize that not all digital is the same, which is why strategy and execution are assigned by areas of competency: Social media is managed through our public relations team, web development is driven by our creative department and search and digital display are the media team’s responsibility. We love silos as much as the next ag agency, but you won’t find any digital ones at R+K.
Second, R+K is conducting an agencywide process review designed to continue improving client service. Over a several-week period, each agency department mapped its current processes and identified obstacles to getting the work done. Now, we’re in the process of overlaying learnings to ultimately keep, kill or evolve steps to enhance the efficiency and quality of our work. We have challenged individuals to give up comfort for quality, if necessary. What we’re doing is the equivalent of a major manufacturer deconstructing its assembly line to determine how and where to gain efficiencies. We expect the outcomes to be equally as significant.
Future of agricultural communications
Before you can be optimistic about the future of agricultural communications, you have to be optimistic about the future of agribusiness. We are extremely bullish on agriculture – and think today is the most promising moment in the history of agriculture. A rapidly growing world population, a push to preserve natural resources and the imperative to get the most out of available farmland (whether from a crop or food animal perspective) all speak to what agriculture can deliver.
But it’s critical that agriculture make its case to people – elected officials, policymakers, media and general consumers – who collectively know the least about farming, yet hold huge sway over our future. That’s where agricultural communications comes in.
In the past few years, R+K has had the good fortune to hire young talent bursting with potential – people who will break new ground in understanding, motivating and communicating with the next generation of farmers. We’re looking to those same people to take the message all the way through to the consumer.
By Diane Martin, VP/Director, Business Development