TOCA Talk Winter 2024
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.
President’s Message
Celebrate your outstanding work!
By Kristine White, TOCA President
TOCA President Kristine White
It’s time to gather your best work from 2024 because the Annual Communications Contest is open! This year’s contest will look slightly different than before. A team of TOCA volunteers reviewed the categories, removing those that were outdated and adding several new options.
Here are the new categories:
Marketing Communications – Design
Trade Show – Linear Booth Design (10×10, 10×20, 10×30)
Trade Show – Island Booth Design (20×20 or larger)
Logo Design (freestanding logo)
Branding Identity (logo, brand standards, supporting brand elements)
Marketing Communications – Special Projects
Trade Show – Integrated Campaign
Marketing Communications – Writing
Headline Writing – Commercial Publications
Branding – Product Naming (product name, brand story)
Written Brand Identity Elements (product name, brand story and supporting brand identity elements, including, but not limited to, mission, vision, core content, brand descriptors and standard language)
I’d like to give a huge shoutout to committee members who updated the contest categories. Thank you so much for your time! Members of the committee included:
• Dina Newcomb, Hunter Industries
• Kris Guy, Hunter Industries
• Stacie Zinn-Roberts, What’s Your Avocado?
• Jill Odom, National Association of Landscape Professionals
• Lynette Von Minden, Swanson Russell
• Scott Hollister, North Coast Media
The contest is open now and you can submit your entries through Feb. 28, 2025. Winners will be recognized at the awards ceremony during the TOCA Annual Meeting, April 29-May 1, in Charleston, S.C.
Good luck with your entries!
Kristine White, TOCA President
Join TOCA for breakfast in San Diego
Will you be at the GCSAA Conference and Trade Show? If yes, join TOCA for breakfast on Feb. 6, in room 30DE of the San Diego Convention Center, in San Diego. This is a great opportunity to connect with your TOCA colleagues and introduce TOCA to your peers. If you have questions, contact Sandra O’Rourke (sandra@cornerwindowcommunications.com).
Exciting opportunity: 2025 summer internship program
The Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) Foundation is excited to announce the 2025 TOCA Summer Internship Program, hosted by Hunter Industries. Applications for a Copywriter Intern will be open Feb. 1–28, 2025.
The marketing internship program is funded through the TOCA Foundation by Den and Sandy Gardner and Jose Milan. The Gardners are owners of Gardner & Gardner Communications, a marketing/association management firm based in New Prague, MN. Milan is the Marketing and Sales Strategist with JOM Strategies.
View the brochure
Internship Benefits
The Copywriter Intern will tackle meaningful projects that make a real impact while benefiting from:
Career Workshops: Attend professional development sessions to help you transition seamlessly into the workforce.
Site Visits: Take a field trip to explore real-world product installations.
Community Impact: Participate in a project that gives back to the community.
Cohort Connections: Get regular opportunities to network and bond with fellow interns.
Leadership Lunch: Enjoy casual networking and Q&A with senior leaders over lunch.
Final Showcase: Share your journey and achievements through a presentation to leaders and peers at the end of your internship.
Internship Highlights
Program Duration: 11 weeks from June to August 2025
Pay and Benefits: $22 per hour plus holiday pay, benefits and $1,000 conference/travel/housing stipend
TOCA Annual Meeting: Invitation to attend event from April 29-May 1, 2025, in Charleston, S.C.
Application Period: Feb. 1–28, 2025
Learn more and apply here: corporate.hunterindustries.com/careers/students.
Contact Sandra O’Rourke at sandra@cornerwindowcommunications.com or 952-855-8712 for details.
Spread the word: TOCA seeks scholarship applicants
Do you know a deserving student for the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association Foundation scholarship? The $2,500 scholarship will be awarded next fall to an undergraduate student pursuing a career in green industry communications, such as, but not limited to, careers working for trade publications, newsletters or companies/marketing agencies that promote the golf course, lawn and landscape, sod and nursery/greenhouse, sports turf or maintenance industries.
The Publishers’ Scholarship is supported by Golf Course Management, GIE Media, and North Coast Media.
Applications are due March 14. For more scholarship details and to apply, click here.
Tahoma 31 Website – Gardner Award
New Media – Marketing Communications
By Stacie Zinn Roberts (project manager, writer), Cynthia Levesque (brand identity and graphic design) and Olivia Skrzypek (web development, SEO)
About the project
Tahoma31.com is a stand-alone website dedicated to educating the golf and sports turf industries and the general public about the benefits of Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass. The website supports the brand’s PR program as the 24/7 home of Tahoma 31 online. Research materials, news releases and published scientific and journalistic articles are compiled here to back up all campaigns. The site launched in early February 2023, prior to the Golf Course Superintendents Association Annual Conference. This site replaced a small section on the SodProductionServices.com website that was inadequate to tell the full story of this grass as it becomes one of the industry’s leading varieties. (SPS is the company that – on behalf of Oklahoma State University, developer of Tahoma 31 – licenses sod farms around the world to grow the grass).
Objectives
The rationale for separating the Tahoma 31 information to a freestanding site (Tahoma31.com links to SPS but uses its own domain) was to:
- Allow for easier Google search and focused SEO
- Create a dedicated URL as opposed to com/tahoma31
- Provide unlimited growth potential for information dedicated to the brand
With this new website, we added an ever-expanding Featured Projects section, interactive maps to locate sod farms worldwide and links to research and other resources. It also allowed us to stay on-brand with the blue Tahoma 31 color scheme that emphasizes Tahoma 31’s cold tolerance, as seen in the logo’s snowflake element. Animation, beautiful photos and frequently updated lists of facilities using the grass make it a valuable resource for growers selling the grass and potential buyers who want more information.
Approach
Whenever our team builds a website, we start with content first and build a design that functions to tell the brand story. We wrote every word of the website and then found the best supporting photos from our vast library of images to illustrate the messaging. Our goal was to focus on Tahoma 31. Sod Production Services is about to launch several new grass brands. The SPS site will function as the central hub with a dedicated brand website for each grass linked to the SPS site, which will have its own look, feel and brand identity. We felt it was critical to connect the grass brand to the SPS site but not to water down the strength of our client’s brands by pushing the company name. No one will Google SPS, but globally, the Tahoma 31 brand is a leader in sports and golf turf. Therefore, having a freestanding Tahoma 31 site was critical to supporting the brand on a daily basis.
Differentiators
Color
In an industry fixated on green— figuratively and quite literally—most brands lean heavily on the color green. Marketers in our industry focus on green sustainability and green spaces, heck, it’s even called “the green industry.” Tahoma 31 as a brand stands out because of its focus on the color blue. This was done strategically to reference the grasses’ extreme cold tolerance. Even the logo has a blue and white snowflake in the center. So, when we set out to design the website, the color blue had to be prominent.
Data
Developed by the turfgrass experts at Oklahoma State University, and backed by university research, data from the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program, and other sources, Tahoma 31’s content was developed to make claims that are supported by data. While many competitive grasses shy away from data, our approach is to highlight it. We included the raw NTEP data and also created bite-sized charts that explain why that data is significant.
Featured projects
Superintendents and sports field managers trust their colleagues over marketing hype. Tahoma31.com has an ever-expanding section that goes in depth with turf industry pros who explain, in their own words, what challenges they faced at their facilities and how Tahoma 31 helped them overcome those challenges. Photos and video interviews further support the messaging.
Frequent updates
Tahoma31.com is updated frequently. A link to a live Google Sheet provides a running real-time list of facilities planted in the grass. The idea is to show anyone interested in the grass not only where they can go see it in use, but also reinforce the diversity of facility types and locations using the grass – from prestigious golf courses to NFL, MLB and MLS teams at the highest level of sports, to colleges, municipal golf courses and little league fields.
Interactivity
For anyone looking for a sod farm to buy Tahoma 31, the website provides interactive maps of the United States and the globe. With one click on a state or country, lists of local licensed sod growers appear to make the sourcing of sprigs or sod easy.
Our Team
Our team has worked with Tahoma 31 since its inception. I personally named the grass and my team developed all of the messaging, branding and marketing materials. We are highly invested in the success of this grass and I think it shows.
Aces Wild Peer Group Meets in Italy – Gardner Award
Special Projects
By Seth Jones and Joey Ciccolini, North Coast Media
Please describe your project.
It was a tough gig, but I was invited by an industry consulting group to join them and their clients in Florence, Italy, for a week. They proposed the meeting would be useful to me in that I could meet 10 landscape and lawn care business owners… do interviews… shadow the meetings, etc.
Who am I to say, “no,” to a week in the mountains of Tuscany?
What were your main objectives in developing this project?
My goal was to cover this event and share with Landscape Management’s readers what all goes on at an event like this… and also, since I was living with my sources for a week (we were on a remote 150-acre estate) and would have so much access to the attendees, I wanted to get additional content for future issues of the magazine to maximize the trip’s ROI.
The access was key. A lot of times, when I’m at trade shows or even visiting readers where they work, I’m lucky to get 10 minutes of uninterrupted conversation. Since this was an event where we all stayed together for a week, it was easy for me to schedule sit-down interviews with the attendees while we were there. The attendees were all very gracious and giving of their time. I even made a few friends during the trip.
A few interviews stood out because of the setting… one was a video interview where I framed the source with rolling hills of vineyards sprawling out behind him… another was when I found a bar/record store with a small balcony and we sat on the balcony. The background was the Baptistery of St. John, which dates to the 11th century.
What influenced your approach?
I knew going in that this had the potential to be a really special assignment. I didn’t want to waste the opportunity that was presented to me. I understood that this was an invitation not many people get.
Also, it involved Italian wine.
What do you think stood out in your winning entry?
When I submitted the entry, I was sure to focus on the various ways I brought this trip to our readers. That included:
- A recap story in both print and our digital e-newsletter
- Multiple videos interviewing the attendees, with different focuses in each video
- Multiple posts showing the event in progress across all social media platforms
- A two-page spread in the magazine, “LM Gallery,” with photos of the attendees taken while on the trip
- Interviews with attendees in future issues, including short, one-page Q&As, as well as using the attendees as sources in feature stories
I imagine there were a lot of great entries in this category, but one thing that made my entry stand out – to the point of almost being unfair – was the location’s uniqueness. This was an event that, after it was over, I realized the ROI was ridiculous. I met a lot of key players in the landscape/lawn care market and shared a unique experience with them. I think I’ll know many of the attendees for years to come.
2025 TOCA Annual Meeting Hotel Booking Link Open!
Make your reservations by April 6 to receive the exclusive TOCA discount!
BOOK NOW!
The TOCA Annual Meeting provides a unique opportunity to get your brand’s word out to some of the green industry’s most elite communicators. Attendees include editors, writers, publishers, photographers, public relations/advertising practitioners, industry association leaders, manufacturers and many more.
We’ve published a brochure with all of TOCA’s current sponsorship opportunities.
We look forward to hearing from you on how TOCA can help get your company’s message heard!
View the 2025 Sponsorship Brochure
