Johnson honored as NAMA Marketer.

NAMA recognizes its active members with senior management of marketing and/or sales responsibilities with the NAMA Marketer of the Year Award. This award is NAMA's most prestigious honor awarded to its active members of the association and honors outstanding accomplishments in the field of agrimarketing. This year, Phil Johnson, chief operating officer of Colle+McVoy, will receive this award.

Throughout his career, Phil Johnson has become an expert at taking the status quo and making it better. Whether it's revitalizing a stagnant brand, reorganizing a business group or providing a struggling subsidiary with the resources needed to gain the confidence to succeed, Johnson is a vital part of maximizing nearly every challenge he encounters, to the benefit of his clients, his company and those who work around him.

Johnson's philosophy is simple. He uses a straight-forward equation to get the results that put his clients at the forefront of the agriculture industry: Relationships + Rigor = Results. Utilizing this equation to dig into a customer's business and understand it from the ground up takes a huge amount of work and commitment, and is the key to successfully acquiring and keeping clients.

Business results pointed to declining performance in a key brand for one of Johnson's clients. Johnson directed market research efforts to identify core audience attitudes and market opportunities, then championed a strong integrated campaign that gave the client's brand a new voice and new appeal to both traditional and emerging markets. Due to Johnson's rigor and relationship with the client, they agreed to a three-year plan to invest in the brand, which included a major brand positioning campaign. Now in year one, corporate enthusiasm is at an all time high and audiences are responding favorably.

Recognizing the need to elevate a key client's training and business development group to a new level, he helped redefine and reposition the group from the ground up. His work provided the spark needed to give the group a new platform and confidence.

Three years ago, Johnson took the lead on managing the acquisition and integration of Mobium Chicago, a new Colle+McVoy subsidiary. The acquisition offered several challenges. But under Johnson's direction, Mobium has become a key contributor to Colle+McVoy's operations; gained a well-earned reputation as a creatively driven business-to-business communications firm; landed several new highly profitable clients and retained all but one primary employee and one client. This is a result of his ability to apply strategic direction, motivate and reinvigorate people, and foster positive corporate culture.

As a long time NAMA member and leader, Johnson has served as a director and president of the North Central chapter and chaired awards program committees for the Midland and North Central chapters. He headed the NAMA Issues Forum committee in 1998 and won National Chair of the Year for 1998 1999. He was named the North Central Chapter's Marketer of the Year in 1994.