Frequently Asked Questions
Make Hay is a subscription based platform (SaaS) which means brands pay a monthly fee for x amount of credits which translate to x amount of seconds of video footage that you can use throughout your content ecosystem (from social media to digital to app to in-store/retail to website etc.) A portion of the monthly fee goes back to the farmers, which is paid by Make Hay. Make Hay is a cost savings initiative designed to help brands create more of the right content in a timely manner.
This isn’t your typical tier 1 advertising campaign type content, you keep doing that. We are more of that raw, real, timely, ‘always on’ content…b-roll, grassroots, behind the scenes, tier 2 type content. Not highly produced, more authentic. That said, we’ve quickly learned farmers are really good content creators (with drones too) so expect some great quality on Make Hay.
From “Show us your harvest” footage to “Talk about regenerative agricultural practices on your farm” to “most important piece of equipment to your daily operation” to ”moving cattle footage” to “pepper farm content” to “the life of a rancher” to “generational farming” to “road safety” to “water conversation practices”, there have been a host of content and storytelling thus far on the Make Hay platform.
From our Purdue University ties to our numerous other trusted resources/partners, we have curated a great group of farmers to launch Make Hay. We have been very intentional and strategic on how we build the ‘right’ Make Hay creator base and will continue to do so as we gain more trust from the farm gates. Also, we have created a Producer Advisory Council with some highly respected agricultural producers ( from farmers to growers to ranchers) that help us navigate things like this. From a software perspective, we leverage various features to ‘‘scrape’ and monitor profiles and content. Finally and most importantly, given we are still fairly new, our team will personally be looking at everything to instill further confidence in our brand partners.
Our team has written thousands and thousands of briefs throughout their careers, so we know how tedious but important this process can be. Our generative AI driven briefing system is our secret sauce, and helps ensure we are giving assignments that are relevant and timely. A very straightforward and streamlined briefing system is what farmers want and we help brands get exactly what they want.
You can, but…having been a part of many teams and organizations, the seasoned Make Hay team understand what it means to “do it yourself”: time, resources, budgets, meetings, texts, emails, calls, travel, lots of back and forth and so on. Our platform is meant to simplify this process and make you and your teams more efficient with more content creation. Also, does it get more authentic than having the farmer create the content themselves? Our technology makes your life easier, and the award-winning Make Hay team is also a weapon at your disposal.
Maybe you don’t. But again, similar to the above “doing this yourself”, our platform can bring efficiencies and opportunity to your farmers. In fact, we’ve heard from many farmers that they would prefer not to deal directly with the brands/company personnel and would welcome a software like Make Hay as means to bridge the gap in a simpler form. Also important to note, when your supply chain producers join our platform, they not only have opportunities to create content for your brand, but other brands as well (non competitive ofcourse) which means possible more secondary revenue for your farmers. By using Make Hay, you are supporting farmers in many different ways while making your content creation more efficient.
Brands that simply want to tell the stories of farmers, ranchers and growers around America can leverage Make Hay. But we have been known to find farmers that supply to certain brands, and also have a recruitment feature that brands can leverage. We can help with the matchmaking. You might not even be in food and agriculture persay, and that’s okay too.
You might be surprised as to all the stories that could/should be told around different crops, food, practices, seasons, etc. Farmers never really stop working and there are stories to be found every month, really good ones. Every acre has a story, every day actually. Our Content Calendar feature can help your teams with aligning the right stories to your monthly/quarterly campaigns and strategic initiatives. Make Hay is that constant drumbeat of content every brand needs at an affordable price.
Yes, the videos are yours to download and edit however you like! When it comes to giving feedback to farmers, we aim to keep it to just one round. At Make Hay, we focus on raw, real, and authentic storytelling. With a clear and direct brief, the content often delivers on the first take! That said, our built-in feedback loop makes it easy to share notes with farmers, who are usually eager to incorporate feedback—it helps them grow and create even better content.
No, all you need to do is sign up and create a profile (which will take you less than 3 minutes), and get set to receive assignments. It’s that simple.
Of course. While we have plenty of creators from Tik Tok and Instagram etc, some of our best content actually comes from farmers with no social media... but are pretty good at using their camera phone. Our technology will guide you, help you to create the content desired- that’s a core function of what we are building: empowering and enabling technology.
We are ‘farmer-first’ which means you control what you want to show and tell. You determine which content assignments you want to answer, you are in the driver’s seat. And sometimes, a brief may not even require to see your face or hear your voice, it may just be asking for some sunset harvest footage from the tractor (for example.)
Of course, if you have a camera phone and know how to use it, welcome aboard Make Hay. We know you have stories to tell, and our software can help you tell those stories while also connecting you to opportunities.
No, not at all, and would be a case-by-case scenario. Some brands may ask, some may not. But again, you make that decision.
We are data driven and therefore our Profile set-up allows for you to detail those brands you do and do not want to work with. And for those that you do, Make Hay can help facilitate where possible.
To get paid, your video needs to be selected by a brand. Once approved, Make Hay handles your payment securely. For ACH payments, we rely on Stripe, a trusted and easy-to-use platform. Payments are quick to set up, and we’ll guide you through the process. We also offer the option to receive payment via gift cards if you prefer. If your video isn’t selected right away, it might still be used for another content assignment from a different brand. Additionally, we’re exploring partnerships with media platforms to create even more opportunities for your videos to be monetized.