Maine Potato Board outlines new public relations program

By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
    PRESQUE ISLE — The Maine Potato Board is preparing to enter the world of social media.
    At the Aug. 15 board meeting, Tim Hobbs, director of development and grower relations, outlined the board’s new public relations program designed by Sutherland Weston Marketing Communications of Bangor.
    “We brainstormed with them last fall and determined that the board does a really good job presenting itself and the issues to the legislature and policymakers and that type of audience, but what we haven’t done was get into social media like Facebook,” he said. “They feel that’s something that we’ve been missing out on, and since we hired them, we thought we ought to take their advice.
    “One of the things they suggested is that we create a campaign directed specifically to the consumer and keep it separate from the one that goes to policymakers. The consumer isn’t necessarily interested in irrigation or tax issues to the degree that we are,” said Hobbs. “We don’t know very much about the social media component, so we have to trust them and we do.”
    Sutherland Weston has since developed an “I Say Potato” campaign.
    “The idea is to create a brand for Maine potatoes related to the new I Say Potato logo. Everything will be based around the jingle ‘I say potato, You say potato.’ A new website (www.saypotato.com) is being created, and what they’re going to eventually do is get to a place on the website where they can have conversations with whoever’s on Facebook and talk about what the potato means to them.”
    The website — which will be completely separate from the Maine Potato Board’s website (www.mainepotatoes.com) — is still under construction.
    “There will be things on the saypotato.com website that won’t be on our regular site and vice versa,” said Hobbs, noting that a television campaign related to the I Say Potato brand will begin in the fall.
    During the meeting, Hobbs played a humorous video created by Sutherland Weston that features a man who, as he prepares to sit down to eat a sandwich and potato chips, realizes the bag is empty.
    “They’re going to create a series of videos with a ‘world without potatoes’ theme,” he said. “There’s one with a Thanksgiving table without mashed potatoes and gravy being poured on an empty plate, and there’s one at a fast food restaurant when the person realizes there are no fries in the bag.
    “This isn’t the type of thing that you would put out on television to sell potatoes,” said Hobbs, “but it is something that you would put on the Internet to try to drive people to your site.”
    Don Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board, said the new campaign is being “rolled out very slowly.”
    “We’ve gotten some very good feedback so far,” he said. “Our website is also being updated; it has a new look and we’re trying to get more information out to the growing community, as well as everyone else.
    “One of the reasons Sutherland Weston likes to use videos is that when you type ‘potatoes’ in a search engine, typically sites with videos come up first,” said Flannery, “and that helps get you more traffic to your website.”
    Recognizing that the board is working toward more of an online/social media presence, Flannery said the Maine Potato News, the official publication of the Maine Potato Board, will cease operations at the end of the year.
    “Going forward our intention is to go with getting information out to the general public through social media,” he said, “and to our grower community we’re going to go with an e-newsletter and more information on our website versus the Maine Potato News, which we’ve done for a number of years.
    “Our intent is that the November-December issue will be the last issue of Maine Potato News,” said Flannery. “The use of electronic devices is increasing all the time. Constantly more and more people are willing to go on the web and get their information or somebody will print something off for them. If we really want to get something out in a timely fashion, electronic media is faster. Plus there’s the issue of cost; ad revenues aren’t what they were and the Maine Potato News isn’t nearly as thick as it used to be. It’s one of those changes that has been talked about for four or five years, and I think it’s finally gotten to that point.”