Business News, Creative Media

22 Dec 2023 19th Designs LLC

Unlocking Growth: The Compelling Case for Small to Medium Businesses to Hire a Marketing Firm

In the dynamic and competitive landscape of business, small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often find themselves wearing multiple hats to keep operations running smoothly. However, one area where many SMEs struggle is marketing. With limited resources and expertise, these businesses can benefit significantly from outsourcing their marketing efforts to a specialized marketing firm. In this blog, we’ll explore the compelling reasons why SMEs should consider bringing in the professionals to handle their marketing needs.

1. Expertise and Specialization:

Marketing is a multifaceted discipline that requires a deep understanding of various strategies, channels, and technologies. A marketing firm brings together a team of experts with diverse skills, ranging from content creation and social media management to SEO and analytics. By tapping into this wealth of knowledge, SMEs can leverage the latest industry trends and best practices to stay ahead of the competition.

2. Cost-Effective Solutions:

While it might seem counterintuitive, hiring a marketing firm can often be more cost-effective than managing an in-house marketing team. SMEs can avoid the costs associated with hiring and training personnel, investing in marketing tools, and dealing with ongoing operational expenses. Marketing firms often work on a project or retainer basis, providing flexibility for businesses with varying needs and budgets.

3. Time-Saving:

Time is a precious resource for small businesses, and managing marketing activities can be time-consuming. Outsourcing marketing tasks to a firm allows business owners and their teams to focus on core operations, strategic planning, and customer engagement. This increased efficiency can lead to accelerated growth and improved overall business performance.

4. Access to Advanced Tools and Technologies:

Marketing firms typically invest in the latest tools and technologies to deliver optimal results for their clients. SMEs may not have the resources to purchase and maintain these tools independently. By partnering with a marketing firm, businesses gain access to cutting-edge technologies, analytics platforms, and software that can enhance their marketing efforts and provide valuable insights.

5. Scalability:

As businesses grow, so do their marketing needs. Marketing firms are well-equipped to scale their services to meet the evolving requirements of SMEs. Whether a business is launching a new product, expanding into new markets, or adapting to changing consumer behaviors, a marketing firm can adjust strategies and allocate resources accordingly.

6. Measurable Results:

One of the key advantages of hiring a marketing firm is the ability to measure the impact of marketing campaigns accurately. Professional marketers use analytics tools to track key performance indicators (KPIs) and provide detailed reports on the success of various strategies. This data-driven approach enables SMEs to make informed decisions and refine their marketing efforts for maximum effectiveness.

In conclusion, small to medium-sized businesses can unlock their full potential by partnering with a marketing firm. From gaining access to specialized expertise and cost-effective solutions to saving valuable time and harnessing advanced tools, the benefits are numerous. As the business landscape becomes increasingly competitive, outsourcing marketing functions allows SMEs to focus on what they do best while leaving the intricacies of marketing in the hands of skilled professionals.

Creative Media

27 Feb 2023 19th Designs LLC

7 Benefits of Hiring a Social Media Manager for your Business

*Article sourced by LinkedIn

In today’s society, social media plays a huge role in the success of any business. Having a well-established social media presence is essential to building a brand and getting your company out there. However, if you want to stay ahead of the curve and make the most out of your exposure through multiple platforms, you’ll need a professional who understands how to market, build a brand and reach a wider audience — you’ll need a social media manager.

In this article, I will share what a social media manager is and the benefits they bring to your business.

What is a Social Media Manager?

A social media manager is responsible for monitoring the performance of your social media pages, generating content that drives LEADS, and also with the marketing strategies that can increase your brand’s visibility, traffic, and engagements.

How can they help with your business?

Now that you know what a social media manager is, let’s talk about what they actually do for your business. Here are 7 things that they can do for you.

Developing your brand. When it comes to increasing your brand awareness as well as establishing your brand reputation, a social media manager will be able to handle it for you. They got the necessary skills and knowledge that could really change and improve your online presence.
Identify your target customers. If you want to bring your business online, you need to create your buyer persona, or know who your target audience. You need to know what their interests are, their behavior, as well as where they spend their time at.
Setting clear objectives. Having clear objectives for your business will keep you on the right track and focus on the things that matter. A social media manager can audit your page and tell what needs to improve on and how you are going to do it.
Creating visuals and strategies. When it comes to growing your brand, you need to create content that resonates to your audience. With that said, having creative visuals that can catch your target customers’ attention.
Content marketing. Just like how important it is to create visuals that would really catch your audience’s attention, the content’s caption is also very important, especially how you can effectively strategize your marketing plan.
Engaging with your audience. This is one of the most time-consuming tasks when it comes to building your online presence. You have to engage with your audience. Reply to comments and messages, provide value and share your knowledge in the community that you are in. If you have a social media manager, they can take this off your plate so you’ll have more time to focus on other things!
Creating a marketing plan that fits your business. This is also one of the best things that they can help you with. You need a marketing plan that suits your business needs to effectively achieve the goals of your business. Social media managers have the knowledge to plan, strategize, and implement marketing strategies.

Hiring a social media manager will really help you save your time and connect with your target customers to increase your brand’s visibility and build your brand reputation. If you don’t have the time to build your online presence, then hiring a social media manager will be the best choice for you!

I hope that this article helped you in making a decision if you need a social media manager for your business.

Aerial Solutions

5 Jun 2022 19th Designs LLC

Spot Spraying With Drones: Using Technology to Cut Herbicide Use in Half

Cropland weed management is a global challenge. Weed pressure in the field decreases crop yield as a result of resource competition. To combat weeds and protect their crops, farmers are increasingly adopting herbicides in farm management. However, overuse of herbicides not only increases farmers’ operational costs but also undermines the health of the ecosystem. Many countries have set a goal to reduce agricultural chemical usage. The European Green Deal aims to decrease agricultural chemical usage by 50% by the year 2030. Drone and Aerial Software Developer DJI recently proved that precision agriculture and drone technology might help to achieve these goals by implementing multispectral scouting and precise spraying with drones.

Cirsium arvense

Cirsium arvense is a widespread weed across many continents, including Europe. It competes with crop plants for soil resources and releases chemical toxins poisonous to other plants, causing severe yield loss. It can spread from seeds and from modified, underground stems, making land tilling and plowing ineffective in controlling Cirsium arvense spread. Herbicide spraying is the most commonly used management method. Traditionally, in autumn or spring, before or after seeding, farmers use a tractor to spray the entire field, 300L/ha, of an herbicide solution containing 5L of glyphosate.

The Mission

Noticing that Cirsium arvense often presents in only some portions of the field rather than the entire field, DJI partner, PlantaDrone, from Hungary, decided to adopt a spot spraying solution using drones to try to decrease chemical usage.

First, they flew a DJI P4 Multispectral drone over an 18-hectare cereal field to collect multispectral images and then used DJI Terra to process and generate an NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) map from these images. Given that this was before seeding and no other crop plants were present in the field, NDVI effectively located Cirsium arvense patches in the field (the green patches shown in the picture below).

NDVI map of cropland field with Cirsium arvense distribution

Based on the NDVI map, they generated a prescription map. Three different dosages of glyphosate solution were sprayed, depending on the infection density of the weed spots (weak, moderate, and strong infection). An 8L/ha solution was sprayed on the weakly infected areas (0≤0.1), 10L/ha on the moderately infected areas (0.1≥0.2) (E. SZALMA (2021). Areas with NDVI≤0 were not sprayed. In every 10L of the solution, there is 3.5L of glyphosate (35% concentration).

Prescription map and flight routes

This prescription mission was then sent from Terra to the DJI Agras drone for spot spraying.

Spot spraying mission with Agras drone

Results

The drone used 83L of the solution, containing 29L of glyphosate. Compared with a blanket application with a tractor, which would use a total of 90L, 67.78% of chemicals were saved, meaning a savings of 14.57 EUR per hectare for farmers (E. SZALMA (2021).

Application Method	Total Glyphosate Usage	Total Cost	Total Saving	Total Saving Per Hectare
Blanket application with tractor	90L	387 EUR	0	0
Spot spraying with drone	29L	124.7 EUR	262.3 EUR	14.57 EUR

After successfully helping farmers to reduce glyphosate usage and chemical costs through spot spraying, Elemér Szalma, Engineer from PlantaDrone, believes that drone technology will be significant for the EU’s Green Deal. “If we want to achieve the agricultural chemical decrease goals of the EU’s Green Deal by the year 2030, our best chances are zone/spot spraying/spreading, and Variable Rate Application.”

FlyDragon Aviation co ltd developed an AI drone for oil palm tree spot spraying.

Storytelling Via Video

Before we delve into how you can use video content marketing, it’s important to first understand what actually makes video click.

While there are a number of reasons that come to mind, the biggest one is that videos allow you to tell stories.

Stories that you can use to connect to your target audience.

Stories that you as a marketer can leverage to create powerful impressions and long-lasting relationships. Stories that simply deliver.

Yes, a video has the potential to help your prospects and customers understand your business and create a ground for future promotions.

But it’s also an amazing way to spread your ideas with meaningful stories. And that’s what makes it so exciting.

You, as a consumer, which will you most likely engage to? A product video that sounds like a sales pitch or a narrative that tells you the value of the product?

Consumers now are more connected to a brand if they feel like their lives will change once they use it. Connect with them emotionally, that’s the key.

Also, you can use videos to experiment with new and brave content to touch the emotional side of your target audience.

Because videos are a mixture of visuals, motion, and sounds, they allow you to create deep and more meaningful connections with people — while positioning your brand in the best possible way.

However, in order to make the most out of video and find success with it, you as a business should understand and know how to use it the right way.

Until and unless you realize the true power of creating quality videos and take the right steps to leverage it, you won’t see the kind of results you want to see.

What Exactly Is Video Content Marketing?

Video content marketing, or video marketing, is a method of digital marketing that utilizes video content in order to engage viewers and promote your brand.

Content marketing in its purest form is nothing but the production and online distribution of content that is educational slash informative in nature.

The goal of this content is to convert online content consumers into prospects/customers. And also to provide enough information to current customers and convince them to become repeat buyers.

Content marketing is used across various channels, with the help of different types of content.

This means it is not limited to text, and video is a big part of it.

Since video is a strong and effective way to spread your marketing message, it can take your content marketing efforts to the next level.

But once again, this depends on how well you execute your video content marketing campaign. And what you want to achieve from it.

5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs Video Content Marketing

By now, you should know what video content marketing exactly is and how it’s growing rapidly.

It’s a tactic that your business needs to incorporate in order to reach more potential customers and get a higher return from your online marketing efforts.

Let’s now look into a few strong reasons as to why you should invest in video content marketing and make it a part of your core business digital marketing strategy.

1. More Conversions

When it comes to running a digital marketing campaign, the ultimate metric that matters is the conversion rate.

Because if you’re not converting your prospects into leads or customers, your business isn’t growing, it’s as simple as that.

By leveraging video marketing, you’ll be able to get more people to sign up for your newsletter or buy your new product.

When compared to other types of content, video content can give your prospects the needed clarity to make the final decision.

It gives you a certain edge over the competition and since the high-quality video isn’t as easy to produce, it can take a while before others catch up with you.

A recent research conducted shows that 71% of marketers have found video content more conversion-friendly. When done right, it can easily help you get better results with minimal effort.

2. Better Emotional Connection

If you look around the social media landscape, you’ll find that videos are being shared the most in comparison to other content types.

While there are many reasons as to why people like sharing videos, one of the strongest “why” is that people connect to the right video content on an emotional level.

By creating videos that appeal to the emotions of your target audience, you not only give them a reason to consume your content but also spread it across their own network.

For example, if you look at a traditional blog post, you won’t find the emotional cues that come with video content.

Right from the tone of voice to the sound effects/music being used, everything can have a positive impact on the viewer.

Which ultimately makes your content stand out from the rest and also memorable.

When interested people watch your video that evokes their strongest emotions (happiness, awe, anger, etc.), it may not push them towards taking action immediately.

However, it will help them make a buying decision later on when they see more such content from you.

So whether you are in the B2B or the B2C market, impressing the emotions of your audience with video marketing, can and will help you bring in more business.

3. Higher Accessibility

Let’s face it, video production is no longer the difficult task it used to be a few years ago.

You no longer need to spend a ton of time on creating a video or have a huge budget to achieve studio-level quality.

Yes, we’re talking about video content that only the big guys were able to produce before.

Thanks to the advancement in technology and with new/innovative tools available, creating and launching your own video has become much more affordable.

In fact, it will keep getting easier in the coming years as more and more businesses jump into producing their own videos and starting their own channels.

4. Stronger Engagement Levels

Many studies have proven that visual content works great when it comes to engaging your target audience.

People today like to consume content that is visually appealing and engrossing. Now, this isn’t limited to pictures or photographs.

Video content is proven to be a big part of the “visual content” movement.

With more and more people watching video content on social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, you can see firsthand how video is helping generate strong engagement from target users.

When you create and share video content with your social followers, you have a 10X chance of them engaging with your video, which often translates to more shares and comments.

However, do keep in mind that the quality of video content marketing matters to a huge extent and has a direct impact on the kind of results you are able to generate.5. Easier SEO Results

Does video marketing have an impact on SEO?

Can videos actually help you rank higher in the search engines for keywords that are hard to rank for? The answer is yes, given that you’re doing it right.

There is little doubt that Google and other major search engines like Bing love video content and won’t hesitate to rank it higher than traditional articles.

According to a study done by Comscore, by adding video content to your site, you have a 53% higher chance to end up on the first page of the SERPs.

This just goes on to show that quality video content can make a big difference to not only your conversion rate but also the organic search traffic you generate.

Understanding The Video Content Marketing Funnel

Using video for marketing becomes much more effective when you take a prospect through a well-defined content marketing funnel.

By implementing video, you will be able to generate more sales with your content strategy.

It doesn’t matter what type of video content you use, with the help of a proper video content marketing funnel, you can:

Create more awareness among your target audience about your product or service while creating a positive impression on them.This is the first and the most important stage of content marketing because, without awareness, it’s impossible to gain trust.
Focus on the problem and the solution you offer, clearly explaining the benefits of using your product and educating your audience.
This is the second stage where you help your prospective buyers understand how exactly your product/service can help them.
Stand out from the competition and make it easy for prospects to reach a buying decision and do business with you.
This is the final stage of the funnel where you can expect to actually close the sale.

In order to make the most of your content marketing funnel, it’s important that you use the right type of content to take potential buyers through it.

When you use video content, your funnel not only becomes stronger but you also end up getting a higher return on investment.

Right from building brand loyalty to increasing your conversion rate, you’ll find that video is the perfect medium to get more of everything.

7 Simple Tips For Efficient Video Content Marketing

If you want your video content marketing to deliver results, then you need to take a calculated approach to it.

You can’t just blindly play the video marketing game and expect to see returns.

Here are seven proven tips to help you make the most out of your video content marketing efforts.

Tip #1: Grab their Attention Quick

Internet users are not as patient as they used to be. Today, it’s all about finding the best piece of content.

So don’t be surprised if people jump your video to look for another one if they don’t find it enticing enough.

The solution is to hook your viewers without wasting their time and delivering on your promise.

You only have a few seconds to impress them (less than 10 to be precise).

So have an interesting, relevant start to the video, and don’t wait too long to reach the meat.

Whether your video is long or short, give your viewers a reason to watch it without skipping it.

Tip #2: Deliver Real Value

Powerful video marketing is all about giving immense value to the viewer in whatever form you choose.

Although it really doesn’t matter if it’s only a short video or a long one. Your content strategy should focus on adding value to the lives of your target audience.

How you provide this value is subjective. Because what’s valuable for your audience may not be that valuable for a different type of audience.

So for instance, if you find that you can give value by creating and publishing entertaining yet informative video content, do that.

Or if you want to choose an even simpler route by creating videos offering specific (niche or industry-related) knowledge, even that’s fine.

Keep in mind that any video that you produce must be watchable and enjoyable. Because if it’s a drag, then it’s not valuable.

So be interesting. Stay relevant. Seek engagement.

Tip #3: Go Beyond YouTube

While there is no doubt that your video content marketing plan cannot be complete without YouTube, it’s not enough.

In other words, there are many other valuable video-sharing channels/platforms that you can tap into besides YouTube.

Platforms such as Vimeo, SnapChat, and using social channels’ features like Facebook live videos and Instagram Stories.

Your aim is to reach out to your target audience in the best possible way, and that can’t happen if you only focus on YouTube.

The most obvious reason why you need to consider other platforms is because of the potential to connect with a varied audience.

For instance, the kind of people you can reach with your videos on Facebook is not the same as YouTube.

Because Facebook users discover video content in a different way. Also, different platforms have people from various age groups using them.

This is why it makes sense to leverage as many video platforms as you can.

However, allocate the majority of your time to a platform where your target audience is most likely to be found.

Tip #4: Stay Consistent in Your Approach

Consistency plays a big role in making your video stand out from the competition.

Why? Because videos are visual, which means you’re not limited in how you present the content.

With every video you create, you can help your viewers resonate with your message by being consistent.

Your brand’s personality, look, and design matter to a great extent in keeping consistency high.

For example, if you are creating videos with people in them, then keep using the same cast so that your viewers see faces they’re already familiar with.

Similarly, if your videos only have a voice-over, see to it that the colors and the design in the video you use to stay consistent.

You may also want to plan your video content well in advance (create a video content calendar) to make sure you’re consistent with timing as well.

However, when it comes to video platforms, your videos need to be customized for each. The one size/look fits all approach doesn’t work here.

If you’re posting a video on Instagram, then it helps to create videos that look more natural, unedited, or spontaneous.

But on YouTube and Facebook, people expect a professional feel, so that’s what you give them.

Tip #5: Don’t Ignore the Quality Aspect

Just because you’re creating and uploading videos on YouTube or Facebook doesn’t mean that you should forget about quality.

In fact, keeping up with quality is extremely important on these social media sites because they’re moderated by real communities.

Users won’t think twice before giving your videos a thumbs down if they don’t see the quality.

So say no to low-definition video and hello to HD video content that people like to view and share with others.

As video platforms improve in quality and service, they expect to give their users a better experience.

Which will only happen if you stop testing the patience of your viewers with bad videos.

Remember, quality over quantity is the number one rule of creating amazing video content.

Tip #6: Optimize for Silence

Besides YouTube, other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram tend to auto-play videos without sound.

The user may or may not choose to watch the video with sound.

But in a HubSpot study, the stats show that up to 85% of videos viewed on Facebook are watched with volume down to zero.

The simple reason for the “silence revolution” in the online video world (especially on social media) is that people are increasingly watching videos- whether an organic video post or video ad, on their mobile devices.

Since the social experience is largely silent, especially with people around, it’s no wonder that many users prefer to view videos with the sound turned off.

So how do you impress users when they are only watching and not listening?

By creating attractive yet relevant visuals that make the video feel engrossing.

If there’s a dialogue in your video, then add English subtitles. In short, have sound in your video but also optimize for silence.

Tip #7: Add a Call to Action

What’s the use of video content marketing if there’s no proper call to action in place?

Businesswise, if you’re investing in video marketing, then you need measurable results.

Having a clear CTA makes real business sense and it should not be ignored.

Call to action in videos needs to be complicated.

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Simply prompting viewers to visit your website and landing page or subscribing to your newsletter at the end of the video is usually enough.

But if you want to go a step further, you may have a call to action come upright in the middle of the video when the viewer is deeply engrossed in the video.

However, stuffing your videos with multiple calls to action is a strict no-no.

The last thing you want is to come off as salesy or pushy to your viewers. Because annoyed viewers will move away from the video and avoid sharing it with others.

4 Quick Video Content Marketing Ideas You Can Use Today

Coming up with creative video content ideas can seem daunting but it’s not impossible, especially with tons of marketing tools available to help you with this.

That’s why what you do with video largely depends on your goals, so if you’re clear about them it shouldn’t be difficult.

Here are a few ideas that you can use in your business, depending on your marketing goals.

Share your company’s or business’s value using videos which could be anything from repurposed blog posts to staff testimonials.
The idea is to create video content that makes your brand stand out from the crowd.Remember, the more your audience sees your brand as unique and trustworthy, the better it is.
Deliver company news and make important announcements with the help of videos that can be shared through your social media channels.
Added a new feature to your product? Use a video explaining the benefits.Have a special event coming up? Create a video detailing the ins and outs of it, and how viewers can become a part of it.Running a special promotion? Run a video Facebook ad and share it with your target audience.
Provide a product demo so that people who don’t want to read can see your product working.
When your prospective customers see your product in a running condition, it positions you as a trusted brand.Show your audience what your product is about so that it sells itself.Make the video demo powerful enough to remove any doubts from your prospective customer’s minds.You can also create or add short customer testimonial video clips to add to your product demo video.
Show that your brand or business is a thought leader by creating videos about your industry and about evergreen topics related to your subject matter expertise.
Help your audience understand the difficult areas of your market.Make their lives easier with your videos and in return they will give you more business.

Regardless of the type of business you run, video content marketing can and will help you grow.

However, if you find creating and marketing with videos intimidating, you can contact us and we will be glad to help you execute your campaign

Aerial Solutions

7 May 2022 19th Designs LLC

Variable rate application with spraying drones

*Article sourced from Pix4d Fields

Precision agriculture helped to reduce the cost of a ripening agent by 20% and achieve a 93% accuracy rate in sugarcane production forecast.

Trinoo is a precision agriculture company specializing in drone spraying for agriculture. It has been active since 2018, backed up by 2 years of research in the use of drones for spraying products in sugarcane cultivation. The company is located in the largest sugarcane production area in Colombia – the department of Valle del Cauca. This area has 14 sugarcane mills, where on average 240,000 hectares of sugarcane are harvested per year.

Reducing the sugarcane ripening agents and forecasting the crop production

One of the most important sugar mills in Colombia was looking to improve their efficiency in sugarcane ripening and to have a more accurate forecast of the production of tons of sugarcane per hectare of their fields. They decided to work together with Trinoo and in defining the scope of the project, the two companies established a research protocol that included:

the technology to be used for image capture and subsequent processing
the time when images should be taken according to crop development
the sugarcane varieties to be analyzed, amongst other factors

The project’s goal was to reduce the use of ripening agents and improve the production of tons of sugarcane per hectare forecast. This would reduce production costs per hectare and improve the cash flow of the mill by providing more accurate field production forecasts up to 120 days before harvest.

Project details


Location	Valle del Cauca, Colombia
Project duration	January – October, 2020
Area covered	600 hectares
Number of images	30 000
Software	PIX4Dfields
Hardware	Parrot Bluegrass drone for data capture DJI Agras MG-1P drone for spraying Parrot Sequoia camera
Image resolution	8cm/pix-10cm/pix

Parrot Bluegrass drone used for data capture (left) and DJI Agras MG-1P drone used for spraying

Applying the ripening agent with aerial spraying drones and variable rate maps

For the maturation process, a ripening agent is applied from the air on the crop leaves. It is induced to concentrate higher levels of sucrose in its stalk, which increases the sugar production per ton of sugarcane harvested per hectare. This work has traditionally been carried out with a uniform dose without taking into account that each lot, given the soil conditions, rainfall regime, and agronomic management presents different levels of development.

Additionally, the standard methodology used so far is the collection of samples in the field that are then analyzed in the laboratory, a process that generates variations due to the difficulty of having a truly representative sample of the entire lot.

Orthomosaic of sugarcane generated in PIX4Dfields

The maturation process, once combined with precision agriculture can be done with a variable rate, spraying more or less product with a spraying drone, according to the development stage of the crop. Trinoo proposed capturing images with a drone and spectral cameras, processing the images, and creating spraying drone variable rate maps in PIX4Dfields to apply the ripening agent.

Variable-rate application map of sugarcane created in PIX4Dfields

Developing a sugarcane production forecasting algorithm

For this project, Trinoo developed an algorithm to calculate the tons of sugarcane per hectare from vegetation indices and other variables recommended by Trinoo’s client’s sugar mill harvesting team. In the field, the average size of the plots to be surveyed is 15 hectares, which generates challenges due to latency effects and disconnection of the drone in the farthest points from where the pilot was.

For the development of the forecasting algorithm, the starting point was the vegetation indices generated in PIX4Dfields. Then the patterning process had to be carried out, which is the identification of the spectral signature of each sugarcane variety and its relationship with the tons of sugarcane per hectare (biomass production), including variables such as age and variety of sugarcane being analyzed.

NDVI index map used as a starting point to develop a sugarcane forecasting algorithm

Project results

Reducing the ripening agent cost by 20%

By using precision agriculture methods and spraying drones, Trinoo’s new service generated from this research project resulted in reducing the ripening agent purchase for sugarcane growers by 20%.

“That would mean for our customers – approximately USD 200,000 per year of savings. For the case of the entire sector made up of the 14 sugarcane mills located in Valle del Cauca, it could result in savings of USD 800,000 to USD one million per year”, points out Felipe Barney Arango, Innovation coordinator at Trinoo.

Trinoo team applying the ripening agent with a spraying drone according to the locations identified on the variable rate application map

Achieving 93% accuracy rate in forecasting the sugarcane production

In the forecast of tons of cane per hectare, Trinoo achieved a 93% accuracy rate. “This information can improve the cash flow projection of the companies, the factory planning, and the sales projection of each sugar mill by being able to anticipate with up to 120 days the number of tons of sugarcane that will arrive from the field. This ultimately generates substantial savings in the planning of labor demand and amount of product to be marketed”, concludes Felipe.

Advantages of PIX4Dfields

For this research Trinoo processed 30000 images with PIX4Dfields, distributed in 26 projects. They found the following software advantages:

High usability of the software with very intuitive functions that facilitate the work of the image processing technician.
Low demand of computing capacity, allowing to run the software on a computer with only 4 GB RAM at an acceptable speed of image processing.
Easy export of reports, results, images, and polygons, facilitating the integration of the work with other processes.
The high variety of vegetative indices allowing multiple combinations of analysis.

Creative Media

4 May 2022 19th Designs LLC

How Graphic Design Can Take Your Business to the Next Level

Graphic design. More than likely, your perception and meaning of what it is is different than the next.

What many don’t realize is that graphic design is everywhere. You couldn’t go anywhere or do anything without viewing some sort of graphic design.

Billboards. Brochures. A book cover. A website. A logo. I could go on for hours, but we don’t have that kind of time — right?! Instead, we need to be spending time improving our business to the best it can possibly get.

One of the most effective ways of taking your brand to the next level is through graphic design. By simply getting a professional logo and website designed, your company/business will earn credibility, trust, and recognition — instantly.

To elaborate, here’s some of the many ways graphic design can make a difference in your business.

Brand recognition

When you apply graphic design to all brand materials and collateral, you gain instant recognition. Maintaining consistency to have a cohesive look and feel can take your business to a new visual level.

With your set of design standards for your business in place, there’s no doubt that with good graphic design you’ll stand out from the rest.

Professionalism

Graphic design can easily be used to portray your business a certain way. Whether you want to be fun and quirky or professional and modern, through color selection, design style, and font choice — you dictate how you want to be seen through your design.

On the other hand, be sure you have a clear vision of who you are as a brand, so as not to portray yourself as something you’re not.

Well done graphic design should give credibility and professionalism to any brand, regardless of the style.

Cost effective

We all know budgets, it’s a part of doing business. However, don’t underestimate the power of investing in good graphic design.

Don’t think that you have to put up thousands for good graphic design though — bad graphic design can easily cost you a lot as well. Do your research first to ensure you make the right decision.

As many do have tight budgets, you might defer to those online DIY website builders and design templates. There is nothing wrong with this when you’re just starting out, but in order to scale your business and brand you’ve got to invest in it.

A well executed website is not just how it looks — there’s navigation, layout, functionality, usability, and so on. On your own, without the expertise, there’s no way you’d be able to carry this out properly.

Investing in graphic design is just that, an investment — but it’s not one you’ll regret. Save the time trying to do it yourself, and concentrate on building your business and growing revenue.

Communication

Graphic design many times is also referred to as visual communication. It’s the representation of your brand, that speaks to your audience and viewers.

A well thought out graphic design should be clear and concise. If someone looks at your logo, and says, “What is that?,” well, then, the designer didn’t do their job very well.

Deliver your message, on brand, and to the right audience. This is what good graphic design can do for you.

Boost sales

As a (biased) graphic designer myself, a business with really good graphic design intrigues me and I instantly become more interested in what they do.

Take for example Warby Parker. As a fellow spectacle wearer (glasses in layman’s terms), I was in search of a new pair a couple years ago and came across WP. Through their exquisite graphic design and easy to navigate website, they created one of the most enjoyable experiences for me as a customer. It was visually appealing, I was never lost, and I wanted to buy those glasses now. To make it even better, their glasses were of excellent quality, and affordable, so for that I’ll more than likely be a return customer.

Now let’s think of the opposite, I’ll use GlassesUSA. Same industry, same type of products. Initially going to their website it’s cluttered, there’s pop-ups, and completely overwhelming. Although their main navigation is fairly straightforward, their added navigation bars above and over-populated homepage make for a frazzled first impression.

Like the example above explains, good graphic design can easily influence your customers to buy from you (or not). It’s imperative you take the look of your brand seriously, otherwise how could you expect anyone else to?

Aerial Solutions

2 May 2022 19th Designs LLC

The Role of Drones in Precision Agriculture

With the world supply at an all-time high and commodity prices at an all-time low as a result of increasing demands in food production and consumption, the modern farming industry is at a crossroads. There is a greater need than ever before for farmers and agronomists across the globe to improve resource management in response to tightening budgets, while the “farm to fork” movement has seen rising pressure for enhanced product traceability, as consumers become more interested in the origin of the goods they purchase and how they were grown.

Furthermore, climate change continues to create new layers of complexity for the agriculture industry in protecting the security of the supply chain. Rapidly evolving environmental conditions further exacerbate these challenges, and the latest figures show that the overall loss to agriculture across Europe from climate change could be as high as 16% by 2050. Indeed, optimizing sustainability credentials to minimize the impact on the health and well-being of the public and the planet will remain a priority, particularly as enhanced sustainability measures could also provide additional economic benefits by enabling agriculture professionals to focus their resources and efforts more effectively.

A landmark report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that sustainable land management could be key to reversing the impact of climate change on land degradation – a significant consequence of human and agricultural activity and extreme weather conditions, in which the quality of land and soil is polluted or degraded. The report claims that this could provide “cost-effective, immediate and long-term benefits”. With this in mind, it is crucial that farms change how they operate to not only mitigate the effects of climate change, but to protect themselves against economic loss.

The Rise of Precision Agriculture

To balance feeding the planet with reducing global emissions, ambitious plans have been put in place. The U.K.’s National Farmers’ Union (NFU), for example, has outlined its goal of making British agriculture carbon neutral by 2040, with the introduction of a range of measures to improve land management, increase farming efficiencies, and boost the wider bioeconomy. Although there is no single answer to the problem, the NFU has advocated working “smarter” to cut direct pollution from farming, by delivering the same value with fewer emissions.

Precision agriculture practices, which can help farmers make better informed decisions, have evolved significantly over recent years, with the global market now estimated to reach $43.4 billion by 2025. While drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), have not yet made it into the mainstream agriculture space, they are playing an increasingly important role in precision farming, helping agriculture professionals lead the way with sustainable farming practices, while also protecting and increasing profitability.

The use of global positioning system (GPS) technology, together with geographic information system (GIS) tools, form a large part of these precision agriculture practices allowing fine-scale monitoring and mapping of yield and crop parameter data within fields. These provide more intense and efficient cultivation methods, which can help farmers adjust fertilizer prescriptions or identify crop diseases before they become widespread. With more data at their fingertips, farmers can make decisions based on economic and environmental factors – for example, by optimizing fertilizer treatment and applying only the right amount at the right time, significant cost and environmental savings can be made.

The Adoption of Drones

The use of drones in the agriculture industry is steadily growing as part of an effective approach to sustainable agricultural management that allows agronomists, agricultural engineers, and farmers to help streamline their operations, using robust data analytics to gain effective insights into their crops. Crop monitoring, for example, is made easier by using drone data to accurately plan and make ongoing improvements, such as the use of ditches and evolving fertilizer applications. Products can be accurately traced from farm to fork using GPS locations for every point in the journey, rather than more traditional time and labor-intensive data collection.

UAVs are particularly useful for the careful monitoring of large areas of farmland, considering factors such as slope and elevation, for example, to identify the most suitable seeding prescriptions. The technology has also proven useful in gaining an extensive overview of plant emergence and population, as more accurate data can help with replanting decisions, as well as thinning and pruning activity and the improvement of crop models.

Crucially, the high-resolution nature of drone data can be used to assess the fertility of crops, allowing agricultural professionals to more accurately apply fertilizer, reduce wastage, and plan – and troubleshoot – irrigation systems. The technology can also be particularly effective following natural disasters, such as a flood, to help farmers to assess damage across terrains that may not be readily accessible on foot.

Taking Drones Further

The potential for UAVs in the improvement of sustainable agriculture is huge. Already the agriculture drone market is predicted to be worth US$32.4 billion – an indication that the industry is beginning to recognize the benefits over more traditional methods, such as ground mapping.

Given the extensive terrain that requires surveying, drones offer increased efficiency, allowing users to capture high-resolution imagery more quickly than alternative methods. Particularly in these volatile market conditions, estimating annual yield can help guide decision-making and manage expectations. In addition, UAVs are now seen as a safer option for mapping difficult areas, such as uneven or expansive fields, that can be hazardous for operators – particularly compared to terrestrial techniques, which must be carried out on-foot.

Where satellites and manned aircrafts have traditionally been used to monitor agriculture, UAVs are quickly becoming recognized as a more accurate and cost-effective replacement. Studies have shown that drone imagery provides a higher rate of accuracy and resolution – even on cloudy days. While using traditional terrestrial approaches to collect data in challenging weather conditions could potentially delay projects for days, accurate crop health assessments can be made throughout the year using UAVs.

The cameras on satellites and manned aircrafts have also historically been insufficient to map fields clearly, making it impossible to gain an exact picture of plants. In contrast, UAV technology provides users with an accurate picture of the different plant parts – even allowing the early identification of pests and diseases. Historically, processing these high-quality images took longer than ground mapping and satellite methods, however thanks to new software solutions, the processing time has been reduced to only a few minutes. This means it can be carried out while still in the field, allowing evidence-based decisions to be made immediately and data to be directly inputted into precision farming equipment, considerably speeding up the process.

Key Considerations

Once farmers have decided to employ drones in agricultural management, there are several factors to consider before investment. Rotary drones and fixed-wing drones are two types of UAVs that each bring distinct advantages. A rotary system, such as a quadcopter or multicopter, is ideal for mapping and inspecting small areas, thanks to its ability to take high resolution imagery at closer range, using mm per pixel. The take-off and landing area can also be very small, which suits more urban areas. In contrast, a fixed-wing drone is often more suitable and beneficial for agricultural applications, where mapped areas are usually large and take-off and landing space is not limited. Its endurance and high cruising speed allows a greater area of land to be mapped up to 2.6x faster, with an object resolution of cm/inch per pixel, and users also benefit from its ability to withstand high wind resistance – an important factor when mapping large areas of open land – as well as reduced labor costs.

In addition to the choice of device, agricultural professionals must also consider the benefits of using a third party to assist with flying the drones, or whether it is more beneficial to train a team in-house. Companies are increasingly opting to use drones in-house, due to the long-term cost benefits and potential return-on-investment. Advances in technology now means that UAVs can also be seamlessly integrated with existing farm management information systems (FMIS), to reduce time spent planning and in the field. Helping to streamline workflows further, partnerships between hardware and software manufacturers can also support agricultural professionals with the processing and analysis following data collection – all in one system.

This allows agricultural professionals to fly the drone and process the images using accompanying software, before exporting the data directly to an application map for use on farming equipment, such as sprayers. These measures enable precision application and ensure less wastage of materials, which can help save costs. Linking the farmer, drone maker, software, ag service provider, and agronomist together, this level of seamless integration enables a complete drone to tractor workflow – leading the way in intelligent agriculture and optimizing farm management methods.

It is also crucial for operators to keep up to date with regulations, such as controlled airspaces around airports and individuals’ privacy. Legislation is continuously evolving and is not currently harmonized across the world. Since regulations vary substantially between regions, having the right team in place can help drone operators in the agriculture industry choose a compliant model, ensure they have the correct certification and fly according to the latest guidance and safety and regulatory standards.

Flying High

With rising emissions from agriculture an increasing problem, changes in farming need to be made to help mitigate climate change and protect against future environmental impact. Agricultural mapping with drones has become more accessible, allowing operators to gain crucial insights into the health of crops and plan accordingly. Not only does the technology have a positive environmental impact, but it can also result in significant cost savings for farmers and agricultural professionals in the long-term. Drones have become an efficient way to quickly and easily map difficult terrain – particularly compared to more traditional methods of mapping, such as manned aircrafts and satellites. This is helping agriculture become a data-driven industry. T

The future for drone technology in improving sustainability is promising. The next step will be the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically analyze the resulting data. Not only would this encourage more efficient operations but enabling more frequent health assessments would also help improve sustainability throughout the industry.

Case Study: Reducing Herbicide Use in Brazil

Drones have been used to help reduce herbicide use by 52% in a Brazilian soybean field. With a flight time of up to 90 minutes, the senseFly eBee X allows up to 500 hectares (1,200 acres) to be mapped, providing high quality images of fields. Accurate images of the landscape were processed and analyzed using Pix 4D Fields to automatically detect areas with weed infestation. The team quickly and efficiently gained access to the results and classification of weed infestation level within hours, with detailed accounts of weed thresholds. The results generated by the fleet of eBee X fixed-wing drones using Pix 4D Fields processing technology helped to generate herbicide application maps that saved, on average, 52% of herbicides for farmers in the 2018/19 season in Brazil.

Creative Media

25 Apr 2022 19th Designs LLC

How Brand Management Grows Business!

Are you wanting to launch your brand but have no idea where to start? Your brand is a lot more than just your product — it’s an expansion of you. From your brand’s core values to every customer and client, this is all a part of the bigger picture.

Good brand management can make or break your business. It helps to get you off on the right foot. Digital marketing is also going to be key for your brand management strategy, but don’t worry. We’ll walk you through it!

What Is Brand Management?

Brand management can be broken down to mean, “a branding component that involves maintaining and bettering products, services, and brand perception. Brand management, when practiced correctly, gives cost leverage, increases customer loyalty, and establishes meaningful brand awareness. It also embodies the customer purchasing process relationship.”

Simply put, you want to implement solid brand management for your business to keep customers happy and boost your brand’s perception. Maintaining a positive image will help to cultivate positive relationships, thus allowing your brand to thrive.

How Brand Management Works

Think of brand management as a garden. You plant your seed (your brand) in your garden, hoping for the ripest vegetables of your dreams.

You’ve taken that first step, but now you must figure out exactly how to water your seeds to ensure they’ll grow and flourish into beautiful plants. How much water is too much? Does the soil need to be replaced? What about sunlight? These small factors are your brand (the vegetable plants) management that will lead to your eventual success.

You can have the greatest product in the world, but with ineffective brand management, no one will have the chance to experience it. This is what makes your management strategy so important. Essentially, brand management works by ensuring that your product or service resonates with its potential customer — it is the rug that ties the room together — happy customer, happy life.

Principles of Brand Management

The principles of brand management are important to understand before moving forward in the process. Now that you know how brand management works, next are the key principles to get it to work.

Brand management principles to consider include:

Brand Equity

Your brand’s reputation is key. You want customers to trust the brand, so they’ll buy more or recommend it to a friend. Your brand name should be recognized in a positive manner, drawing people in.

Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty is similar to brand equity when customers buy your product solely out of loyalty to you. This helps with word-of-mouth advertising and reputation to keep folks coming back.

Brand Recognition

Brand recognition can be self-explanatory but is still a key factor for the success of your business. You want your brand to be recognized by more and more people in a positive light to attract more business. They won’t even have to know your brand name and can still recognize your product.

Brand Management Strategies

Now it’s time for some strategies to get you started on your brand management journey.

Digital Marketing Specialist Master’s Program

Do More, Be Unique

Do you have a unique, eye-catching angle on what it is you’re selling? What sets your product apart from the competition? Why should people want to buy your product?

Focus on your why. Remember why you loved your brand in the first place, and whatever that feeling is, use it to help with your branding.

Evaluate

Do you have an evaluation plan? Evaluate what performs well and what doesn’t. Be prepared to do this again and again over the lifespan of your business.

When something works, do more of it. If something doesn’t, reevaluate how you can make it better. The key to branding is to continue evolving.

Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is the key to the future. There are so many things to consider when starting a brand and having a digital marketing component is one of them. From amazing visuals to social media strategy, digital marketing covers it all.

It may be worth it to invest in a graphic designer and social media manager. Humans (and especially those who shop) are inherently visual, so having a great design is imperative for good branding.

Likewise, with digital marketing, everything is online these days. This is where your brand messaging will come to play as well, as you can really highlight what you want your brand to say and be. If your business is not online, you’re virtually invisible.

Brand Management Benefits

Now that you have an idea of what brand management is and why it’s important, here are some of the benefits you can expect to see:

Grows business
Cultivates customer loyalty
Creates brand awareness and recognition
Increases pricing and value of the product
Grows sales through loyal customers

Why wouldn’t you want to incorporate brand management into your business strategy? Branding is what makes or breaks a lot of products and services.

If you want to become a household name, there are many benefits to doing so through brand management.

Aerial Solutions

23 Apr 2022 19th Designs LLC

Thermal Imaging on Drones and Its Benefits

19th UAS Precision

Thermal imaging or thermography is a technique in which thermographic cameras are used for detecting the radiation present in the range of infrared rays. Radiation that has a wavelength ranging between nine and fourteen micrometers is identified by the thermographic cameras.

Drones or unmanned aerial vehicles are aircraft that are not operated by onboard pilots and are controlled by automatic devices or pilots on the ground. They are used for a number of purposes and missions.

Combining thermal imaging and drones results in an extraordinary and extremely useful technique known as thermal imaging on drones.

What is meant by Thermal Imaging on Drones?

Thermal imaging on drones refers to the incorporation of thermographic cameras inside drones. Thermographic cameras are installed inside the unmanned aircraft and these aircraft are then used for different tasks.

These drones are then launched and sent to the area that needs to be examined using thermography. The minute thermographic cameras in the drones come in action; they begin analyzing the area under study. The thermograms produced by these cameras are recorded and can be viewed by the person controlling the drone. He can easily identify the object he is interested in by seeing the radiation emitted by that body. As the temperature of a certain object rises, it emits more radiation. By analyzing the radiations and the color produced by them, the controller is able to locate the entity he seeks.

What are the Benefits of Thermal Imaging on Drones?

Thermographic cameras in drones have several benefits. Firstly, this technique helps in examining inaccessible areas. Lots of areas cannot be accessed by people or other objects. On the other hand, drones can easily enter areas of minute sizes because of their small size. This makes it quite convenient for different people or companies to get thermal images of complicated areas.

Secondly, before the creation of this technique, sky workers holding thermographic equipment or thermographic cameras on tripod stands were used to examine an area thermographically. Both these methods were laborious as well as inconvenient. As drones can easily become airborne and can stay in the air for as long as forty hours, this technique is extremely effective.

Thirdly, thermal imaging on drones helps in saving time. You can use UAVs at any time of the day you want and can get results very quickly. This saves a lot of time that can otherwise be utilized for completing other important tasks related to a mission.

Fourthly, this technique helps in saving funds as well. You don’t need to hire people or install a thermographic camera at several points of high altitude for examining an area. With the help of a thermographic camera in a single drone, you can survey and get thermographic images of an area from a variety of different points quite easily. This makes this technique cost-effective and extremely easy.

As thermal imaging on drones offers all these benefits, it is becoming quite common. Individuals, multinationals, government agencies, and military organizations are using this method for carrying out numerous important projects.

Creative Media

20 Apr 2022 19th Designs LLC

Here’s Why Having a Digital Presence Is Important for Businesses

It’s challenging to make it big in business, especially when there is such stiff competition in this digital age. Marketing strategies and tactics can differ from business to business. Big businesses can spend huge amounts on broadcast and print-based advertising, and conduct massive promotion campaigns because they have enough capital. Small businesses, on the other hand, have limited resources, so there are fewer options for flyers, calling cards, or brochures. However, the invention of the internet has changed the playing field drastically. It provides similar opportunities for marketing to every type of business. Internet marketing is not only affordable but is also a very effective form of marketing for most businesses. That’s why more and more businesses are focusing on having a strong online presence.

Setting up a business website is a vital step to bring your presence online. This will serve as an online portal where you can showcase your products or services, in addition, to communicate relevant information to your potential customers. A domain name is probably the first thing that will help your customers identify who you are and what your business is about. Therefore, you need to choose an appropriate domain name for your website that can convey your business in a way that’s straight to the point and easy to remember.

Here are a few tips to consider when choosing a domain name for your website:

Align your domain name with your business. If you have already chosen a business name, your domain name should be similar. This way, you can actually make it easy for your customers to remember you and your website.
Choose an easy name for your website domain that allows users to easily find you online.
A domain name should be short and simple.
Try not to use hyphens and numbers for your domain name. Unfortunately, it’s a common mistake, which is most likely to hinder people from finding your website.
Another important aspect when picking the right domain name is to make it memorable. Select a domain name that can stick in people’s mind, so that they can easily access your website.
If you like a domain name which is available, act now before it’s taken.

Why Digital Presence Is Important

No matter what your business is about, if you lack an online presence, you might get plunged into obscurity. Most people tend to use Google or other search engines to find information about a business or company. If they aren’t able to find anything about your business online, it can seriously impact your credibility and market reputation. Indeed, businesses need to build an online presence in order to boost their advertising, productivity, and sales.

Here is how an online presence can be very advantageous to businesses.

Easy Access

Being online helps your customers easily access you and your products or services. Similarly, it allows businesses to get to their target audience. A business’s online presence has changed the landscape of consumerism, as most customers now prefer buying from companies or brands that they have found online.

Establish Your Brand

A business needs to catch the eyes of its prospective customers in order to sell its services or products. However, there is no credibility of your business if it has no distinct image. Your brand needs a platform to set itself apart and become appealing to customers. Today, websites and social media are being used as the most potent marketing tools that help sell products or services to countless people. Most importantly, it’s cost-effective and doesn’t require heavy investments like traditional ways of marketing. With an online presence, you can establish an identity for your business, that can easily stand out.

Reach to a Larger Audience

The internet has brought everyone closer. This feature also serves as the best way to promote your products and services. With a digital presence, you can showcase your products to a larger audience and convert your leads into customers.

Virtual Office

Your website can become a virtual office for your company and work as a venue where your customers can visit, purchase products or services, and get feedback. Unlike the physical world market, online presence has no limit of geographical boundaries, which helps the business sell their brand anywhere in the world.

Beat Traditional Ways of Marketing

Digital presence can help businesses harmonize old ways of marketing and promotions. Provided that the digital platform is rapidly dominating the most sought-after information media, there is a likelihood of this medium to become the most effective promotion strategy for lost businesses if used effectively.