Stop interviewing for one video
July 15, 2026
The Real Reason Why Your Marketing Plan Isn’t Working
August 12, 2026
Research-heavy organization needed messaging support for funding
Full-service client benefits from audience segmentation and streamlined communications
Case Study by MMMG
Case Study: Sorghum and Millet Innovation Lab
Background
What began as a 10-year USAID grant called Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sorghum and Millet (SMIL) evolved into the Global Collaboration on Sorghum and Millet (GCSM) in 2023.
MMMG was initially brought in to provide communications assistance to the SMIL team, as they knew communications was essential for years eight through 10 of the funding.
The partnership grew into a robust relationship in which the MMMG team now supports communications, marketing, web development, in-person and virtual training, on-site video capture, online course development and much more. This overview focuses on the two-year SMIL engagement.
The MMMG team has been such a great strategic partner, helping to guide us because we have our strengths, but we need that expert-level help at the strategic audience level…There have been countless situations where I’m going to be in front of a new donor or opportunity, and the team has been there to help with just the right materials. That’s been the kind of working relationship, both strategically and the day-to-day stuff, that helps us get things done quickly and allows us to communicate better to our audiences.
The ask
In 2021, SMIL had 2 years remaining on its funding contract, with uncertainty about the probability of renewal. They needed communications support while pursuing the extension of their program through USAID and messaging refinement as they pursued new funding avenues and sought closer alignment with Kansas State University. The SMIL team was unsure of the level of support required.
The deliverable
MMMG quickly identified the need for full-service support as the program team also sought to elevate the visibility of their research and develop communications to show the efficacy of the work they had been doing for the past eight years. This work was on a two-year timeline to ensure the international program could secure funding to continue.
The approach
To ground the work, MMMG facilitated two in-depth sessions to help the SMIL team precisely identify their primary and secondary audiences, and then delivered a range of materials to help demonstrate the impact of the SMIL team’s work in appropriate formats for each of those broad audiences, including the U.S. elected officials, USAI, in-country partners and the larger sorghum and millet research communities.
Once the audiences and messaging were defined, MMMG helped the SMIL team elevate their international communications through a variety of avenues:
- A new website designed to function as a hub for research. The science-content-heavy site was reorganized to provide public access to research, data and journal articles. It continues to rank highly as a resource for sorghum research.
- MMMG also helped the research and technical teams prioritize and streamline information to communicate with other researchers and non-tech priority audiences, including DC decision-makers, so they could understand it well enough to advocate for the program.
- Once the baseline materials were in place, MMMG helped SMIL uplevel their social media presence and grow engagement by 400% in two years.
- National media relations brought visibility to research findings on the value of US investment in foreign agriculture research and development.
- The international program has a wide array of stakeholders. One of those groups is the in-country research partners in Niger and Ethiopia. MMMG delivered on-site training programs to help the researchers in Africa better communicate with their target audiences, ranging from local governments to farmers implementing the research findings firsthand.
