Bees' Knees Comms-Cast – Details, episodes & analysis

0:00:05 - Introduction and welcome to Sarah Bolt

0:00:54 – Discussion on sustainability in the UK dairy sector

0:02:04 - Barriers and obstacles to sustainability in dairy farming

0:03:50 - Opportunities for sustainability in the dairy sector

0:05:16 - Research on soils and carbon storage

0:10:25 - Holistic dairy management and its connection to soil health

0:14:11 - How Sarah Bolt's work supports farmers in responding to supply chain demands

0:16:07 - Engaging the public on sustainability in food and farming

The Bees' Knees Comms-Cast is brought to you by Pinstone, a B Corp award-winning PR and marketing agency specialising in food, farming and the environment. Speak to us if you want to engage your audience authentically on your sustainability story. www.pinstone.co.uk 

0:04:25 - Discussion of changing mood of businesses thinking about sustainability

0:10:40 - Example given of complexity in supply chains using deforestation

0:17:12 - Discussion of greenwashing fears from companies investing in sustainability 

0:23:16 - Discussion of what could prevent confidence in sustainability programs

0:27:31 - Importance of authenticity and transparency in sustainability claims

0:32:46 - Emphasis on importance of collaboration at all levels

0:36:15 - Bringing discussion to importance of culture and people within workplaces

0:39:41 - Final discussion on examples that have made big impacts

The Bees' Knees Comms-Cast is brought to you by Pinstone, a B Corp award-winning PR and marketing agency specialising in food, farming and the environment. Speak to us if you want to engage your audience authentically on your sustainability story. www.pinstone.co.uk 

A returning sense of normality has been highlighted with the kids heading back for a new school year. So, in keeping with the theme of new beginnings, this special episode of the Agri-Food Comms Cast explores the numerous routes to taking the leap into #AgCareers.

A career in agriculture can entail much more than working on a farm, with the #FarmToFork initiative demonstrating just that. There is a vast range of careers throughout the food supply chain with numerous industries supporting the farming sector such as science, finance, policy and, of course, communications!

Christine Tacon CBE, chair of Red Tractor and the MDS scheme, joins our host Catherine Linch to discuss the wealth of opportunities available to those who want to climb the ag career ladder. These include the well-known MDS graduate scheme. This dedicated two-year programme delivers first-hand experience through diverse work placements to give candidates broader experience and insight into what the sector can offer.

Christine highlights the challenges that agricultural employers are up against when promoting their vacancies to fresh-faced graduates. Many are oblivious to the diversity and dynamism of roles within the agricultural sector. She says big-name brands often take the lead when it comes to graduate employment, due to students’ lack of knowledge about the scope of the sector.

A shining example of how graduates can get ahead in ag, is our second podcast guest. Pinstone account manager and face of NFU campaigns – Ali Parker. Ali gives us an insight into her personal career journey from graduating from The University of Reading, to how the NFU graduate scheme paved the way for her career in comms at Pinstone. Ali is part-way through the Tesco Future Farmer Foundation programme and explains to us how these initiatives have advanced her knowledge of the sector, and encourages others to explore the various routes available.

At Pinstone, we’re passionate about career progression and providing opportunities to climb the career ladder is something that really resonates with us. If you haven’t already, check out our Pinstone Ladder blog series where you can read more about Ali’s journey with Pinstone and the Tesco Future Farmer Foundation scheme.

The Bees' Knees Comms-Cast is brought to you by Pinstone, a B Corp award-winning PR and marketing agency specialising in food, farming and the environment. Speak to us if you want to engage your audience authentically on your sustainability story. www.pinstone.co.uk 

Episode seven considers the complex communication challenges that Henry Dimbleby was up against when piecing together his National Food Strategy. Catherine Linch is joined by two special guests for the final episode of season two of the Agri-Food Comms Cast to share their insight on this recently launched, comprehensive review.

Communicating information that requires extensive cross-sector knowledge and context can prove problematic and often runs the risk of losing your audiences’ interest. So how did Mr Dimbleby ensure his report was a success?

John Shropshire, chairman of G’s Marketing, was one of the farming representatives on the National Food Strategy advisory board. John joins our host to discuss the process behind the policy influencing report and the role that communication played in pulling together such a comprehensive document.

Acknowledging that farming can often be on the receiving end of bad press, seasoned expert in agricultural communications, Amy Jackson of Oxtale, talks about the challenges of effectively conveying proposed recommendations to audiences that are more likely to be resistant to change.

Amy praises the National Food Strategy for being wholly inclusive by sharing the responsibility for improving our food systems, diet, health and environment. She advises that setting incremental manageable objectives makes meeting targets much more realistic and achievable.

There are some big upcoming changes to farming, but how do we successfully communicate this information? Amy suggests that conveying a consistent message is key and the National Food Strategy does just that, highlighting three key areas of focus: producing food more efficiently, increasing biodiversity and capturing carbon.

The Bees' Knees Comms-Cast is brought to you by Pinstone, a B Corp award-winning PR and marketing agency specialising in food, farming and the environment. Speak to us if you want to engage your audience authentically on your sustainability story. www.pinstone.co.uk 

In light of the nation’s growing obesity crisis and subsequent pressures on the health service, episode six of season two of the Agri-Food Comms Cast, explores the potential influence that the food industry could initiate by actively marketing healthier food choices.

This month, Catherine Linchis joined by food campaigner and crossbench member of the House of Lords, Baroness Rosie Boycott, and marketing guru and host of the US-based Gooder podcast, Diana Fryc.

Our guests discuss the challenges faced by natural 'straight from the farm' produce when competing against highly processed, cheaply produced food and drink brands. The episode highlights food inequality, as well as calling for greater honesty and balance in how foods are promoted. This is especially true of many well-known brands that boast sizable marketing budgets to promote their frequently nutritionally poor products.

It’s a challenging but important subject with many questions to answer. Do marketing professionals have a responsibility for introducing healthier lifestyle choices through their advertising campaigns? How can we analyse the influence that brands have on Western society’s eating habits and use this to affect change for the better?

This episode explores a range of comms strategies that aim to tackle these difficult issues, while supporting public health policies and initiatives.

The Bees' Knees Comms-Cast is brought to you by Pinstone, a B Corp award-winning PR and marketing agency specialising in food, farming and the environment. Speak to us if you want to engage your audience authentically on your sustainability story. www.pinstone.co.uk 

Episode five of season two of the Agri Food Comms-Cast welcomes Farmers Guardian and Morrisons to delve into the new, consumer facing #FarmingCAN, a year-long marketing campaign. Creating conversations and strengthening the messages about what British farming can, and does, do for the public beyond producing food for the nation is the bold ambition.

Farmers Guardian’s marketing manager, Hannah Carrick, and head of news and business, Olivia Midgley, join Catherine Linchto discuss how they are structuring the campaign and leveraging the public’s appetite for farm stories that was demonstrated by their annual 24-hour social media blitz #Farm24.

Seeking to reach out to farmers and policy makers, as well as the general public, each month is themed to promote what farming delivers to society, such as tackling climate change; the career opportunities; and the positive impact on our countryside. Celebrity endorsement is promising to dramatically extend the reach.

The campaign is backed by some big names in the agri-food industry and countryside sector who are engaging their audiences and networks. This includes retailer Morrisons.

To round up this month’s episode of the AFCC, Sophie Throup, head of agriculture at Morrisons, explains how they are getting involved and supporting the cementing relationships between consumers and farmers.

The Bees' Knees Comms-Cast is brought to you by Pinstone, a B Corp award-winning PR and marketing agency specialising in food, farming and the environment. Speak to us if you want to engage your audience authentically on your sustainability story. www.pinstone.co.uk 

The pressures currently facing the red meat sector globally are undeniable, making a strong case for the advocates of British beef production to take on the communications challenge with gusto.

We look at the issue as Great British Beef Week kicks off.

In the latest episode of the Agri-Food Comms Cast, Catherine Linch explores how this traditional sector is challenging some public’ perceptions and setting the record straight about the merits of British beef.

Jilly Greed, farmer and co-founder of Ladies in Beef, discusses this year’s Great British Beef Week (GBBW), a celebratory annual campaign created to promote and champion beef production – from farm to fork.

In the last 11 years, it’s garnered tremendous support from across the industry. This year, GBBW is backed by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI), Agriculture, Horticulture and Development Board (AHDB) and Meat Promotion Wales.

With sustainability as the theme for the 2021 event, Jilly believes connecting consumers with food provenance, the farmed countryside and how beef systems can support the environment is key to restoring the public’s affiliation with eating red meat.

This episode also highlights the value of a breadth of communications channels, including popular films like Kiss the Ground and online events like We Eat Balanced and the RABI cookalong, that are spreading positive messages around sustainable farming within the agri-food sector and beyond.

The Bees' Knees Comms-Cast is brought to you by Pinstone, a B Corp award-winning PR and marketing agency specialising in food, farming and the environment. Speak to us if you want to engage your audience authentically on your sustainability story. www.pinstone.co.uk 

In episode three of season two of the Agri-Food Comms Cast, Catherine Linch unpicks how businesses and communications professionals can best go about navigating through the ever-growing social media landscape.

Clubhouse, the new and exclusive social media app based on audio chat, is rapidly gaining traction. And with podcasts also increasing in popularity, where is time best spent and invested as a brand?

In conversation with Catherine Linch in this episode is:

· Alison Teare, marketing director, mentor, trainer and podcaster at Simply Marketing

· James Sopp, former BBC post-production specialist turned digital and social media marketer at Buzzin Digital

· Russell Goldsmith, founder of Audere Communications and host of the csuite podcast

The exclusivity of an invite-only membership to Clubhouse is enticing and the functionality to create and join clubs, such as The Agriculturalists, and rooms within them, provide the opportunity to make new connections.

But, currently, Clubhouse is unavailable to Android users and there are no analytics to assess its engagement. Plus, the expectation to join live conversations can be limiting to those working in the agri-food sector that are time-poor.

On the other hand, interviews for podcasts can be arranged ahead of time and episodes are available to listen to on-demand via a multitude of platforms and devices. Therefore, podcasts are more widely accessible and inclusive to all audiences.

Whether the medium of choice is Clubhouse or podcasts, the direction of travel for brand communications appears to be audio for content generation in the post-Covid era.

The Bees' Knees Comms-Cast is brought to you by Pinstone, a B Corp award-winning PR and marketing agency specialising in food, farming and the environment. Speak to us if you want to engage your audience authentically on your sustainability story. www.pinstone.co.uk 

The communications challenge of effectively reaching out and achieving meaningful engagement on the topic of mental health and wellbeing is the topic discussed in the latest episode of the Agri-Food Comms Cast.

Catherine Linch explores how two projects targeting producers at the coalface of food production have gone about getting traction and a real buzz around this vitally important topic.

Alicia Chivers and Suzy Deeley of leading farming sector charity RABI discuss their ambitious Big Farming Survey. Despite being told ‘it couldn’t be done’, they have rejected the naysayers and gone ahead with a mammoth research project looking to get a survey response from thousands of farmers.

The goal is to provide evidence of the significant and complex challenges farmers and producers are facing today.

Using trusted peer to peer networks across the breadth of the sector has proved a tremendously successful route to both outreach and engagement.

We also talk to Sheena Horner and Emma Picton-Jones of #Run1000 that became a competitive and community spirited race between the British nations and a team representing ‘the rest of the world’. It achieved trending status on social media and provided a much needed mental health boost for those who got involved in January while also raising funds for five mental health charities.

The Bees' Knees Comms-Cast is brought to you by Pinstone, a B Corp award-winning PR and marketing agency specialising in food, farming and the environment. Speak to us if you want to engage your audience authentically on your sustainability story. www.pinstone.co.uk 

The Agri Food Comms-Cast(AFCC) explores the PR and marketing themes across the breadth of the food and farming industry. In the first episode of our second season, Catherine Linch explores the role of social media influencers.

No longer confined to A-list celebrities, influencer marketing has spread to the breadth of B2C and increasingly B2B sectors that recognise the power of an influential voice on social channels.

Working in a market that’s fully embraced the influencer marketing model; rural and equestrian PR specialist, Rhea Freeman, says engaging with social media influencers can be a useful way for brands to promote themselves and get in front of their target audiences. But to ensure brand alignment and optimum return on investment, doing your research and setting expectations is key.

Gaining significant traction in the last year on Twitter and Instagram, Herefordshire farmer, Ally Hunter Blair, says having a large following on social media has led to TV broadcast opportunities, such as Born Mucky: Life on the Farm, and aiding diversification ventures in his farm business.

He says keeping it real, avoiding controversy and staying true to what interests him, has contributed to his success.

The Bees' Knees Comms-Cast is brought to you by Pinstone, a B Corp award-winning PR and marketing agency specialising in food, farming and the environment. Speak to us if you want to engage your audience authentically on your sustainability story. www.pinstone.co.uk