10 Creative Marketing Ideas From 2016 California Spring Trials (Photo Gallery)
Grower-retailers often look to breeders for ideas on how to increase plant sales with smart marketing plans. The California Spring Trials were filled with great concepts to reach customers.
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There’s no better place than California Spring Trials to have a party. Sakata celebrated 10 years of SunPatiens being in production and on the market with a giant-sized SunPatiens cake. There are four new colors in SunPatiens for 2016 — three compact and one spreading, with lots more to come.
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American Takii’s has found a way to promote its number-one selling crop, Sunrich sunflowers, through a partnership with the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. The company donated enough ‘Sunrich Orange’ sunflower seeds to produce 125,000 plants for the nearly 2-meter high maze for the grand opening of the museum’s new entrance hall. It also gave away free sunflowers to people attending the event.
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The plight of the pollinators is a topic close to all of us, and research shows consumers respond well to positive messaging about pollinator-friendly plants. Syngenta’s new Pentas introductions, the Bee Bright and HoneyCluster series, spurred creative educational displays promoting pollinator health.
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While searching for influential gardeners, Proven Winners came across a young couple in Ontario, OR, named Laura and Aaron LeBoutillier, who were spending their free time making how-to garden videos.
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The LeBoutilliers had earned a half million followers on their Garden Answer Facebook page and more than 32 million views on their videos in two years. To keep the momentum going, Proven Winners offered its financial support, so they can continue to film, full time. Garden Answer controls the content, and ultimately, Proven Winners is paying to allow them to promote gardening, with the excitement and enthusiasm they’ve had all along.
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The MasterTag display at Sakata, done in conjunction with Summit Plastics, was a wealth of marketing ideas featuring consumer-ready themes. Sporticulture pots filled with mixes of annuals in NCAA and NFL team colors included pennant- and helmet-shaped tags.
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Kapiteyn’s idea to infuse pots containing callas with a scent or perfume is a creative, out-of-the-box marketing idea. The packaging on display was infused with the very expensive and recognizable Chanel No. 5, with the objective of catching consumers’ attention as they shop, and bringing plants home with them as a must-have.
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The edibles trend has likely surpassed trend status, and Hort Couture is capitalizing by building up its Culinary Couture Collection for veggie gardeners. A raised bed garden highlighted several of the selections ...
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... and combinations showed how edibles can be mixed with ornamentals for interest and texture that you have to walk all the way around the container to see.
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Ernst Benary of America gave growers a taste of the fashion world during the new variety promenade held during California Spring Trials 2016. Instead of making visitors come to the plants, Benary brought the plants to them, with models strutting their stuff on a runway with pots of new varieties in hand.
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In Benary’s Art in the Park display, visitors had the chance to check out the outdoor garden performance of new varieties. Famous works of art lined the fence behind the display, each one with a twist — Success! petunias were incorporated somewhere into each picture.
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Bailey is kicking its marketing efforts up a notch with new programs for its First Editions Shrubs, Easy Elegance Roses, and Endless Summer Hydrangeas. It’s showing that anyone can grow roses with a clever “Yes, You” campaign, filming a DIY series with a young Minneapolis couple to show the benefits of landscaping with shrubs, and encouraging families to enjoy their outdoor spaces more, complemented by the beauty of hydrangeas.
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Here are just a few of the great ideas we spotted!
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Brian Sparks is senior editor of Greenhouse Grower and editor of Greenhouse Grower Technology. See all author stories here.