Executive Summary:

The intended strategy for this media buying campaign is to give Citizens Bank and Trust
a presence in media vehicles that our target audience uses throughout the year. To accomplish
this ads will be placed based off of factors including geographic targeting, media vehicles with
content related to agriculture and specific timing in the farming calendar. This will establish
Citizens as a rural bank with a foothold in the farming community.
The entire campaign will incorporate a variety of media, focused primarily on ag
magazines and ag radio placed at various times throughout the year. Through repetition in
various media vehicles, the target will constantly be reminded of our message and eventually
position Citizens as the trusted ag bank in the northwest Missouri region.
The total cost of a full year cycle of this media plan will be $159,157. The average cost
per thousand people (CPM) for all the media vehicles in this campaign is $57.45.This campaign
cost is justifiable because it reaches a specific target in just the region where Citizens has a
presence.
Media Type Priorities:
The priority for media buys in this campaign will be focused on agriculture related
magazines and radio shows. We based our media buying decisions in previous research that
showed that farmers get their farm related information from those different types of media. A
study of farmers use of media from 2013 showed that the target groups top 3 agricultural
related media preferences are magazines, radio and regional newspapers. ("Farmer's Use of
Media 2013" 30) The same study showed that 68% of farmers use agricultural magazines
when deciding on their farming needs and begin gathering information, and 41% use agriculture
radio. ("Farmer's Use of Media 2013" 38) Also both media types provide specific geographic
targeting which decreases the chances of our message reaching the wrong audience.
Therefore, these media types perfectly match our product with our target audience.
A secondary emphasis will be given to billboards, newspapers, websites, and mobile.
Media spending will be less on these media types because they will serve as a support of the
priority media. They will mainly enforce the message portrayed in magazines and radio shows
that positions Citizens Bank & Trust as a rural bank. Billboards, websites and mobile advertising
will serve to support our positioning by reminding the target audience that Citizens is a part of
the farming community. Newspapers on the other hand, will serve as the main media vehicle to
advertise the Tractor Cruise event because farmers use them to gather information on whats
happening in their community. Specific rural
Another element in this campaign are school newsletters. They are not only a good way
to reach the target audience, but also enforce the campaign objective of positioning Citizens
Bank & Trust as a rural bank and being involved in the
community.

Specific Media Choices:

Magazines
The first of the magazine choices for the campaign is
Successful Farming. This magazine offers the target audience

with information of how to be a successful farmer. Throughout the publication farmers can find
products and services that will help them in their daily farming operations. The content offered in
Successful Farming aligns with the target audience and at same time positions Citizens Bank &
Trust as a rural bank. Another reason why this media choice is a perfect fit for Citizens is
because they offer geotargeted inserts that will go directly to the counties where Citizens has
branches in and strictly to farmers. A study done in 2011 found that 85% of farmers in Missouri
with 100+ acres of corn or soybeans have read this study in a 6 month time frame. ("Missouri

Farmer Today, 2011 Preference Study" 4)

Another magazine chosen for the campaign is Rural Missouri.
The main reasons why this magazine was chosen as a media vehicle
are because its content aligns with the target audience and because
the publication offers regional targeting to the Northwest Missouri
area. Rural Missouri features articles pertaining to places in the rural
areas of Missouri as well as businesses and community events in
those areas. Based on their content advertising with Rural Missouri
magazine will be a great opportunity for Citizens to position itself as a
rural bank. As mentioned before, the regional targeting this magazine
offers to advertisers was an important aspect when considering it as a
priority media choice for the campaign. Their Northwest Missouri
regional segmentation covers almost every county where Citizens
Bank & Trust has branches in.
Fastline, a farming equipment catalog is also listed as part of
the magazine media vehicles considered for this campaign. The
publication offers a wide variety of used and new farm equipment for
sale. Fastline runs at a national level, but they offer a Missouri edition
that goes out strictly to farmers statewide. Even though the publication
will cover a larger area than where our target is located the benefits of
advertising in Fastline outweigh that aspect. Fastline is a wellestablished publication with 35 years of experience in marketing
directly to the farming community. Also if Citizens Bank & Trust
decides to buy advertisements in this publication it will be the only
financial institution in the state of Missouri to do so. Another benefit of
advertising in Fastline is that compared to other publications is
relatively cost-effective.

A magazine that specifically focuses on Farmers and topics

about farming in Missouri is Missouri Farmer Today. This publication
is a weekly tabloid with a circulation in Missouri of 18,531. While this
publication is distributed throughout the entire state of Missouri, the
majority of their reach is in the northern half of Missouri which
represents roughly where our target lives. A study done in 2011 found

that 78% of farmers in Missouri with 100+ acres of corn or soybeans have read this study in a 6
month time frame. ("Missouri Farmer Today, 2011 Preference Study" 4)
Another magazine that focuses on our target audience is Missouri Ruralist. This
magazine covers the entire state of Missouri, with regional distribution available for magazine
inserts. Missouri Ruralist has content that aligns directly with our target audiences main
interest. They forecast market changes, and have articles pertaining to new technology in
farming equipment. A study done in 2011 found that 85% of farmers in Missouri with 100+ acres
of corn or soybeans have read this study in a 6 month time frame.

("Missouri Farmer Today, 2011 Preference Study" 4)

Radio
We recommend the use of two Northwest Missouri Radio
stations, KAAN radio and KFEQ-AM 680. Both of these stations offer
multiple, target oriented farming shows throughout the day, and during
the times farmers are most likely to hear the message. KFEQ-AM has
three different shows that would be beneficial to run advertising spots
in. The first show is the Saturday morning farm hour, and runs from
6am - 7am. We recommend having at least two spots in this show each
week for four months, because it focuses on everything from market
updates to expected weather for the area. The second show that we
recommend is the Saturday Midwest Land Report. This is a half hour report that covers
available land for purchase and changes in land prices. This show runs from 9:30 am until 10:00
am and we recommend you advertise once during this show each week, over a four month
period that runs parallel to our magazine campaign timeline. The third show we recommend is
the Midday Farm Report. This is a weekday show that runs from 11am-1pm. We recommend
advertising three times during the two hour show, five days a week for a four month time period.
This totals 240 spots for this show over the entire campaign. The farm report covers various
market updates for cattle, corn or grain.
There is a package and show for KAAN radio that we recommend Citizens Bank & Trust
to by for this campaign. The first package is one 30 second spot in the 10am Agritalk show and
one 30 second spot in the Market Rally 4pm show, each weekday for a total of $75 each week.
There is another package that gives you two spots in each show, each day of the week for $110
total. We recommend doing the second package, and buying two spots in each show, because
with radio repetition is key. This package relates to KAANs am radio station: 870 AM. KAAN
also has a FM station: 95.5. For the FM station we recommend you buy a 30 second radio spot
in the closing grain reports that air at roughly 4:30pm. This show aligns with the target market,
which includes grain and crop farmers, and these closing reports are closely watched.

Billboards
Billboards will be an effective media placement to use because farmers need to come
into towns to purchase everyday supplies like groceries, but also drive into towns to go to their
bank and visit the local Farmers Co-op to buy farming supplies. Four billboards placed
throughout the geographic target area will provide a cost effective way of maintaining a

presence in farmers lives. We have chosen billboard locations in Chillicothe, Macon, Trenton,
and Maryville. These placements will be seen by the farmers driving into town and will work to
further position Citizens Bank and Trust as a rural bank. By repeatedly seeing these billboards,
farmers will be convinced that Citizens has a foothold in the rural community. Billboard locations
have been selected based on whether or not the location of the billboard is in a region next to a
Citizens Bank and Trust branch location. The companies we are suggesting to use for billboards
locations are Lamar and Waitt Outdoor due to their selection of billboard locations in our target
area, and the ease of use of their websites.We recommend that Citizens purchase these
billboards on a yearly basis because with a year contract Lamar gives the billboard user the
option of renewing their contract first before any other businesses can acquire that billboard.
Location: Chillicothe, Mo., Highway 36 2.5 miles east of Route CC, Lamar

Location: Macon, Mo., Highway 63 1 mile North of Highway 36, Lamar

Location: Trenton, Mo., Highway 65, Waitt

Location: Maryville, Mo., Highway 71 Business, Waitt

Newspapers
Newspapers will be a vehicle to promote Citizens Bank and Trust and their sponsorships
and involvement in community events like tractor cruises. The Heart of America Tractor Cruise
is in Maryville this year it would make sense to advertise in the Nodaway News Leader
newspaper to promote Citizens participation in the event. This media vehicle will reach farmers
in the immediate area surrounding Maryville, where a good amount of the tractor cruise
participants will likely come from. Helping to promote these ag specific events will show how
Citizens Bank and Trust is involved in the rural community. The Nodaway News leader
describes its content as a local area newspaper with a down-to-earth view of events within
Nodaway County and would be a good choice for this strategy.
Other newspapers that would be a good choice to place advertising in includes
Chillicothe News printed and distributed from Chillicothe and Tri-County Weekly which is a
newspaper printed in Jamesport and distributes to Daviess, Grundy and Livingston counties.
Advertising in these newspapers would give Citizens a presence in local newspapers that
farmers will use to stay updated with the community.

Websites
Advertising online will be an effective media placement for Citizens Bank & Trust to
reach the target audience. Research shows that farmers do use websites to gather information
about agricultural services, products, local weather and markets. With that being said, The
Weather Channel is a great media vehicle that we recommend Citizens to advertise on. This
website offers a half page combo which includes both the branding bar on the top of the web
page and a side rectangular ad on the right of the page. Another advantage of advertising in this
media vehicle, is that it offers regional targeting based on the Kansas City DMA. The Kansas
City DMA covers over 30 counties in the northwest Missouri area reaching 500,000 people on a
monthly basis. These counties include almost all of the locations where Citizens has branches.
Another media vehicle that would be a good option for Citizens to place advertisements
online is in MissouriFarmerToday.com. Buying ads in this website ties in with the media buys
from the print version of Missouri Farmer Today. This media vehicle offers its users farm related
content such as news, weather, market information and a calendar of upcoming events all in the
state of Missouri.
To generate traffic to the agriculture loan page of the Citizens Bank and Trust website
we also suggest using Facebook and their right column ads. These ads are relatively affordable
and can be targeted very specifically so we recommend using them year round. The specific
parameters we recommend using when purchasing facebook ads are placing them only in
counties with Citizens branch locations, only targeting males 45 and older, and people who are
interested in agriculture. This segmentation reaches potentially 17,900 people. By purchasing
ads based off of cost per 1000 impressions and limiting the daily spend to $2, the maximum
yearly cost would be $732 and could be less depending on whether the maximum daily spend is
reached daily.

This image summarizes the target audience profile for the Facebook ads. It contains all of the
counties Citizens has branches in along with some general characteristics of the target

audience

The following image contains the pricing information for the Facebook ads for a whole year.

.Google Keyword Buys

To be found high in the rankings of a Google search for agriculture loans Google
Keyword buys will be used. The specific keywords farm credit farm loans and farm
bank have been chosen based off of search engine optimization research that show that these
phrases are good choices and are likely ones that farmers would use when researching farm
loan banks. Long-tail modifiers can be used when purchasing these keywords to make sure that
any search reaches the correct target, an example of this would be using the word Missouri
before or after any of these primary keywords. A list of suggested long-tail modifiers is included
in the complete SEO report. These keywords will be used during a timeframe where farmers are
likely to be searching for farm loan options online during the months of August through
November.

These are examples of what ads placed on Google using these specific keywords could look
like

Mobile
For the mobile portion of this campaign the advertisements will be placed on The
Weather Channel app for iPhone and Android. Advertising in this media vehicle is strongly
recommended because farming operations highly depend on weather. Also previous research
shows that 28% of the target audience uses mobile apps to obtain information on agricultural
products and services. ("Farmer's Use of Media 2013" 13). Another reason why

advertising with the Weather Channel is recommended for this campaign, is because
the ads will be geotargeted based on the Kansas City DMA. This segmentation will fit perfectly
for Citizens because it covers the counties where they have branches in.

School Newsletters
This portion of the campaign will incorporate high school newsletters to reach the hardto-reach, rural farmers. The idea is to reach community members who might not subscribe to
newspapers of nearby, larger communities. We recommend that Citizens advertise in the
Otterville High School Newsletter and the Buncenton High School Newsletter, both located
in Cooper county. These media buys will use high schools newsletters to position Citizens Bank
& Trust as rural bank and an active member of rural communities. These newsletters are usually
sent out to parents and members of the community to inform about upcoming events as well as
school information. Most of Citizens counties are already farming communities so this will be a
great opportunity to directly reach the target audience.
The images are an example of these school newsletters. In this case, we used the newsletter
that goes out to the community in Novinger Missouri. This example was provided by one of
Citizens sales representatives, Staci Baker.

Media Plan Schedule:

Overall our media plan follows a schedule that is cost effective and has a presence
within media vehicles that are farmer specific. With one of our main vehicles, magazines, we
have a heavy advertising presence between the months of August and November. These dates
are effective because this is the time when farmers will be thinking about loan options for the
next year and with these placements Citizens loan options will be presented to them. With the
other main vehicle, radio, we have an advertising presence year round in order to have a
constant reminder of Citizens presence. Billboard placements will be purchased on a yearly
basis in order to be more cost effective, and to secure a presence in the farming communities.
Additionally with a yearly contract Lamar will give Citizens Bank and Trust the option of
renewing their billboard contract before offering it to anyone else. Online advertising will be
purchased between the months of August and November. These dates will be effective because
during this time farmers are out of the field and are preparing for the following farm season.
Advertising in the Kansas City DMA on TheWeatherChannel.com, on both desktop and mobile
devices, will be placed between April and May when farmers are more interested in the weather
for the planting season. Due to the relative affordability of Facebook advertising we recommend
that these ads are used year round. Newspaper advertisements will be used to promote
sponsorships of tractor cruises and will promote Citizens involvement in those events in the
months before they happen. Newspaper ads will also be placed between the months of August
and November in order for Citizens to have a presence in the community newspaper when
farmers are likely beginning to think about their loan options for the following year. Google
keyword buys will follow a similar timeline to magazines and will be purchased between the
months of August and November. This timeframe is when farmers begin researching farm bank
loan options online, and are using Google.
Justification of Money Spent:
The total spending listed for the current campaign will be $159,157. This spending
includes media buys for a four month period (August-November primarily) as well as a year
round campaign on billboards. The amount spent for this campaign is fairly high in some media
choices due to regional targeting. However, this ensures that Citizens Bank & Trust
advertisements strictly go towards the target audience in the Northwest Missouri area. The
whole spending for this campaign in the different media buys aligns not only with the target
audience, but with the targeted region and the positioning of Citizens as a rural bank with strong
community roots. The average cost to reach one thousand people for all media vehicles in this
campaign is $57.45.

Citations:

Farmer's Use of Media 2013. Des Moines, IA: Successful Farming, 2013. 30. Web. 12
Mar. 2014.
Farmer's Use of Media 2013. Des Moines, IA: Successful Farming, 2013. 38. Web. 12
Mar. 2014.
Missouri Farmer Today, 2011 Preference Study. Stillwater, MN: Readex Research,
2011. 4. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.