Last week, Shamba Shape Up held a meeting with all our partners for Series 5 and Series 6 to learn a bit more about the show, the behind the scenes work that goes into it, and take a tentative look at the results from the series aired so far.
The day, which had several of our biggest partners present, was a huge success, with partners learning that there is so much more to Shamba Shape Up than just the show!
Anne Marie, the Series Producer, shared details about the show’s audience reach, which has stayed fairly steady, despite the change over from analogue to digital in Kenya, and which for the first time extends into Tanzania and Uganda, alongside the audience demographics, participation, how the SMS database works and the show’s large social media following.
Anne Marie’s presentation is available here.
After, Rachel and Ann came up to discuss our newest service, iShamba. iShamba. A mobile information service for farmers. With hundreds of new-subscribers every week, Rachel let partners know some of the opportunities for their further involvement. She touched specifically on Mea Fertiliser’s success, which you can read about in last week’s blog post here.
After the presentations were over, partners were invited to meet with the staff who create the show, and work behind the scenes.
Tables were set up with the show’s editors who explained the process of how the film shot on location is taken and then edited down to make an episode. Mark, our graphic designer was also on hand to explain how pictures are added to the film to make information easier to understand.
Serro, the Head of Sound and Radio, was also available to explain how popular the new Shamba Shape Up radio show has been, and how it is being reached by listeners across the whole of Kenya. It airs in Swahili on Citizen Radio at 9.30pm each week day and you can listen to archive recordings here.
SMS Service Manager, Mary, and Communications Officer, Katharine, worked together to show partners how the SMS service works and how best to use it to disseminate information to interested farmers. The SMS service was in particular demand as partners learnt how best they can reach farmers with the leaflet system. Katharine explained how the leaflets are made and how information can be given by partners to be added to the leaflets.
Katharine also explained the popularity of the show on social media – the Facebook page being one of the more popular agricultural pages in the region with over 45,000 likes. Partners were also interested to learn how Shamba Shape Up is on Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, LinkedIn and, of course, our blog here.
The meeting ended in lunch, where partners got to discuss their segments within the show, as well as chat to other members of staff. Partners also were given the chance to practise playing ‘expert’ by taking to the front of the camera with the presenters and try their hand at being an expert on the show – something some took to more readily than others!
The meeting ended in lunch, where partners had the opportunity to discuss their segments within the show, as well as chat to other members of staff.
