Notes

Straight talk.

Short, specific, and written from fifteen years of doing this for regional businesses. New ones most weeks on LinkedIn.

Branding

Why most ag branding looks the same

Cover up the name on most stud ads and you couldn't tell them apart.

Same sheep in profile. Same sunset. Same gold serif type. Nobody's doing a bad job. Everyone's just starting from the same picture of what "ag" is meant to look like.

Buyers aren't buying "ag", though. They're buying your bloodlines, your country and the way you run the place. If your brand could belong to the stud down the road, it isn't doing much for you.

What I push for with every rural client: their own stock and their own paddocks in every photo, never stock images. And one thing that's only theirs. A colour from the property. A mark off the old woolshed. The way the founder signed his name.

Small stuff. It's what a buyer at the back of the sale ring remembers.

Useful

Four free fixes for your sale catalogue photos

Most sale catalogue photos are taken at the wrong height, in the wrong light. Before your next sale, four fixes that cost nothing:

  1. Get down low. Shoot from the animal's shoulder height, not yours. Standing over a ram makes him look smaller.
  2. Early or late. Morning and late-afternoon light shows wool and condition. Midday sun flattens everything and throws a shadow under the belly.
  3. Clean background. A plain fence line or open paddock. Not the ute, not the yard rubbish, not the dog (unless the dog's in the sale).
  4. Same setup for every lot. Same spot, same angle, same time of day. Buyers compare lots side by side, so give them a fair comparison.

Got a sale coming up and want a second pair of eyes on last year's catalogue? Send it over.

The studio

Renaming the business? Do these five first

I've spent fifteen years telling clients when it's time to rebrand. Turns out I'm a terrible client. Renaming WJW Co. to Yield Creative took longer than any job I've done for anyone else. Here's what I'd tell you to do first.

  1. Keep what people already trust. Same phone number, same inbox, same person answering. Change the name, not the things customers rely on.
  2. Check the handle before you fall in love. Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and the domain, all four, before you print anything.
  3. Tell clients before they see it. One line each. "We've changed our name. Nothing else changes."
  4. Run both for a season. The old page points to the new one for eight weeks. Then wind it down.
  5. Write down why. If you can't say in one sentence why the new name is better, you're not ready. Mine: yield is what you get back for what you put in. Also what a paddock does.

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