Our TAP rebrand took quite a lot of soul searching but it was time for clarity on our direction and strengths. Whilst considering our place in agriculture it struck us that we were spending an enormous amount of time and energy positioning our clients and their brands, but not ourselves.  We’re passionate about many issues and causes but felt we weren’t doing enough – we could do more for our sector, especially as we work in communications.  It was time to consider and champion key causes close to our hearts.

Take “the next generation”…  we find there is often a massive mismatch between youths’ perceptions of careers and work, versus the reality.  Nowhere does this apply more than in agriculture.  Ridiculous stereotypes such as straw-munching farmers, who care nothing about the environment, sustainability or innovation, in my opinion could be no further from the truth.  Have you ever sat in a modern combine cab and seen the amount of tech that needs to be mastered?

Beyond this in the world of manufacturing and innovation, just think about the type of expertise involved in engineering an autonomous tractor, growing crops in deserts or developing revolutionary chemistry to combat devastating disease.  All of these advances and many more are an absolute necessity given that we’ve got a colossal task of feeding our increasing global population amidst increasing agricultural challenges. 

This does mean that there are extremely exciting job opportunities in our sector but we sometimes struggle to attract talent.  That’s one of the reasons why we’re backing the #ThisIsAgriculture campaign, a timely and highly relevant initiative launched by Agribriefing.  Based on research considering opinions of the younger generation, a committed campaign is planned thereafter to raise awareness of careers in Ag.  It’s currently at the research stage, so please do share the survey link with anyone under 30 years old who has opinions to share: www.fginsight.com/what-would-you-do-with-500-cash. 

Relevant insight plays such a large part of what we do at TAP and given our interest in the next generation, we were also very pleased to partner a unique research-based initiative called #RuralYouthProject (RYP).  This research-based project aims to develop feasible strategies to enable more involvement of young people in agricultural and rural activity, by better understanding their current aspirations, opportunities and challenges. One of the goals is to ensure that collectively we are informed and equipped to better support and inspire the future generations.

Inspiration can play a big part in motivating individuals, which is why we love the fact that RYP will follow the lives of 15 exceptional young people via vlog over coming months:  www.ruralyouthproject.com/vlogs.  My colleague Borja and I have also just come back from RYP’s first #IdeasFestival in Scotland – an impressive event developed to empower the young to make positive change in rural areas. 

The event was an enormous success and attended by some truly inspirational young people with powerful stories to tell.  Content truly is king which makes our job supporting RYP on social media quite easy!

Leading on from that point, with our ever-advancing digital and social world, never has there been more opportunity to have a voice or get involved.  So why not be part of the conversations and causes close to your heart?  By engaging and getting involved, we can all make a difference.