Sefton & Associates, Communications, Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations / PR, Corporate Communications, Strategic Communications, Communications Strategy, Public Affairs, Issues Management, ponsorship, Publicity, Writing, Editing, Websites - Intranet/Internet, Community Relations, Rural, Regional, Remote, Rural Public Relations, Agricultural marketing, Agriculture, Agribusiness, Agribusiness public relations, Agribusiness marketing, Rural Affairs, Robbie Sefton, Rural Woman of the Year Award, Primary Industry, Gunnedah, Coonabarabran, New England, New South Wales / NSW, Australia



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Working together to achieve communication solutions for rural, regional and remote Australia
Sowing the seeds of success

Animal Health Australia

For six years, Sefton & Associates has conducted this country’s major integrated biosecurity communication program pitched at all type of livestock producers, the ‘Protect Australian Livestock Campaign’, for client Animal Health Australia.

Originally a one-week media program, this was developed into an annual multi-faceted campaign by Sefton & Associates for the same budget.

To make this ongoing program possible we successfully continue to undertake a variety of tasks:
• Strategy Development - recommend activities, plans, timelines, budgets and KPIs
• Strategic Alliances Program – develop tailored materials and presentations to major rural companies and agencies encouraging them to partner with AHA in distributing campaign materials
• Supporters/Advocates Program – organise briefings and media/speaking engagements
• Events - launched the 2001 Protect Australian Livestock Campaign at the National Press Club
• Media Relations – prepare media kits, organise interviews and target media stories
• Public Speaking program – speech writing, organisation of appearances, production of speaker support materials for state-based rural press clubs and industry events.
• Issues Management
• Governmental and industry lobbying

Australian Wool Innovation Limited (AWI)
From the CEO through to Project Management levels, Sefton & Associates is used by all parts of this company to provide strategic communication advice on almost a daily basis. Sefton & Associates has a strong network amongst the nations 35,000 wool producers and the company uses this network to ‘get stories out to the bush’ and into the lounge rooms and farm offices on behalf of its clients. Current and recent projects include Woolcheque, Feralmone, National Mulesing Assurance Program and Project Development for Innovation Day.

Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA)
Sefton & Associates works with a number of MLA divisions for behavioural change, awareness and educational campaigns. Sefton & Associates has a thorough knowledge of the organisation, its members and key industry players. Current and recent projects for MLA include a national communication campaign for MLA training project, EDGEnetwork, Producer Expos, More Beef from Pastures and the Livestock Production Assurance National Vendor Declaration education campaign.

Grain & Graze – GRDC (Grains Research & Development Corporation), MLA, AWI and Land and Water Australia (LWA)
Due to Sefton & Associates successful delivery of campaigns for the Research and Development Corporations individually, it was re-appointed to manage the communication campaign for the only true ‘all-of-industry’ program, Grain & Graze.

WinCott and Grant Thornton Chartered Accountants
Succession Planning for the Cotton Industry
Sefton & Associates is engaged by international accounting firm Grant Thornton to co-ordinate a succession planning model specifically tailored for agribusiness. WinCott, the Women in Cotton network has hosted 12 succession planning seminars throughout the Eastern States.

Plant Health Australia

Making commercial plant producers aware of the importance of plant health and how they can help reduce the risk of exotic pests and diseases was the key to the success of the Plant Health Australia, National Plant Health Awareness Campaign. This campaign was conducted by Sefton & Associates over an 18 month period in 2003/04.

This campaign included:
• Supporters/Advocates Program - enlisting supporters to convey key messages to their Members and distribute campaign materials
• Media relations – preparing extensive media materials, organising interviews and targeting media
• Event Management - providing field days and member events with marketing collateral
• Governmental and industry lobbying

This campaign was the winner of the Public Relations Institute of Australia (ACT) Award for Excellence 2004 in the Community Communication Category.

Telstra Country Wide

Improved mobile phone services
Telstra’s initiatives to improve mobile phone services across rural NSW were publicised with the assistance of Sefton & Associates.

Increased services in 132 towns were announced in the ‘Besley 1’ initiative by John Anderson, the then Deputy Prime Minister. Attracting 111 media hits through radio, TV, print and internet, this success resulted in Sefton & Associates earning the contract to work on the next announcement, ‘Besley 2’. This surrounded the Commonwealth Government’s initiative to improve mobile phone services in 55 towns with populations less than 500 and we organised a launch event in Central West NSW with Senator Richard Alston, the then Minister for IT & Communications. Media coverage amounted to 65 hits across varied media.

Area General Managers PR program
This ongoing community consultation program incorporates communications plans and implementation across rural, regional and outer-metro NSW. Advice and assistance is provided on media relations, stakeholder relations, sponsorship and event management. The program continues to expand as the Area General Manager group grows and Telstra Country Wide takes responsibility for a greater number of rural and regional business units.

Telstra Country Music Festival
As major sponsor of the three major festival events, Telstra Country Wide engages Sefton & Associates to project manage and conduct media relations at a state and local level for the Festival. In 2003, Telstra Country Wide was the major sponsor of the entire Tamworth Country Music Festival and invited Sefton & Associates to evaluate their sponsorship. We developed a comprehensive recommendations document focused on enhancing the viability of their Festival sponsorship for the next three years. Sefton & Associates has an ongoing relationship with the Telstra Country Music Festival with a focus on media relations at a local and regional level.

Land & Water Australia
Developing a strategy for this five-year Land, Water & Wool project involved an extensive audit of communications materials. In conducting the audit, Sefton & Associates conducted focus groups and structured interviews to test communication support products for the program. With a limited set budget and tight time frame, we utilised the two-month period carefully to understand the needs of the target audience. Involving extensive industry contacts was also key to delivering strong outcomes against the specified brief.

Farmsafe Australia

We worked with Farmsafe Australia in the latter part of 2003 to develop and assist the roll out of a communication campaign to support the Child Safety on Farms Strategy. The Safe Play Areas on Farms was launched by the Deputy Prime Minister in December 2003, achieving significant media coverage.

The success of the campaign relied on engaging the support and participation of key state-based stakeholder and organisations who had the responsibility for delivering the communication plan. To this end we supplied stakeholders with the necessary template-style materials to assist their participation.