Meet the Expert: Riley Saunders, Director of Agri-Digital Strategy at PrairiePrime Livestock

Riley has spent 12 years helping global beef, poultry, and dairy brands build creative teams and select the right marketing technology (“martech”) for their size and goals. PrairiePrime runs operations in four continents with over 10,000 employees. Riley’s favorite team story? “When a feedlot manager in Argentina told me our CRM helped him remember every calf born last season — and send a thank-you to each supplier.”

Today, Riley shares practical advice for entry-level creative directors starting to shape their teams and tools within massive agri-businesses.

What’s a ‘marketing technology stack’ in livestock agriculture, and why does it matter?

Riley: Imagine your family’s working cattle ranch — you need a corral, gates, trucks, feed storage, record books. Each tool has a job. A marketing technology stack is just your toolbox for marketing.

In agriculture, your “stack” means the digital tools you use to attract buyers, track animal data, promote animal health protocols, educate feed partners, or communicate with global processing plants. You want your creative team using tools that fit together like a new handling system — easy for everyone, nothing lost in the shuffle.

Why does it matter? Because you can’t scale a $3 billion poultry business using just pen, paper, and emails. You need ways to manage thousands of customer contacts, run digital ads, collect feedback, and analyze what’s working — without burning out your team.

For someone just stepping into creative direction, which roles should they hire or develop first?

Riley: Start with three key players, even in a big company:

In a global livestock business, you might split these into more jobs, especially if you’re talking about 5000+ employees. But if you’re just inheriting a small creative team, build on these three. You want someone who can set up and pilot your tech, someone to make stories and graphics, and someone to show you the numbers behind the scenes.

When you’re hiring or assigning these roles, what ‘soft skills’ matter most?

Riley: Don’t just look for digital talent — look for curiosity about animal agriculture.

Say you’re hiring a data analyst. Sure, they need to know Excel or PowerBI. But do they ask, “What indicators actually predict beef carcass acceptance in Japan?” Agricultural knowledge bridges creative direction and field realities.

Also hunt for these:

• Adaptability: Tools change. Last year, Salesforce changed its API and our data feeds broke. We need people who say, “Let’s fix it,” not “That’s not my job.”
• Communication: Someone has to explain why a cattle health email is worth reading to someone managing 40,000 animals.
• Problem-solving: On a global scale, what works for your Irish dairy team might flop for your Brazilian poultry division. Can your team spot and adjust?

What’s a typical stack for entry-level teams at global livestock companies? Any must-have tools?

Riley: Here’s what I see most often — and why each matters.

If your stack is too complicated, your creative team will spend more time wrangling logins than actually creating. If it’s too simple, you’ll miss insights about your audience. The sweet spot? A handful of tools that talk to each other.

I’ve seen a young creative team at a global pork processor triple their inbound farm tour requests — from 20 per month to 60 — just by adding automated email follow-ups and tracking which social posts generated replies.

How do you help new hires get comfortable with the stack? Any onboarding rituals?

Riley: We throw them into real projects as soon as possible — with a safety net.

For example: On Day 1, a new content creator sets up their workstation. By Day 3, they’re posting a farm animal welfare story on Instagram using Buffer. But they shadow a senior team member, so mistakes don’t snowball. We also run one-on-one “tech walkthroughs” — not just process documents, but screen-sharing to show how we use Salesforce to log vet visits or Zigpoll to gather feedback from regional markets.

One trick: Set up a “sandbox” version of your CRM — a safe space to play, click, and break things. Confidence comes from low-stakes practice.

What about upskilling — how do you keep team skills sharp as the stack evolves?

Riley: We treat technology training like biosecurity: it’s never done, and it has to fit the season.

Once a month, we run 45-minute peer sessions. Maybe it’s “5 ways to use Google Analytics to track lamb auction interest” or “Building an asset library for every breed in Canto.” If someone finds a better way to schedule posts or automate a newsletter, they demo it.

We also budget for outside training. For example, in early 2024, we sent three junior designers to an online workshop on animal health messaging — paid off in cleaner, more persuasive vaccine promotion materials.

A Forrester report from 2024 found that 68% of global agri-businesses spent more on marketing software training last year than the year before. That’s a signal: if your team isn’t learning, it’s falling behind.

Any advice for structuring teams for global livestock companies — especially for entry-level creative directors?

Riley: Geography matters. What wins in Kansas may not work in Kazakhstan.

For big companies, I recommend a “hub and spoke” model:

• Your core creative direction team (“hub”) sets standards: brand voice, campaigns, approved tech stack.
• Regional “spokes” adapt these for local realities — translating, tweaking campaign visuals, choosing the best channels for that market.

Here’s a quick comparison:

For example, we found our UK beef team loved using Zigpoll to get quick feedback from producers about antibiotic-free labels. Our Brazil team? They needed WhatsApp-based surveys instead.

As a creative director, your job is to help teams share wins — and avoid tool sprawl.

What’s one mistake you see entry-level creative directors make with their stack?

Riley: “Shiny object syndrome.” It’s tempting to buy every new app that promises perfect traceability or AI-driven ad targeting. But new tools require time, training, and sometimes change how teams work together.

One team I worked with spent $50,000 testing four asset management platforms in a single year, and ended up sticking with their original — but lost three months’ productivity to switching costs.

Start simple. Add tools only when they solve a real problem.

Can you share a real-world example where improving the stack changed team results?

Riley: Absolutely. A dairy exporter in New Zealand wanted to increase sales of traceable milk to Japanese buyers. Their marketing stack was a mess: email lists on spreadsheets, no feedback loop from sales, and photos scattered across USB drives.

We helped them:

1. Move contacts into HubSpot (a CRM)
2. Set up automated educational emails about animal welfare requirements
3. Use Zigpoll to ask Japanese distributors what content they wanted

Within six months, web form conversions jumped from 2% to 11%. The team could act on feedback quickly. Plus, no more panic over “Where’s that cow-calf video?”

Are there any tools or approaches you wouldn’t recommend for this context?

Riley: Don’t force heavy, enterprise-only tools on small regional teams. For instance, Salesforce is powerful, but if your local office only has one person, they’ll drown in features they don’t need. Similarly, avoid “all-in-one” promises if the system can’t connect with your feed inventory or farm management tools.

The downside of overbuilding? Teams spend more time training than talking to customers or producers.

How do you measure if your marketing tech stack is working?

Riley: Start with farmer and partner feedback. If your team can show, “Here’s what we did, and here’s how it changed producer behaviors,” you’re winning. Track simple numbers: web leads, event signups, open rates on vaccination reminders.

For example, after updating our asset library, we cut photo search time for global teams by 40% — from 5 hours a week down to 3. That freed up more time for creative work.

Also, ask your team: “Are our tools making this easier, or harder?” If more than a third say it’s harder, it’s time to rethink your stack.

For someone starting out, what’s your final action checklist?

Riley: Here’s what I tell every new creative director in agri-marketing at a big company:

1. Learn your core tools — CRM, email, surveys, asset library.
2. Hire (or develop) three essentials: marketing technologist, content creator, data analyst.
3. Practice in a sandbox so mistakes aren’t expensive.
4. Set up monthly sharing of tech tricks and campaign wins.
5. Prioritize learning agri-business basics — not just digital skills.
6. Start small with new tools; prove value before rolling out everywhere.
7. Build bridges with local teams — adapt where needed, but keep brand unity.

A good stack is like a well-maintained herd: healthy, efficient, and always moving forward. Start simple, keep learning, and remember — every tool should make life easier for both your team and your partners in the field.