Maureen Ballatori is the founder and CEO of Agency 29, an agribusiness marketing agency that launched in January 2007. Agency 29 works with food, beverage, and agriculture brands to help them scale. With strategy, identity, and marketing services, Agency 29 helps its clients make a bigger impact on their customer base. From agriculture products such as dairy, apples, and wine, to consumer packaged goods like plant-based milk, gluten-free baking mixes, and beer, Agency 29’s goal is to help clients grow top-line revenue. Ballatori’s role focuses on the growth of the agency, including bringing in new clients.
Challenges and Solutions
What specific challenges in agriculture does Agency 29 aim to address, and how do you approach these challenges?
Agnecy 29 is focused on growth. We always aim to make a positive impact on a client’s top-line revenue and overall business efficiency as it relates to marketing and strategy. One client is a five-generation family business that just had their largest quarter ever and said, “We attribute that growth to our work with Agency 29.”
What are five “highs,” or successes that you’ve seen in the last year?
- Winning Entrepreneur of the Year by Enterprising Women Magazine.
- Being named one of the fastest-growing MWBE-owned businesses in Rochester, NY.
- Winning a National AgriMarketing Award at the national level from the National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA).
- Growing my team to eight people.
- Rebranding the agency.
What are three “lows,” or challenges faced during Agency 29’s opening/ expansion phase?
- COVID-19, of course, was a huge hit. We were hyper-focused on scaling and had to hunker down instead. But we persevered and made it through together as a team one day at a time.
- Growth. I started the agency as a freelancing side venture nearly 18 years ago and when I took the agency full-time eight years ago, it was challenging to know what steps should come next. I hired consultants to advise me and that’s how we made it through.
- Niching down was a high and a low. It was a very difficult decision and we worried that we’d alienate our non-industry clients but they stuck with us.
Community Engagement
In what ways does Agency 29 engage with your local community? Are there local organizations or events you partner with or participate in?
We partner with a local collaborative kitchen to support early-stage entrepreneurs to scale their businesses. We have an education series we do with them and we also mentor individual entrepreneurs.
As a participant in the Cultivate Conference, what unique perspectives or solutions does Agency 29 bring to the table?
There aren’t many agencies that focus on working exclusively with food, beverage, and agriculture brands, so we look forward to bringing that niche expertise to the conference and sharing some perspectives on storytelling to connect with consumers. I frequently speak around the US on branding, marketing, and strategy and look forward to sharing some insights on those topics as they relate to ag-tech.
In what ways does Agency 29 foster collaboration between technology developers and growers? Can you describe a collaborative project that had a notable impact?
We support emerging and scaling agtech startups to help them find their target customers. We also work with state agriculture associations to help them connect with their producers and embrace new technology.
Looking at the future of agriculture technology, what emerging trends or innovations do you think will significantly impact the agtech industry over the next five years?
AI will have a significant impact on the industry over the next five years but I don’t think it will be in the way some people expect. Some people are expecting to buy and implement a dedicated AI software, but that’s not how it will happen. AI will continue to permeate organizations in small ways that continue to have bigger impacts over time
Today it’s predictive language suggestions in emails and tomorrow it will be more significant. Smart companies will look for ways to start exposing their operation to AI early on so they can benefit from the improvements as it continues to grow.
Agency 29
agency29.com
[email protected]
(315) 332-1717
127 Railroad St Ste 220,
Rochester, NY 14609
