Blazin' your horizons at best of NAMA.

Congratulations to our Best of NAMA winners! Agri Marketing magazine is proud to work closely with the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) to feature the outstanding creative work by some great agencies and clients. It's important to emphasize both members of the creative process team--agency and client--because the mutual understanding of the role of advertising and marketing communications in achieving objectives is essential. Advertising shouldn't be slighted as a critical component to the marketing mix, nor should it be oversold as the means to gain market share. It should be an investment decision made with the same thought and understanding as any other sales and marketing decision.

Why should you view your advertising decisions as an investment? Advertising is a tactic, a powerful one that is a critical, primary step in defining a brand and a critical first step to the entire purchase decision process. Do nothing and your brand will default to how the market and your competitors define it for you. Do something, but do it poorly or incorrectly, and you've got a brand positioned poorly or incorrectly. You get what you pay for in terms of both time (planning, research, etc.) and cash outlay (production and media). That's why it is so important to do it and to do it well. That's why recognizing the winners at a competition such as this is as important to the creative director at the agency as it is to the product manager or regional sales manager for the client.