Few companies can attest to having a diverse and effective marketing program. Fewer still can boast about having effective programs. What makes a great marketing program? This is not an easy question to answer, due to there being so many moving parts. We are currently in a new age of technology, in which people now have instant interaction with almost any type of information. This is also true when thinking about entertainment. People no longer amass themselves in great numbers around their television sets, hoping to be up on the latest series or movie. There is an increasing demographic of multi-age users, looking to the freedom within the internet for their entertainment. There are a plethora of shows, video threads, movies, television options of both realities inferred as well as fictional stories to choose from. There are also many who have disconnected altogether from this world of tethered visual entertainment by moving on to other types, from out of doors activities to music and yes even reading. (Some people still hold real-life books.) Navigating this chaotic mesh of wonderment isn’t easy in any stretch of anyone’s imagination, as a participant. How does one whose goal is reaching their customers with a message, even begin?
The trick, of course, begins our first step in understanding marketing at all. Reaching the customer begins with finding what they’re doing and hanging out in some way, with them there. Or…perhaps thinking differently about the solution and doing something fun, hoping to have the customer come to us. That’s exactly what two facets of Idaho are doing. We have ourselves, the Big Idaho Potato Tour, trouncing off across the Country making people smile, laugh, and join us at fun-filled events. We snap pictures and make videos to engage our customers in their new Social Media Realm. We do all of this and more, but what we do better is bring those customers to us. (Perhaps even strengthening their loyalty, merely by making them smile.) You might think that we are the only ones doing this but we are not. There is an entity back in Boise Idaho who call themselves the Idaho Potato Drop. They work tirelessly to promote a year-end, or year-beginning celebration. (They do so too, donating their time and money trying to keep it going.) It is so media worthy that it’s noticed around the world as an actual newsworthy celebration. They have an incredible energy about them and a love for Idaho potatoes.
We have always wanted to bring our minds together. Just as you must with new customers however, we really needed to build that relationship first. The Big Idaho Potato Tour has visited the New Years Idaho Potato Drop, several celebrations in a row. It was time now for the Idaho Potato Drop crew to visit us. The ideal location was one of our awesome Parades. Where better, than Louisville Kentucky for the Pegasus Parade? The IPD team joined up with the BIP team to engage the Parade goers in Louisville with the combined energy seen in our Pegasus Parade video.
The Idaho Potato Power Team, (IPPT)(aka The Spud Squad,) is now stronger than ever. We share a love for the Idaho Potatoes we represent. We also share a love the over Seven Hundred family farmers and growers that we also represent. We’ve learned from them that even though it’s a tough world out there, you don’t have to face it alone. There are strengths in numbers. The Idaho Potato Commission has spent over Eighty plus years, stewarding and fostering the Idaho potato brand. The new IPPT hopes to have that same success through our collaborations of ideas, as well.
