Community Blindspot

Agency-by-Agency Data and Analysis

NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets

OpenBookNY data indicated that from FY2012 to FY2022, the Department of Agriculture and Markets (DOAM) spent $4,023,487.16 for media placement services with Pinckney Hugo Group LLC. (Pinckney); $3,680,697.56 with Dixon Schwabl Advertising Inc. (Dixon); and $40,927.20 with Finn Partners Inc. (Finn).

The PDFs of spreadsheets DOAM provided to CCM were media placement records from work with Dixon, and these records gave the least details of any of the agencies’ records we received, with few details on the specific outlets or companies where the agency placed media. Much of the DOAM records encompassed ad spending for the State Fair. They spent $4.6 million on media buys from 2016 to 2020, with only 0.1% or $3,487 of that spending going to outlets we identified as community media, like Gay City News or Syracuse New Times. 46.4%, or $2.12 million, of DOAM media placements went to unspecified traditional media outlets (the agency categorized this type as traditional but gave no further details); 27.6%, or $1.26 million, went to unspecified digital media outlets (the agency categorized this type as digital but gave no further details); 6.4% or $293K of spending was categorized as social with no further details. 1.3% of the spending, or $61K, went to what they categorized as “PAID MEDIA” and described as “paid media optimization,” which we interpreted as ad-serving companies. Of DOAM’s total media placement spending for that period, 18% or $822K was unspecified without any category or details. 

FIGURE 8

Ad Spending by Budget Year and Media Placement Category

Department of Agriculture and Markets

Hover over the bars to see amounts and percentages for each category.

FIGURE 9

Overall Ad Campaign Spending by Media Placement Category

NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets

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