Noble West joined the Worldwide Partners (WPI) global network of independent agencies earlier this year. Noble West is an award-winning specialty marketing agency in the agriculture and food ingredients industry. Lead by a fifth-generation California farmer, this female-founded and -operated agency fuses the worlds of strategy, art and nature to support and positively impact the world’s food system. 

Noble West has three intentional office hubs – NorCal Hub, the HQ office located in the heart of California’s Central Valley farmland in Turlock; SoCal Hub, located in Los Angeles; and MidWest Hub, located in Columbus, Ohio.  

DEEP FARMER ROOTS 

You don’t get into the food and agriculture industry without some history. In Noble West’s case, it’s more than history, it’s legacy. 

Ali Cox, Founder and CEO of Noble West, comes from a long line of California farmers. The legacy goes back five generations on both sides of her family - melon farming on her mother’s side, tomatoes and beans on her father’s side, and she and her husband have a custom farming and harvesting business today. Ali leans on this heritage and experience everyday for inspiration with her clients. She founded Noble West (formerly AC&C) in 2007 to help bridge the gap between consumers and their food sources. 

Today the agency is comprised of a collective of food system advocates, including a team of strategic and creative experts in brand identity, campaign development, content planning, media, production and more, and an advisory council of visionary minds from across the food and agriculture landscape. 

CULTIVATING THE AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEM 

Noble West specializes in the entire agriculture ecosystem. They have worked with an array of clients from row crop farmers and food-ingredient packers to environmental protection agencies and entrepreneurial “hero” brands, including theCalifornia’s Department of Pesticide Regulation sustainability messaging and branding project, Pomona Farming Company, Farmers Rice Cooperative, AgCode, Planet Rice and TOMRA Foods. 

As a full-service agency, their services include audience research and discovery, scalable and integrated strategy, original creative and production, and comprehensive analytics. And as a specialty shop, they dive deep into the nuances of sustainability, food ingredients and agriculture marketing.

“To support our grower, consumer and business marketing campaigns, our team has developed a bespoke process called HIBRD,” Ali added. “From new product launches to market expansion, HIBRD is designed to achieve our specialty clients’ goals with not only precision and impact, but with purpose and intention in the media and content space.”

BUILT FOR THE FUTURE OF FOOD

The agriculture industry is a complex one, but Noble West’s strength lies in their unshakable passion and determination to untangle the food system. The entire Noble West team shares a fundamental responsibility to act as change makers on behalf of the industry.

Their clients are purveyors and growers of food, but to effectively drive positive and sustainable change, they know that anyone within the food system – farmworkers, farmers, consumers, and everyone in between – must be accounted for and engaged with. “We aim to tell deep soil-born stories and reach consumers with information about their food that they likely wouldn’t otherwise have an opportunity to learn,” said Ali Cox.

These stories are often about sustainability, regenerative farming, water use, upcycling, zero waste greenhouses, and hydroponic and organic farming, as seen in their recent brand development and launch of Planet Rice. 

Planet Rice is an intentional domestic consumer brand of parent company Sun Valley Rice. The product is sustainably grown, non-GMO, gluten free and 100% natural. Noble West is involved in every aspect of the brand ideation and launch, developing the brand and brand assets, creating the strategy, and managing content, retail partnerships, website, ecommerce and paid media. 

“We’re super proud of this work, not only because we were able to successfully generate increased consumer interest and support sales through retail partnerships, but also because of how this product is grown, processed and deeply woven into the brand,” said Ali.

CROSS-POLLINATING MARKETING EXPERTISE 

Marketers today are looking to hand-select marketing expertise by geography, industry vertical and capability. When a brand comes to Worldwide Partners asking for an agency with offices in Latin America and Asia Pacific, experience with food-ingredient packers, and strong media capabilities, we can say “we have exactly what you need.” This cross-pollination of marketing expertise is what drives growth for our agencies and their clients. 

“Our clients have all been doing international business for years. We’ve provided inmarket marketing strategy and support, and now with Worldwide Partners, we’ve increased our capability to provide resourcing globally,” said Ali. “If that weren’t enough, the support, best practices and professional friendship with fellow, like-minded independent agencies has been incredible. We’re loving the collaborative conversations and continuing education opportunities for the entire team.” 

“Noble West’s knowledge of and passion for the food and agriculture industry is unmatched,” said John Harris, President and CEO of Worldwide Partners. “We’re thrilled to add their expertise to our global network of independent agencies.”
Learn more about Noble West, and follow them on LinkedIn and Instagram.