Tesselaar Plants

Responsible for driving consumer demand for Tesselaar Plants in North America, Brand | Cool has secured on and offline press coverage in prominent lifestyle, home and garden and special interest magazines. We’ve also added multimedia content (podcasts, videos, etc.) and social media to the mix, successfully engaging consumers and key influencers in the horticulture space.

Public Relations traditional print and online coverage

Within the first growing season of being awarded the business, Brand | Cool secured editorial hits in trade and landscape publications as well as committed stories and by-line article placements in spring editions of “Tier 1” consumer publications and resources such as Horticulture, Fine Gardening, Better Homes and Gardens, Southern Living, Real Simple and About.com. This fueled excitement and renewed interest in Tesselaar from grower network, which thought Tesselaar had discontinued key marketing programs.

Online Newsroom

Brand | Cool launched an interactive and resource-driven NEWSROOM, a discreet web microsite for traditional media, bloggers and Tesselaar’s grower network (their important core customer). Media members from established outlets are offering rave reviews. Site content includes: news releases, comprehensive product information, evergreen content, video downloads and podcasts and a link to the popular blog. It offers content to bloggers, media members and the growers’ customers—Independent Garden Centers and the “big box” stores.

Your Easy Garden Blog

With the shift in consumer media and information consumption, and the rise of online communities, traditional advertising and PR channels were no longer the only or dominant gateway to gardening consumers. Consumer-to-consumer channels (social media) are commonly sourced to influence and inform gardeners. And, Tesselaar has taken advantage of this with a consumer-targeted blog that is for the “every-gardener” who has a busy life and still desires a beautiful garden.

The blog is brought to life with tips and trends, gift ideas and landscape observations from around the world. It does highlight the benefits of using Tesselaar brands—ease and success—with a “plant it and forget it” approach. The blog is written by a former garden writer, and now busy mother and writer, who lives and breathes the challenges of balance in her daily life. She is providing a forum for easy garden evangelists and a community of sharing and experiencing.

Facebook

To ensure we are covered in our social media strategy, Tesselaar does have a Facebook page, but currently treated as a “portal” for our other social networking activities. The Tesselaar International team in other regions, do post, but for North American gardeners, it is a place to link to other resources such as the blog, the Twitter feed and the newsroom or Tesselaar web site.

Twitter

With Twitter, we are taking a two-pronged approach. The first account is a more ‘corporate’ Twitter presence that follows updates on shows, events, activities and plant releases. The second Twitter presence is a lot of fun. In fact tweets are posted from the perspective of a Flower Carpet rose—Tesselaar’s leading brand. “Carpetrose”, as she is fondly called, tweets about everything from looking fat to all her blooms to arguing with the resident garden gnome.

Video Downloads and Flickr Photo Stream

Part of an effective social media architecture is the enablement of downloads of video and audio content. The Tesselaar newsroom provides the latest “Growing Wisdom” how-to videos and podcasts. In addition, access to stunning plant imagery is imperative for the media, and for the company to really leverage the plant brand benefits. So an easy-to-use and easy to find Flickr photo stream is offered right off the Newsroom.