Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 5234 I EUROPEAN SEED I EUROPEAN-SEED.COM Growing a new field of turf is a waiting game. You sow, you fertilize, you let nature take its course. Eventually the new grass plants are big enough and strong enough to do some useful work – to take the pounding of football boots or the teeth of a herd of cattle. The challenge for seed scientists is to make the process faster and more reliable. Bringing a newly sown field of grass to an economically useful stage gives groundsmen and famers a faster return on their investment. One option is to develop seed varieties that establish faster. Despite years of plant-breeding success, the environment still has a more powerful effect on speed of establishment than genetic variation. Factors such as soil moisture or the availability of nutrients are a stronger influence on the speed with which grass seedlings take off. Nitrogen-coated seeds get away sooner A better solution is to alter the environ- ment in favour of germinating grass seeds. We can't change the fields in which our customers sow their seeds but we can use technology to give our seeds a head start. Coating seeds in nitrogen fertilizer give the newly germinated grass plants all the nutrition they need to develop early strong roots. It's like sending each seed out into the world with its own packed lunch. In trials, our own ProNitro® seed coating (launched in 2016) produced up to 30% more root growth and up to 30% more viable plants than an uncoated ref- erence. Trial fields established faster and better, and were ready for playing sports or grazing cattle sooner. We estimate that this translates to an extra 30 to 50 playing hours or a 15% to 20% increase in forage yield in the vital first year of growth. Seed coating is a cost-effective, precision approach There's very little waste when you coat a seed in nitrogen. The fertilizer feeds the seed not the weeds that surround it. It's a time-saver too. You sow the seed and the fertilizer in one operation instead of two. Since the grass plants grow faster, they take up nutrients more quickly. A field sown with nitrogen-coated seeds produces less nutrient run-off and environmental impact than one that's subject to a traditional scattergun application of fertilizer. Whichever way you look at it, seed coatings save turf growers time and money. Even if your sole interest in grass is how soon you can get on it to swing a golf club or wield a cricket bat, nitrogen coating brings that glorious day closer. KLAUS K. NIELSEN Chief Scientific Officer • DLF TURF AND FORAGE For turf that's ready to use, sooner – coat your seed in nitrogen LINDSAY HOFFMAN Director, Client Services • Issues Ink CONTENT MARKETING How to Make Customers Listen (and Really Hear What You Have to Say) I’m sure you’ve all said it before: “If I could just get five minutes with customer X to tell him about our new widget I’m sure I could make the sale.” But when you get those five minutes how did you use them? By definition storytelling is: the inter- active art of using words and actions to reveal the elements and images of a story while encouraging the listener’s imagina- tion. In business, when it’s done well, story- telling can be used as a tool to illustrate an otherwise difficult concept, to drive home a point or to encourage consumer loyalty through entertainment or emotional con- nection. Through storytelling, a business can communicate directly to its target audience with stories told through website copy, blogs, online articles, emails, video and social media. As a tactic, storytelling is based on the concept that people remember informa- tion better when it is told as a story rather than presented as a list of facts. Why? Stories make presentations better. Stories help ideas stick. Stories help us persuade. Leaders tell stories to inspire us, motivate us. Any content you create that generates an emotional response – whether it is empa- thy, sympathy, anger or laughter – is more likely to be remembered. So what’s your story? Here are some simple dos and don’ts to get you started. Do: • Have a brand storytelling plan: Write and keep a library of stories and present them through a variety of media • Consider your audience: choose a frame- work and details that will best resonate with your audience. • Identify the moral or message you want to communicate. • Maintain message consistency: Always tell a consistent story about your com- pany, your product or your service regardless of where the message is deliv- ered • Keep it interesting: You need to engage the reader and keep them engaged long after they have heard the story Don’t: • Preach: A brand story should never read like marketing or advertising copy • Overwhelm your story with unnecessary details. • Lie: People will pick a story that is not gen- uine a mile away Whether you’re a publically traded company or a small family-run business your business there is power in telling stories to your cus- tomers. Maybe it’s about why you founded the company and the values you instill in your team. Or maybe it’s about the development path of a product or service you’re bringing to market. Whatever the story may be, in today’s marketing environment you need to get com- fortable and competent at telling your stories.