Bonnie Plants
Harvesting great ideas is a lot like tending a garden. It takes effort and dedication, but the rewards are always amazing.
Working with the marketing team at Ellis-Harper Advertising, I was introduced to Bonnie Plants -- one of the nation’s top providers of fresh-from-the-garden edibles. I quickly learned that Bonnie Plants’s products are everywhere, and not just in our backyards. You find them on shelves in every big box retailer across the United States and Canada. Planting seeds to grow a national brand is always challenging, and even more so when your almanac has to include how to promote a unified, consistent image to competing retailers. Even so, our efforts were well rewarded and we have been blessed to see some amazing projects spring up. Below are just a few of my favorites which continue to bear fruit and, in my opinion, some of the the tastiest in the crop.
UNCUT! CAMPAIGN - National Marketing Concepts. Rough ideas for a new Bonnie Plants’ campaign logo -- including a take on America’s love for the Farmer’s Market.
UNCUT! CAMPAIGN - Social Media Applications. In the early stages of the project Bonnie Plants wondered: Why do we grow our own food? A new spin on the Farmer’s Market theme and a push into Social Media platforms like Facebook, Pintrest and Twitter helped start a great conversation.
2014 Walmart Marketing Campaign - Growing The Garden Center. Bonnie Plants in the Walmart Garden Centers got a marketing boost in 2014 when we introduced new and updated signage. We also presented an instore graphics and messaging program to educate shoppers on a variety ways to grow their on food.
GROW & TELL LOGO - Testimonial Video Series. The Grow & Tell testimonial series showcases backyard growers from across the nation and allows them to share, in their own words, their personal stories, inspiration and why they love to garden.
GARDENERS LIKE YOU - Preliminary VIdeo Concepts. Early ideas for a new series on the cultures, influences and personalities behind Bonnie Plants’ customers. The Bonnie creative team traveled the country in search of unique people, willing to share their gardening stories with America. These ideas were later expanded and realized in the Grow & Tell Series that runs today.
BONNIE PLANTS “DOWN HOME” CAMPAIGN - Marketing Applications. Beyond marketing to big box stores, Bonnie also promotes its brand through smaller retailers, independent nurseries and local growers’ outlets. The look and feel for Bonnies 2014 “generic” campaign focused on the lifestyle and philosophy of customers who are intimately connected to the food they grow, eat and share with others.
THIRD GRADE CABBAGE PROGRAM - Educational Materials. Everybody loves cabbage... and if they don’t, they will after growing a 300 pound monster of their own! Bonnie Plants sponsors a nationwide program in public schools where teachers and students learn about where food comes from. And in the process, they grow some of their own! Third graders agree: the best projects are always the ones you can eat...
2014 LOWES MARKETING CAMPAIGN - Reset Concepts And Applications. In an effort to expand and showcase its edibles category, Bonnie Plants was asked to redesign the exterior retail apron at participating Lowes locations. A redesign of the existing footprint was presented, along with a new approach to how customers interacted with live goods, garden accessories and related products. While all of the materials will not come online until later, rethinking the way customers engage with Lowes’ outdoor products gave us plenty of insights for our next crop of ideas.
2014 LOWES MARKETING CAMPAIGN - Reset Concepts And Applications. Concepts for the Lowes reset project included everything from exterior applications like rack banners and shopping cart signage boards to interior strategies like targeted messaging and traffic graphics. We also developed secondary and reinforcement messaging, to include Social Media, new designs for the Lowes Mobile Site and crossover strategies for marketing related products like garden equipment and fertilizers.
2014 LOWES MARKETING CAMPAIGN - Reset Concepts And Applications. Some of our more effective strategies involved rethinking how and where edibles could be marketed, and how to connect them to related categories. In the Grills and Charcoal section for example, which traditionally sits adjacent to the garden center, we designed a series of vertical banners to suggest how the “backyard grill master” and the the “home chef who grows her own food” are (or could be) one and the same person. Our new message to customers: Lowes provides everything you need to fit your fun, food-friendly, outdoor lifestyle.
2014 CAMPAIGN IDEAS - Brand Animation. Having used animation successfully in the past, a new look for Bonnie included a more tactile “Shadow Box” concept. The animation revolves around hand-crafted, 3D objects that come and go on-screen, engaging the viewer in a whimsical, feel good sort of way. This approach and visual style also correspondes well with Bonne’s updated marketing focus.
WE DIG IT! - T-Shirt Packaging. To promote a series of Bonnie programs, an ever-expanding number of T-Shirts are produced -- with various messages and graphics. The only thing missing: a cohesive way to tie them together in a Bonnie-branded “fashion.”
UNCUT! VIDEO CONTEST - Social Media Applications. As in all projects, a number of different ideas are considered, always with the goal of communicating just the right message to consumers. This concept was a later development in the series, showcasing Bonnie customers and focusing specifically on the myriad reasons why they choose to grow their own food.
UNCUT! VIDEO CONTEST - Logo Color Studies. Color is always a big factor in determining buyer behavior, and that is especially true for logos. A number of variations are always tested to be sure the right tone and message is reaching the consumer.
UNCUT! VIDEO CONTEST - Application Color Studies. Some alternate Social Media designs, headline concepts and color schemes for Bonnie’s Uncut! Video Contest materials.
