🌱 + 📱 = 💥

The Brief

Gardening felt distant to a new generation. It lived in expert language, suburban backyards, and seasonal rhythms that didn’t align with urban life. After a long winter, people were craving spring, but many couldn’t actually plant anything yet.

Miracle-Gro needed to reach younger, digital-first audiences who didn’t see gardening as accessible or relevant. The opportunity wasn’t just seasonal marketing. It was about brand perception.

The goal wasn’t to push product. It was to make the idea of growing something feel possible, modern, and worth engaging with right now.

My Role: Client Lead · Strategic Partner

The Work

We met people where they already were. On their phones. On social. Speaking in emojis.

Working with 360i, we launched the world’s first crowdsourced emoji garden. On the first day of spring, every tweet using a plant emoji and #SpringMoji “planted” that emoji into a real-time digital garden at springmoji.com.

The execution was intentionally simple. No app. No friction. No learning curve. Just participation. The idea removed barriers by tapping into behavior people already understood.

As client lead, I shaped the strategic brief, built internal buy-in for an unconventional social idea, and partnered closely with the agency to keep the execution grounded in brand strategy. Convincing leadership to invest required reframing the work as long-term brand repositioning, not a short-term stunt.

I partnered with 360i to make the idea real, bringing in technical expertise for real-time emoji tracking and shaping an influencer bridge that carried the moment beyond the screen and into real-world planting through #LetsGro.

Why It Hits

#SpringMoji turned anticipation into action.

By launching on the first day of spring and using the language people already spoke, emojis, Miracle-Gro earned attention without forcing it. Participation felt effortless, and that simplicity unlocked scale across social platforms.

The campaign reframed gardening as something you could start anywhere, even before you had soil. Digital engagement lowered the barrier, while follow-on content helped translate participation into real-world behavior. What began as a social moment became a mindset shift.

Miracle-Gro didn’t show up as an expert talking down. It showed up as a catalyst. By meeting people at a culturally relevant moment and inviting them in on their own terms, the brand repositioned itself as modern, approachable, and in step with how a new generation engages.

This was about making spring feel possible.