Have you served up some hot ideas and sizzling solutions in the past year? If so, submit your most choice work for consideration for a Best of NAMA award!

If you’re a NAMA member you’re eligible to serve up your company’s sauciest communications materials, prepared for first use in 2008. (If entered in 2007, the EXACT SAME entry will not be eligible in 2008.) Additions or modifications to an ongoing campaign will not be eligible year after year. Entries are open to agricultural, ornamentals, turf, livestock veterinarians and any other ag-related products or services whose primary audience is farmers, ranchers and growers (except as otherwise noted). Please submit translations where necessary. Each entry should be submitted through one region only.

Remember, your local chapter receives $25 per regional entry. So, enter your work in Best of NAMA and nourish your local chapter at the same time.

The deadline for submitting entries into the Best of NAMA competition is Friday, October 10.

For more information on Best of NAMA or to download an entry form visit http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/index.htm.

Special thanks to High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal for sponsoring the Best of NAMA Call for Entries and thanks to Nicholson Kovac for the logo design.

Have you served up some hot ideas and sizzling solutions in the past year? If so, submit your most choice work for consideration for a Best of NAMA award!

The Best of NAMA awards program honors the most prime work in agricultural communications. You might say it recognizes la crème de la crème, actually, because companies/agencies must first qualify through regional competition in order to advance to the national level. The national awards ceremony will take place April 15, at the Marriott Marquis in Atlanta.

Best of NAMA operates on a regional judging format. Entries are sent directly to the national NAMA office and judged by industry professionals at a regional level for possible advancement to national competition.

Remember, your local chapter receives $25 per regional entry. So, enter your work in Best of NAMA and nourish your local chapter at the same time.

If you’re a NAMA member you’re eligible to serve up your company’s sauciest communications materials, prepared for first use in 2008. (If entered in 2007, the EXACT SAME entry will not be eligible in 2008.) Additions or modifications to an ongoing campaign will not be eligible year after year. Entries are open to agricultural, ornamentals, turf, livestock veterinarians and any other ag-related products or services whose primary audience is farmers, ranchers and growers (except as otherwise noted). Please submit translations where necessary. Each entry should be submitted through one region only.

For more information on Best of NAMA or to download an entry form visit http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/index.htm.

So you think you’re ready to take home a Best of Show award at the 2009 Best of NAMA Ceremony? Well you’ll have to wait just a few more weeks to begin your climb to be the best of the best.

The Best of NAMA Call for Entries, designed by Nicholson Kovac, will be available on the NAMA web site beginning August 25 and will be mailed by September 1.

All entries must be received in the NAMA Office by October 10, 2008.

The Best of NAMA awards program honors the best work in agricultural communications. Actually, the best of the best, since companies/agencies must first qualify through regional competition in order to advance to the national level. The national awards ceremony will take place April 15, at the Marriott Marquis in Atlanta, GA.

Best of NAMA operates on a regional judging format. Entries are sent directly to the national NAMA office and judged by industry professionals at a regional level for possible advancement to national competition. A minimum point standard will be used at the regional level. If you place first or merit at the regional competition and score above the minimum point standard, you are eligible to advance to the national competition.

Stay tuned to your email inbox for notification of the Call for Entries on the NAMA web site!

Just a reminder to mark your calendars for the following upcoming events and deadlines:

NAMA Boot Camp: August 12-14, 2008

Professional Development Awards of Excellence Deadline: September 1, 2008

Best of NAMA Entry Deadline: October 10, 2008

Agribusiness Forum: November 11-12, 2008

Keep watching the National NAMA e-News for more information on the Boot Camp, Awards of Excellence, Best of NAMA Call for Entries and the Agribusiness Forum.

On April 16^th, NAMA members saddled up for How the Best Was Won, a western-inspired Best of NAMA celebration of winning agri-marketing campaigns from across the nation.

More than 700 people filled the Hyatt ballroom, which was transformed into an authentic wild west scene, complete with music from best-loved westerns and cap guns on every table. The evening began with an impressive overview video to the entrants, followed by “Rooster Cogburn ‘the Ad Man’ Meets His Match” – a comical advertising interpretation of the western classic.

Emcees Kyle Bauer, KFRM Radio, and Taylor Brown, Northern Ag Network, presented the Best of Show award in the specialty category to Merial Limited and Bader Rutter & Associates for the Recombitex Vaccine campaign. The Best of Show in the Public Relations category went to Dow AgroSciences and Fleishman Hillard for the Removing Trans Fats from America’s Menus. The Best of Show award in advertising went to New Holland North America and Colle+McVoy for the New Holland Amazing Machine campaign.

For a complete list of the Best of NAMA Winners visit, http://www.agrimarketingdigital.com/?i=01-Apr-2008.

Special thanks to Farm Journal Media for sponsoring the Best of NAMA Opening Video! Special thanks to Successful Farming/Agriculture Online for sponsoring the Best of NAMA Intro Video!

The Agri-Marketing Conference is a just over a week away! Register now at http://www.nama.org/amc/register.html and you will have a badge ready in Kansas City!

We’re excited that the 2008 Agri-Marketing Conference is in Kansas City, Missouri. Join us, April 16-18, for an informative, enlightening and invigorating conference that will help Lead the Charge in your career!

To view the conference program and see our outstanding line-up of speakers, visit http://nama.org/amc.

Silent Auction Donations Still Needed!

Donations are still needed for the ABEF Silent Auction that will be held at the 2008 Agri-Marketing Conference, April 16-18. Find a home for that special edition wildlife print or even those sports tickets and surplus company logo jackets. Or give a media package or services, and support the ABEF at the same time.

Please join your agri-marketing peers in supporting this worthwhile effort by donating to the auction.

Fill out the online pledge form at http://www.nama.org/abef/silentauction/pledgeform.htm.

For more information contact Jenny Pickett at [email protected] or call 913-491-6500.

ABEF Online Media Auction

Place your bids now! The ABEF Online Media Auction ends Wednesday, April 2 at 5:00 p.m. New packages were added to the auction on Friday, so take another look at the media packages available at http://www.nama.org/abef/silentauction/bidco.htm. All proceeds from the Online Media Auction benefit the Student Careers Program.

If during the closing 30 minutes of the auction a bid is entered on an item, the bidding on that item will be extended for another 24 hour period (if this occurs on a Friday, the bidding will remain open until 5:00 p.m. (CST) on the following Monday). This process will continue until no higher bids are received during the last 30 minutes of the auction.

If you have any questions about the Online Media Auction contact Kathi Conrad at [email protected] or call 913-491-6500.