Communication Agenda FY2024
Our role in the company
Since we were founded in 1962, our aim has been to make global food production efficient and sustainable. What the world believes, thinks, feels and says about Väderstad makes our brand what it is and shapes who we are as a company. Our Communication team is highly dedicated to carry out effective and strategic communication, which will build our product and employer brand even stronger!
We do this together with all our colleagues at Väderstad. Our employees play a crucial role when it comes to presenting Väderstad in the right light to our global audience and customers.
This Communication Agenda summarises the ways in which Väderstad’s global Communication team works to help set the scene for the overall communication planning throughout the entire organisation. It gives an insight into the five-year plan, our contributions to building a profitable business and Väderstad’s Future Excellent State 2030.
Susanne Dalskog VP Communication
Our main responsibilities:
The Communication function is responsible for Väderstad’s communication process, our global communication policy, internal and external communication strategies and the production of marketing materials.
Communication supports all three main functions as well as the supporting functions within the Väderstad Group, but also in all communication-related matters.
Väderstad Group / Väderstad AB
Väderstad AB Sweden
Vaderstad Industries Inc. Canada
Vaderstad Inc. USA
Väderstad Components AB Sweden
Communication
Supporting functions: Finance & Legal, HR, IT, QHSE, Real Estate, Shared Services
Main functions: Order to Delivery – Manufacturing sites
Product & Development – Development centres
Sales & Marketing – Sales companies
Meet the Väderstad Global Communication team
Vice President Communication & Director of Corporate Communication
Susanne Dalskog
HR Business Partner
Ida Evertsson
Director Corporate Communication
Susanne Dalskog
Director Digital Communication
Charlotta Björklund
Brand Manager
Mårten Ehrlin
Content Manager
Erik Terneborn
Communication Strategist
Emma Sandelius
Digital Communication Manager
Joel Stjernerhem
Digital Communication Coordinator Luke Thornton
Digital Communication Coordinator
Catarina Wahlström
Digital Communication Coordinator
Moa Eklöf
Graphic Designer & Coordinator
Catarina Svensson
Technical Communicator and CGI
Daniel Jonsson
Technical Communicator
Ulf Schlichting
Business Controller
Karin Lothigius
Director Inhouse Production Patrik Eksell
Visual Assets Manager
Robert Larsson
Technical Communicator Lena Öresjö
Technical Communicator
Tobias Nordqvist
CGI Artist Simon Gustavsson
Technical Communicator
Karolin Nissa
Technical Communicator
Torbjörn Reidarsson
Director Marketing & Communication North America
Jennifer Heimer
Marketing Manager Ben Sander
Marketing Specialist Allison Karlgaard
Marketing Specialist
Ericka Carbonneau
Document Control Manager
Kyle Larson
Corporate Communication
Susanne Dalskog, Vice President Communication
& Director of Corporate Communication
Susanne is responsible for communications at Group level – ask her questions related to external and internal communication.
Mårten Ehrlin, Brand Manager
Contact Mårten with questions on branding and guides, including brand guidelines and exhibition guidelines. He’s also responsible for the brand tracking survey.
Digital Communication
Charlotta Björklund, Director Digital Communication
For questions relating to overall communication questions on our digital touchpoints contact Charlotta.
Joel Stjernerhem, Digital Communication Manager
Contact me if you want new features or further development in all digital-related matters.
Luke Thornton, Digital Communication Coordinator
Reach out to Luke for questions relating to social media accounts or our PartnerSupport app.
Inhouse Production
Patrik Eksell, Director Inhouse Production
Come to Patrik with questions about development, coordination, project management and production of communication and marketing material.
Catarina Svensson, Graphic Designer & Coordinator
Catarina works on graphic design and marketing materials and can answer any questions regarding print.
Robert Larsson, Visual Assets Manager
Contact Robert about still and moving media, photoshoots and filming. You can also approach him about the media portal.
Simon Gustavsson, CGI Artist
Ask Simon anything regarding 3D renders and animations.
Daniel Jonsson, Technical Communicator and CGI
Daniel works predominantly with CGI and Technical Documentation.
Communication North America
Jennifer Heimer, Director Marketing & Communication, North America
Jen is responsible for all marketing and communications activities in North America as well as serving as the leader for both the marketing and technical documentation teams. She is the contact for all internal and external communications in North America as well as the lead contact for marketing strategy and all activities in North America.
Ben Sander, Marketing Manager
Ben is the primary contact for marketing materials, trade shows, and the dealer portal in the US and Canadian markets. He is a source for knowledge on all US built equipment.
Erik Terneborn, Content Manager
Erik produces content in different channels. Ask him any questions on TellUs content, press releases and media/PR, or for support with communication issues.
Emma Sandelius, Communication Strategist
Emma supports with the planning and execution of group-wide internal and external communication initiatives.
Catarina Wahlström, Digital Communication Coordinator
Call Catarina if you need help with anything regarding our external website, media portal or TellUs.
Moa Eklöf, Digital Communication Coordinator
Moa is our newest addition to the Digital Communication team and is available for help with questions regarding our external website and the intranet TellUs. (Maternity leave until February 2025)
Lena Öresjö, Technical Communicator
Ask Lena about user manuals and instruction booklets for both new productions and existing manuals.
Karolin Nissa, Technical Communicator
Karolin works with user manuals and instruction booklets for both new productions and existing manuals.
Ulf Schlichting, Technical Communicator
Ulf works with product documents with a focus on Final Assembly Instructions (FAI).
Tobias Nordqvist, Technical Communicator
Tobias works with product documents with a focus on Final Assembly Instructions (FAI).
Torbjörn Reidarsson, Technical Communicator
Torbjörn works with product documents, with a focus on service-related documents and final assembly instructions (FAI).
Allison Karlgaard, Marketing Specialist, US
Allison is the primary contact for all social media, public websites, collection shop, and dealer sales programs in North America. She manages the intake for all marketing requests for the North America team.
Ericka Carbonneau, Marketing Specialist, Eastern Canada
Ericka is the primary contact for marketing, trade shows, and websites in the Eastern Canadian market. She is fluent in French Canadian, and is the primary translator for that market. She is also a source for graphic design in the North American market.
Kyle Larson, Document Control Manager, North America
Kyle is the primary contact and leader for all technical documentation projects in North America.
Our mission
Support
Meet company needs (internal).
Engage
Utilize our brand capital and build strong relations to our stakeholders.
Society, media,publicopinion PR, media, socialmedia,sponsorships, sustainability,etc. communicativeleadership , TellUs, etc. processes ,quarterlyinformation, S u pporttomainandsupporting
Employees
Corporate Communication
Ensure safety and transparency through communication.
Inform Reach out
Manage our digital touchpoints to meet stakeholder demands.
Customersandpartners
PartnerPortal , PartnerSupport a pp , brandtracking , campaigns ,event s and productmarketing
Inhouse Production
Digital Communication
socialmedia,advertisements, e tc. recruitmentevents, PR, media, Employerbranding, strategy ,
Talents
Activities and targets
With our eyes on the future, we are continuously evolving our activities and targets to ensure the greatest possible business and communication outcomes each and every year.
The ever-changing media and communication climate requires us to be adaptable to whatever future challenges come our way. Over the last decade, the rise of digitalisation has drastically altered the way we conduct business, communicate with stakeholders, and achieve strong brand awareness, and this pace of change isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
Our activities and targets for 2024 will not only ensure we keep up but help us stay at the forefront the coming year.
Implement a stable communication process to secure our ways of working, mandates and quality in our deliveries.
Support HR in employer branding activities and through internal communication engage, inform and inspire employees and support our leaders in their communication.
Integrate North America into Väderstad´s Communication processes and ways of working – technical documentation, brand, digital touchpoints, etc.
Secure efficient media and PR strategy adding a plan for content strategy to facilitate storytelling integrated with brand development and strategic messaging.
Update and implement Brand Strategy, and visual identity to build a stronger foundation for efficient brand building & communication.
Act on insights from brand tracking and set up global communication strategies and global branding material/campaign packages – be a proactive support function that leads the way.
Develop our digital touchpoints to be relevant in time, user friendly and to drive engagement by executing insights from our web pre-study and adding a new framework of digital assets in line with our brand.
Digitalization of technical documentation – go forward with pre-study and execute insights
What we do
Meet some members from our Communication team to get a better understanding of how they work and how you can use their services.
” A brand must constantly evolve
Mårten Ehrlin is Brand Manager at Väderstad. That means that he is ultimately responsible for the Väderstad brand, to take care of it and make sure that we remember our history and where we come from – but also to help point out the direction in which we are moving towards.
– We have a fantastic history that we should be very proud of. But we still need to keep evolving as we grow bigger as a company, as we enter new markets, meet new customers and face new challenges, says Mårten. Mårten is also heavily involved in our visual identity, both in the colours everyone can see on our machines out in field but also to make sure that all our external communication follows our guidelines.
– Väderstad has a visual expression that people associate with our brand, when people see an ad for Väderstad or
meet us at an exhibition – it’s important that they always get the same impression and that immediate feeling of familiarity.
Emma Sandelius is Communication Strategist at Väderstad. With a background in marketing, she supports with the planning and execution of our group-wide internal and external communication activities.
– We have grown at a record pace in recent years. While that is good in many ways, it also places higher demands on our ways of working. One of my biggest tasks is making sure there is a common thread in everything we do and that we stay true to our brand and our Väderstad Way of doing things - no matter where in the world we are, says Emma.
” We can reach anyone, anytime
When it comes to creating content and reaching in and out to both existing and new audiences, Erik Terneborn and Luke Thornton are our experts. Erik works as Content Manager and with a background in journalism, he probably writes more than anyone else in the company. Press releases, internal news, employer branding, brand development, printed materials and much more. He also handles media contacts, our media strategy and organizes media visits and interviews.
– As many know, it can be a challenge to reach out, but we are here to help you reach your desired audience with your message. Everyone is reachable, it’s just a matter of producing the right content, packaged in the right way using the right communication channels, says Erik.
Luke Thornton is responsible for our social media channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. His workdays are filled with planning
Corporate Communication
• Ensuring all communication activities are planned and executed in line with our overarching company approach
• Develop media and PR management
• Develop internal communication, including communicative leadership
• Media monitoring and follow-up
• Brand development and brand tracking
• Implement employer branding concepts
• Support the rebranding journey in North America
and scheduling content to publish across Väderstad’s channels and working with the PartnerSupport app.
- It’s great to see the strong interest in Väderstad and our products on social media, both in Sweden and internationally. We use our digital channels for a variety of purposes, such as raising awareness when we launch products as well as promoting Väderstad as an employer. The PartnerSupport app is a great platform to work with as well, as it gives our dealers a useful tool to showcase our products directly to customers.
The Communication Department is responsible for all our main digital communication touchpoints. That includes our main digital platform: our external webpage vaderstad.com, our Partner Portal where we reach out to our dealers, importers and suppliers and our intranet TellUs where we reach and engage our employees all around the world.
” Our customers expect to find everything online
– Our digital communication channels keep gaining importance. Väderstad has always been all about staying close to our customers, the difference now compared to when it all started in 1962 is that many of our existing and future customers expect to find all the information they need online, says Charlotta Björklund, Director Digital Communication
To help her meet our customers demand she has Joel Stjernerhem, Digital Communication Manager, and Catarina Wahlström, Digital Communication Coordinator. They work with updating and developing our digital platforms, overseeing the behaviour of our digital visitors.
– To help us we have editors in all our local markets, who help translate and publish content that we produce centrally. To stay close to our customers we need to communicate with them in their language, and focus on posting content that is relevant to their market. That includes campaigns, new product releases, aftermarket and much more, says Joel Stjernerhem.
Digital Communication
• Ensure that everything related to our digital communication channels support external and internal target groups in the best way on each platform
• Present Väderstad as reliable and knowledgeable across all social media platforms
• Add local dealer access to our extranet to make it easier for our partners to do business with us
• Continue to develop the Väderstad PartnerSupport app
• Administer and make sure both internal and external stakeholders have access to images through our Media Portal
Patrik Eksell is Director Inhouse Production at Väderstad. He helps with project management, coordination and production of communication and marketing material. He also heads the Inhouse Production team within the Communication department.
” A real strength keeping our production inhouse
His group consists of two CGI artists, a Visual Assets Manager, Technical Communicators and a Graphic Designer & Coordinator. A multitalented team that work with all departments within Väderstad, producing films, photos, 3D animations, brochures, instruction books and much more.
– It’s a real strength keeping much of our production inhouse. When we ourselves can produce a lot of our communication and marketing material, we can both save money and time but also build a knowledge about agriculture and our products that we would never achieve working only with external partners. And that is how we stay true to our values and the expectations our customers have on us, says Patrik.
Inhouse Production
• Support the entire company with still and moving media, CGI and graphic design material
• Create still and moving media for internal communication, media/PR and employer branding
• Develop and create technical documentation and product brochures
How to contact us
The Communication team always tries to be available and easy to reach. In order to be more efficient, we have created an order form to support and standardise all incoming requests. Services you can order is for example PR, photography, video production, marketing communications, storytelling, digital marketing, social media campaign and content marketing.
Orders specifically for updates on manuals (FAI, Instruction books), new 3D renders please use:
Scan the QR code and fill in the form and we’ll be in
Communication policy
As a trusted global company that specialises in providing the agricultural industry with highly efficient farming machinery, cultivating our brand with clear and transparent communication is crucial. Our employees and customers around the world value a consistent and well-coordinated flow of communication.
Our communication is integrated into all our activities and helps support our business approach, vision and mission.
Building a strong brand with which farmers are proud to be associated is of paramount importance, so it is vital that our company-wide communication contributes towards these efforts.
The full policy can be found in the Global Management System.
Distribution of responsibilities
Managers:
• Responsible for internal communication
• Ensure communication with their internal team, partners, customers and other stakeholders aligns with the communication policy
Communication and Sales & Marketing teams:
• Ensure well-coordinated and aligned communication with internal and external stakeholders
• Responsible for communication that is relevant and proactive in reflecting a diversity of perspectives
CEO, VP Communication or appointed spokespersons:
• Responsible for handling media and crisis communication
How we do it
We create a strong company profile for Väderstad by achieving the following:
• Ensuring our visual identity across all platforms and channels is consistent to help consolidate our position as a leading brand recognised globally for our trustworthiness and high quality
• Maintaining exceptional customer service by providing personalised and tailored communication and building long-lasting relationships with professional farmers, importers and dealers
• Guaranteeing all activities and messages are planned, executed and measured towards Väderstad’s vision, mission, values, business goals, strategies and policies
• Making sure that all employees are dedicated to realising the company’s future objectives and plans, as well as supporting recruitment work
• Making information on the company’s development available to external stakeholders
• Maintaining an active dialogue with trade and mainstream media
If you want to manage a brand you need to measure it. If not, you must completely rely on experience, gut feeling and guesses.
The Väderstad Brand tracking is a survey that started in 2018. The survey gives us insights that help us make the right decisions in several areas, including branding, marketing and sales. Today we have conducted the survey in 17 countries. There is 3-4 years between the surveys. When we revisit a country we can see if we made progress according to our goals.
So far we have revisited three countries and this year it will be another three.
The Brand tracking is a joint effort between Communication and Sales & Marketing.
If you want to know more about the Brand tracking survey you are welcome to contact marten.ehrlin@vaderstad.com
Väderstad Brand tracking give us insights on:
• How our brand is percieved
• How our main competitors are perceived
• Where we should put our focus
- local and global
Ways of working:
• Conduct survey
• Presentation of survey results
• Conclusion – local and global
• Set goals
• Take actions
• Follow up – new Brand tracking after 3-4 years
Areas within the survey:
• Brand awareness
• Brand opinion
• Willingness to buy
• Emotional connection
• Brand availability
• Price perception
• Product association
• Channels for information
• Channels for purchase decision
Services and tools
This Communication Agenda is our guiding document for overall communication planning. In our daily work, we also use a variety of guidelines, templates and tools to govern the organisation and to help us in performing our duties more consistently, effectively and easily. Below, we present the key tools and platforms.
Services:
• PR
• Strategy
• CGI and animation
• Graphic design
• Photo & film
Tools:
• Global Brand guidelines
• Brand tracking
Digital touchpoints
Partner Portal
The Partner Portal is our external platform for communication and working with external partners such as dealers, importers, marketing agencies and suppliers.
TellUs
TellUs, our internal platform, supports and simplifies day-to-day work for all Väderstad employees.
www.vaderstad.com
Our external website is designed to inspire and support our customer needs, as well as build loyalty and trust for our brand, innovations and products – making Väderstad the natural choice.
Social media channels
The mix of social media spanning our various markets aims to strengthen relationships with the target audience, support sales and build brand awareness, encourage customer interactions and ultimately drive traffic to our external website.
PartnerSupport app
The app assists our salespeople when showing customers our range of products and enables them to study product concepts and gain more in-depth knowledge about various agronomy topics. A secondary version of this app is available as a tool during trade shows.
Media portal – media.vaderstad.com
Our media portal is an integral part of our communication. It caters for image handling and is a way of distributing and sharing images. It is also our go-to tool for creating price lists, assembly manuals and instruction books.
You can search and download almost 13,000 images (and more than 33,000 in our archive) through our media portal. We also have logotypes, illustrations, 3D renders and portraits, and are continuously improving the portal with new search functions and filters.
Measurements
It’s essential to regularly measure the success of our brand and how our communication is perceived. One way to achieve this is to monitor the degree to which we are managing to strengthen or reposition our desired status as a premium brand. Key Performance Indicators are stated for the areas below, and are tracked on a regular basis.
Partner Excellence – Meet Company needs (internal).
VEI. Delivery.
Information Excellence – Ensure safety and transparency through communication.
VEI.
TellUs: number of users.
Relations Excellence – Utilize our brand capital and build strong relations to our stakeholders.
Brand Tracking. Media Value.
Channel Excellence – Manage our digital touchpoints to meet stakeholder demands.
Web statistics: sessions per users, session duration, bounce rate.
SoMe: Impressions, engagements, traffic to external web.
