Relationships and Insights Equal Better Strategy and Content

By Al Fava

In today’s ever-evolving media landscape—a 24-hour news cycle bursting at the seams with information and a constant flow of AI-generated content making us question what is real—can brands still reach their audiences through traditional public relations strategies?

Yes. And the answer is by building relationships. 

At the end of every advertisement, every news article and every event activation, there is a person (hopefully a stakeholder) receiving that information. No matter how automated our world becomes, there are people all along the way helping that message reach them. This is particularly true in public relations, where building and maintaining relationships is the cornerstone of our strategy. 

From an agency perspective, we meet with experts in our clients’ fields to understand the latest innovations and to develop spokespersons on topics that matter to their customers. We’ve stayed in touch with media outlets through the decades. We understand the challenges reporters are facing, and we stay abreast of how to tell stories in ways that resonate with their readers and bring value to their publications. We know our clients’ customer base, not as a generalized demographic, but as actual individual faces. We look them in the eyes and shake their hands. 

On the OBP agriculture PR team, we do all these things and more. We maintain relationships with client field reps and customers to provide additional quality insights that help our overall team build a better strategy. We are in the field and regularly work with our clients’ agronomists, sales team and growers. These relationships and in-field experiences are our conduit for quality, real-world insights that shape our marketing communication strategies and build dynamic content that makes our messages resonate with customers.

While we certainly believe in automating for efficiency and streamlining processes where it makes sense, we also know that people and partnerships are our greatest assets in making real, tangible impact with the audiences that mean the most to our clients. And we aren’t building these relationships overnight. Our agriculture PR team alone has over 40 years of experience in the field. We have seen changes in the industry, and we know the elements that stand the test of time. 

That’s how we know relationships are the noblest of our pursuits.