A grassroots company from just outside of Moose Jaw is working to provide producers from across Canada with the marketing tools they need to reach as many potential buyers as possible in the new age of agriculture.
Livestock Media Plus, owned and operated by Bridget Andrews, is a media and marketing company that is working to bring producers into the circle of technology that Andrews says the industry is moving towards.
“Our goal is to build partnerships with the ag industry and develop marketing media plans for them,” said Andrews. “Since we started this, it’s really grown [and] the need for online presence has really exploded and is needed.”
Andrews handles a number of services, all of which are meant to extend producers’ reach further than marketing without a digital element is capable of doing.
“We’re trying to showcase agriculture commodities, to potential buyers throughout the world,” said Andrews. “And with video, especially with the livestock part, it shows the animal walking around and gives [buyers] more confidence in purchasing that animal.”
She works with all kinds of producers and agriculture industry partners from Ontario to B.C. to create individualized marketing plans that use any combination of services — from video production to filmed farm tours to social media curating.
Livestock Media Plus even offers graphic design services for brochures or catalogues, website-building services and live streams of livestock sales for producers.
Bridget Andrews, the face behind Livestock Media Plus, is both a marketing expert and a local cattle producer in the area. (supplied)Live broadcasting of sales has been around for about a decade, gaining popularity about five years ago, but the pandemic has really emphasized the convenience and benefit.
“If you look at the past, we used to go to a bull sale and you’d buy your bull right there,” said Andrews. “But the online broadcasting, it’s just changed the way we do business and I think it was already coming [but COVID] really sped it up.”
Andrews approaches the field of agriculture marketing from a long history in the industry. As someone who grew up on a farm outside Weyburn, attended the University of Saskatchewan to become a certified agrologist, and is now a cattle rancher southwest of Moose Jaw with her husband, she knows how important it is to develop a strong customer base and how tough it can be in such a large market.
Andrews says the services she offers from Livestock Media Plus is one way for producers to modernize, to reach further markets, younger potential customers and improve sales.
“You have to be able to extend your client base, and the days of 30 years ago when you just knew the guy down the road, I think those are kind of gone,” said Andrews. “The videos, the online broadcast, the website and social media, it gets your name out there. The youth coming up, they’re phone and internet savvy and that’s how they reach people, and we have to change with those times.”
In the six years since Andrews began Livestock Media Plus, she has never once regretted the decision to move into the agriculture marketing industry.
“I’ve always been passionate about the industry [and] I think what I like most about this is actually working with really great people in other parts of the agriculture sector,” said Andrews. “You’re always scared to start something new, but I wish I would have done it 20 years ago.”
Andrews and Livestock Media Plus have worked with livestock and crop producers, non-profit agriculture commodity groups and even farm equipment auction marts, and she is looking forward to the industry’s marketing needs evolving even further in the future.
For more information on Livestock Media Plus and what Andrews offers, visit the website here.
