Miracle-Gro has always been top of mind for the category, but needed to branch out to more contemporary audiences. With a social strategy aimed at becoming the next big lifestyle influencer, Miracle-Gro planted a “growth mentality” among existing and aspiring gardeners within the millennial demographic.
We set out to show up authentically on Instagram (the millennial platform of choice) by utilizing in-app features and joining existing conversations. Our conscious efforts to increase both engagement and followers included:
To turn light millennial gardeners into Miracle-Gro superfans, we sowed seeds with unique social “cores” with similar values. As a brand, we believe that anyone can have a green thumb (some just don’t know it yet).
Our efforts were bountiful all year long:
To celebrate the first day of spring, we collaborated with a #hobbycore creator who told the whimsical goth garden story of Gummi the Bat and his ghost companion. Come fall, we brought them back for round two by popular demand. Link, link
We joined #420core conversations with the #GrowYourOwn Edible Garden Campaign, where we created a 3-part series with Action Bronson, where he showed off our edible (vegetable) kit, planted it and then made munchies with it. We also surprised and delighted 70+ social conversationists using “gardening” as code for weed in their content.
In June, we unapologetically showed up for our LGBTQIA+ followers through #queercore content rooted in the lived experience of our core team members. An ode to drag culture, an artistic expression of identity, and a lesson on queer ecology drew the uncanny parallels between nature and its caretakers.
We continued to be brave and leapt into another often underrepresented group of people through #witchcore. We practiced their rituals (Link, link) and even handed the mic to a witchy professor to explain how the spell from Macbeth is actually code for plants, and you can grow it all with Miracle-Gro.
As we migrated indoors with our plants, we tapped a #hobbycore creator whose crocheted plant sweaters wove a bond among those who like to make something out of nothing (you guessed it, the common trait among gardeners and crafters).
Millennials gravitated to Miracle-Gro as they saw their multifaceted interests reflected in our content. Our intentional adoption of Instagram features and behaviors made Miracle-Gro’s profile feel as though it was run by one of them.
The strategic shift to subculture content proved transformative, outperforming Miracle-Gro’s more broadly appealing content by 32%. Additionally, all Miracle-Gro Instagram content beat CPG industry benchmarks by 34%.
This growth translated into overall outstanding platform performance: Instagram impressions jumped 431% with a 797% surge in organic engagement. And in less than one year, we increased followers by 301%.
