TOCA Talk – Fall 2023

TOCA Talk is proudly sponsored by EnP and Advanced Turf Solutions.

EnP has been Engineering Optimal Plant Health™ for nearly 30 years, manufacturing specialty fertilizers
under two brands: Foliar-Pak, and Age Old Nutrients.

Advanced Turf Solutions (ATS) is a green industry distributor that provides fertilizer, pesticides, grass seed, ice melt, and
more to professionals in the golf, lawn care, and sports turf markets.

Because EnP and ATS professionals believe that collaboration and the exchange of ideas are essential for innovation, they are proud to support the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA).

Thank you, members of the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association, for supporting this industry through your information, education, and outreach.

TOCA marketing intern shares reflections on her experience

By Elyse Kann, TOCA Marketing Intern

This summer, I found myself stepping outside my comfort zone and applying for an internship that was 11 hours from my home in New Orleans, La. This was daunting at first, but after my interview with TOCA’s internship host, Sod Solutions, I was confident in my decision and eager to take on this new professional experience.

L to R: Cecelia Brown, Sod Solutions, Elyse Kann, TOCA Marketing Intern

As TOCA’s marketing intern, I was given the wonderful opportunity to spend eight weeks in Charleston, S.C., working with Sod Solutions. Sod Solutions is a company that specializes in turfgrass licensing, a booming industry that I didn’t have much knowledge of or expertise in at the time. This presented me with the exciting challenge of gaining more experience in marketing areas I was familiar with, while also applying those skills to an entirely new industry and range of clientele.

Sod Solutions partners with private breeders and top land grant universities to develop turf grasses that have an advantage over what is currently available on the market. Most of the projects I worked on were primarily focused on advertising and promoting their different turf grass varieties and software technology products. While working on these projects, I was able to gain a better understanding of the research, development and licensing side of the business.

In between weekends at the beach and exploring King Street, my days in the office allowed me to gain exposure to an array of different disciplines, including social media management, creative strategy development, customer service communication, educational content writing and digital media creation.

Writing for Sod University

Early on, I was given the chance to write an informational article for Sod Solution’s educational sector, Sod University. During the research and writing process, I was taught how to use search engine optimization and keyword integration to optimize organic traffic to their website. I wrote and published a lawn care article titled, “Tips for Watering Your Summer Garden.” It got picked up by multiple publications, which was very exciting.

I typically spent most days in the office working on content projects, but I was given the opportunity to go on some company trips as well. In mid-June, I traveled with my co-workers to Oakland Plantation Turf Farm in Council, N.C., for the Sola St. Augustine Field Day. Here, I assisted with the setup of marketing materials to support the demonstration of a new turf grass variety. I also had the honor of meeting numerous sod farmers from all over the country, which enhanced my knowledge of different grass varieties, as well as different sod production practices.

Florida tour: Favorite experience

My favorite experience, by far, was my week-long marketing tour throughout the state of Florida, where I gathered different types of marketing materials for website case studies and advertising campaigns. My week consisted of collecting testimonials from sod farmers, homeowners, landscapers and golf course superintendents about their thoughts and opinions on the caretaking and upkeep of the specific grass variety they work with.

From Orlando, Palm Beach, Miami and small towns in between, I recorded the progress of sod production at multiple sod farms and documented several grass varieties on display across the state. This meant using a camera drone to get an overhead view of production fields, homeowners’ lawns, professional sports fields and golf courses. I admit, I had a little too much fun operating the camera drone and this experience helped me master the art of drone flying!

These trips gave me a comprehensive overview of the sod production process – from development to installation. However, I think one of my biggest takeaways from this experience was gaining insight into the importance of fostering relationships with clients, business partners and co-workers.

Importance of relationships

Although Sod Solutions works with several different breeders, universities and sod farms, they treat each relationship as a solid, collaborative partnership that fosters mutual growth and success. They prioritize cultivating strong, personal relationships, which aren’t touch-and-go, and in turn create lasting partnerships. I truly admire how much Sod Solutions values teamwork, innovation, relationships and community, and I will undoubtedly carry these values with me throughout my future career.

I feel fortunate for the opportunity to get to know this group of people inside and outside the office – whether that was crossing paths during a trip to the snack closet, mid-day lunch trips to Sewee Outpost, showing off my questionable skills at Top Golf or sharing our “highs, lows and buffalos” of the week! Even though my internship is all wrapped up and I’m back at school, I still get updates and FaceTime calls – keeping me in the loop on all the company news.

I would like to extend a huge thank you to TOCA and Sod Solutions for inviting me to be a part of something so special. This summer was extremely rewarding and memorable, and I left feeling inspired and confident in my professional skills moving forward. The mentorship I received, as well as the friendships and connections I made, are all thanks to this opportunity and I would highly recommend the TOCA marketing internship to anyone who is eager to learn more about the green industry!

PBI-Gordon 75th Anniversary Video

Gardner Award Best Short Video

By Callie Zevecke Pestock, PBI Gordon Corporation

Please describe your project.

The year 2023 was PBI-Gordon’s 75^th Anniversary. History runs deep when you’ve been around for that long. This video encompassed the history, the present and the future of PBI-Gordon. Everett Mealman, who we call the fifth founder (we have four original founders and Mealman was married to one of our founders’ daughters), is still very active with the company as our chairman emeritus.

What were your main objectives in developing this project?

To show not only the history of the company represented by celebrating our 75^th Anniversary but our present and our future. We are nothing without our history to show where we’ve come from but also where we’re going. We’re just getting started – even after 75 years!

What influenced your approach?

The rich history of not only our company but the industry we represent and work in. It’s important to represent both the golf and lawn care operator industry, as well as our consumer market. Mealman was a huge influence on the approach of this video, capturing his essence of involvement – past and present. No one knows PBI-Gordon better than he does.

What do you think stood out in your winning entry?

It’s hard to pick just one thing that stood out about this video. It truly represents who PBI-Gordon is. Not only the visual queues but the script/natural wording. Most of the video isn’t scripted, which makes the video truly unique. That shows how much pride those involved had for the content of the video produced.

Smart Planet Brand Playbook

Gardner Award Best Printed Special Project

By Cory Bogenschutz, EPIC Creative

Please describe the project.

Smart Planet™ is a brand of succulents, cacti, annuals and perennials grown and distributed by Altman Plants, and sold nationwide at The Home Depot.

Though the Smart Planet brand has been in existence for several years, Altman Plants realized that to grow their business they needed to start investing in marketing and advertising to drive brand awareness and differentiate themselves from their many competitors.

The Smart Planet line of plants is unique in that it’s focused on sustainability and helping customers to create environmentally friendly gardens that require less water.

Smart Planet not only offers a wide variety of high-quality plants that beautify outdoor living spaces and are easy to care for, but are mindful of the planet, too, which allows their customers to create more meaningful gardening experiences.

The brand playbook was an important first step to establish the Smart Planet’s voice, tone, look and feel, and to ensure there is consistency throughout the brand’s marketing and advertising.

What were your main objectives in developing this project?

The main objective for creating the Smart Planet brand playbook was to lay the foundation for the brand’s overall voice, tone, aesthetic and key messaging, while also defining our key audiences and content pillars. Doing so was critical to the success of our year-one marketing and advertising efforts, and the launch of Smart Planet’s social media community.

The brand book is a valuable resource that is shared with everyone – the client, agency and outside vendors – who is writing and designing content for the brand, to ensure creative and messaging remains consistent. As a living, breathing document, the brand book will continue to evolve and grow with the brand as it expands into new environmentally friendly plant offerings that benefit the earth, wildlife and native habitats.

What influenced your approach?

The customer – plant enthusiasts, do-it-yourself gardeners, landscapers – is who really influenced the approach. For those who work with plants and enjoy gardening, it’s an experience. Getting your hands dirty, being one with nature and the earth, tending to your plants, seeing them grow and flourish, it’s something people are very passionate about and we wanted to make sure that came through in the brand playbook. Our goal for the Smart Planet brand is to make personal connections with customers, so they’re not just buying plants, but also a feeling and a greater sense of accomplishment.

What do you think stood out in your winning entry?

I think there are a couple things that helped make it stand out. One is its simplicity. Brand books sometimes tend to get long and bogged down with too much detail, and we wanted to keep it light and both easy and entertaining to read. Secondly, it’s visually appealing with imagery representing the feeling we want Smart Planet customers to experience when out working in the soil, connecting with earth, and planting and caring for their plants.

Toro 12 Days of Giveaways Promotion

Gardner Award Most Engaging Social Media Campaign

By Alyssa Zipperer, Performance Marketing

Please describe your project.

The project was a giveaway that Toro ran for 12 days during the holiday gift-giving season. Each of the 12 days, consumers could enter for a chance to win a different piece of equipment – leading up to the grand prize of a Toro TimeCutter® zero-turn mower. We launched a targeted campaign that included e-mail and organic posts on Toro’s Facebook and Instagram channels. We also garnered coverage from content creators in more than 50 holiday gift guides, blogs, posts and other social media. Both organic social media and content creator efforts delivered strong performance, with a combined total of 148,000 impressions, 5.6 million views and 128,000 engagements.

What were your main objectives in developing this project?

Competing for attention during the holiday gift-giving season demands a compelling offer and a compelling message. We needed to figure out a way for Toro to get the most exposure possible during this prime season. We used e-mail, organic social media and content creator tactics to help drive traffic and online entries for this project – as well as to help build overall awareness of Toro’s latest lawn and yard care products.

What influenced your approach?

We’ve seen tremendous success through the use of e-mail, organic social media and content creator tactics in the past and knew that we would see similar results for the 12 Days of Giveaways campaign. We used e-mail and organic social media to target existing Toro customers and consumers who like the Toro brand, and we used content creators to expand our reach to a broader audience that we weren’t able to reach organically.

What do you think stood out in your winning entry?

By using content creators for this project, we were able to activate our network of loyal Toro partners to greatly amplify our efforts at a relatively low cost. Each content creator received a custom tracking link so we could track how many consumers they drove to the giveaway landing page. They also received a unique referral code that they could share with their audience. Anyone who used a referral code when entering the giveaway received a bonus entry, which incentivized consumers to use the creator’s codes. We also had an incentive for the content creator whose code was used the most times, which helped drive influencers to promote the giveaway more heavily.

TOCA Hall of Famer Ronald “Ronnie” Hall passes

Ron “Ronnie” Hall, Port Clinton, Ohio, who served as a Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association board member for many years, passed away June 30. Hall was inducted into the TOCA Hall of Fame in 2016.

Ron Hall

Hall, Port Clinton, Ohio, was born May 31, 1947, in Kentucky. He graduated from Milan (Ohio) High School and went to Wabash College, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history. Hall was employed as editor-in-chief for Moose River Publishing.

In his spare time, Hall enjoyed traveling, gardening and riding his bicycle around town. He was married to Vicky Ann Hall for 49 years, before her passing.

Hall truly enjoyed life to the fullest through simple pleasures like chatting with close friends and family. He had an uncanny ability to challenge people on trivia and history.

Hall is survived by his sisters, Joyce Whitaker and Patty Hall Squire, son, Jason Hall of Marblehead, Ohio; daughter, Amy DePriest of Canal Winchester, Ohio; and his granddaughters Stella and Roxy.

Condolences may be shared online at: toftfuneralhome.com.