Brush Art shows what ‘rooted in trust’ means 

For three generations, the family-owned Brush Art Corporation has proudly partnered with farm families and the companies that support them, helping create trusted connections and meaningful customer engagement.

While it operates at the cutting edge of social media, marketing strategy and technology serving national and global clients, its roots and headquarters are in the tiny town of Downs, Kansas, with a population of fewer than 800 people.

It also operates state-of-the art printing and graphic arts plants in Wichita and Parsons, Kansas. “Print is not going away,” Tim Brush, president and CEO of Brush Art, told High Plains Journal. “In fact, the plants enable us to provide unique inhouse services for our marketing clients that other agencies can’t.”

In small towns, personal, face-to-face relationships are everything, and that’s always been the case for Brush Art and its clients. Unusual among marketing and public relations firms that serve rural customers, it has had continuous business relationships with several clients for decades. (In the above photo, standing, left to right, Savana Brush LaRosh, Tom Brush, Heidi Brush Doane, Tim Brush, Jennifer Brush, Jake Brush; seated Doug Brush and Kay Brush. Courtesy photo.)

“We have a client that has worked with us for over 40 years, and several have been with us over 20 years,” Brush said.

He told High Plains Journal that in pre-internet days, keeping in touch with customers meant a lot of road travel. “We lived on the road. To save time and gas, we’d work as many meetings into one trip as possible.”

Company employees traveled so much that it made sense to purchase and maintain a small private plane.

“It was a key tool for us to manage larger accounts,” Brush said. “We aggressively went after RFPs (request for proposal) in adjacent areas. The travel paid off. We still use that plane for business and our clients.” 

Today, Brush Art’s accounts include large farm end-user companies like seed suppliers, pet food manufacturers and equipment makers and dealers. For nearly two decades, it has been a trusted marketing partner to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children–a nutrition program for pregnant, breastfeeding women and families with children younger than 5. What began as a single food guide design has evolved into a full-service, nationwide network providing creative, print, digital, fulfillment, and warehousing solutions.

Later, the internet significantly relieved the travel burden. “Every customer we have distributes products nationally, but we can focus a media spend on qualified producers in a particular region and be incredibly targeted with our marketing,” Brush said.

Any business serving farmers learns to adapt to the inevitable ups and downs of the farm economy. “You must account for slowdowns among your customers,” Brush said. “But strategic agricultural marketers understand the value in keeping their name out there, even in hard times. Downturns are excellent times to innovate in getting out your message.”  

Brush Art has earned client trust by pioneering marketing practices like splitting accounts and billings among a group of farm equipment dealers. “Thirty-one years ago, no one else was doing that kind of cooperative bill splitting.” 

Throughout its history, Brush Art has always adapted to developing technologies, from Xerox machines to faxes, the internet, QR codes in packaging, and social media. In fact, it was a pilot company field-testing a brand-new software product in 1988 called Adobe. 

“Our clients adopt advances at different speeds, and it’s our job to show them where the opportunity and advantages are,” Brush said. “One of the great things about social media, for example, is that it allows smarter, more targeted media buys.”

That doesn’t mean all social media channels are equal. Every channel is constantly evaluated using the latest metrics for its relevance. “Facebook and LinkedIn are hard to beat for many clients, but TikTok is effective with a younger crowd,” Brush said.

It’s true that farm marketing is a business of personal connections, but those connections can lead to anywhere. Brush tells the story of a large German company whose former main market was Ukraine, but which pivoted to North America after Russia invaded Ukraine. Brush Art helped it connect with North American farm customers.

The media ecosystem is changing with dizzying speed, and the rise of artificial intelligence adds to the mix. Brush is enthusiastic about AI’s potential.

“We are well into AI integration,” he said, adding he believes that it will not replace workers but will free-up good performers to get even better. “We also have policies defining use of AI for each division. No confidential information will ever be used or disclosed on our AI platforms.”

No matter what happens with technology, organizations and businesses will always need to reach customers, clients and audiences.

“We’ve had clients tell us that when it comes to ag marketing, they’d rather come to Downs and meet than with some big city agency in a high-rise,” Brush said. “They trust we can get the job done because we are right here among fields and their farmer customers. The old saying that it takes a lifetime to build up a reputation, but it can be lost in a minute has never been truer than in today’s media age. The winners will be the organizations rooted in trust.”

David Murray can be reached at [email protected].