Jun 23, 2022

Monrovia Kicks off Pollinator Week With Local Retailers

Monrovia kicked off Pollinator Week by announcing the prize recipients of the Bee a Winner Pollinator Plant Giveaway.

The company partnered with more than 30 garden centers across the country to give away pollinator-attracting plants to local winners, according to a news release from the company. Katie Tamony, chief marketing officer at Monrovia, said that more than 80% of consumers surveyed say they’re interested in pollinator plant collections.

“We wanted to provide our garden center customers with a way to capitalize on this interest, drive late-season traffic, add new subscribers to email lists and grow social media following,” Tamony said in the news release.

Garden centers’ future marketing efforts were big winners too. With close to 5,000 entries, nearly 100 percent of those who entered, opted into their local retailer’s list.

Monrovia made it easy for retailers to participate and simple for their customers to enter. Garden centers that placed a minimum order of Monrovia’s pollinator-friendly plants received ten additional 1-gallon plants, for free, to use as customer prizes, according to the news release. The orders included a poster with an entry form QR Code and web address for home gardeners to enter.

Monrovia created easy-to-use “plug-and-post” marketing tools including social media graphics, newsletter and email copy, press release templates, and web graphics to help retailers promote their individual contests, according to the news release. The grower promoted the Bee a Winner program in its own email and social media efforts, supporting the participating retailers’ creative displays, social posts, and promotions. Monrovia also managed all the entries and chose local winners specific to participating garden centers.

“We wanted to participate in the Bee a Winner giveaway to get our customers excited about pollinator plants! Building the display with bright, colorful plants really drew people to the table,” said Mollie Wadsworth, Marketing Manager and Landscape Designer at GreenScapes Garden Center & Landscape.  “With healthy, quality plants, it is easy to build beautiful displays that really pop and draw attention to the pollinator plants. We actually had customers who were planning their landscape beds that told us ‘Just give me that whole table.’”

Local displays pictured above: Sargent’s Nursery in Red Wing, Minnesota, GreenScapes Garden Center & Landscape Co. in Whitesboro, New York and Del’s Garden Center in Spencer, Iowa.