There’s no denying that Yuccies, Millennials and Modern Homesteaders are the garden industry’s

top new consumers.  Before we identified these leading groups for 2016, we spotted one core group of people that seamlessly merged gardening with city living.

For this week’s throwback trends post, we’re highlighting a 2012 staple: Urban Knights.

Continue reading to learn more about Urban Knights.

When you hear about the Olympics this year, you might think about Rio, your favorite athletes or the qualifying trials.

PR pros also think about sponsorships — the advertising and marketing strategies that feature athletes and capitalize on the Olympic spotlight. Previously, only official sponsors — big name organizations like McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Panasonic — profited from ties to the games.

But new advertising rules from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) open the door for non-official sponsors to benefit as well.

Continue reading to learn how advertising changes will impact brands at the Olympics.

“Likes,” “Shares” and “ReTweets” are terms synonymous with a successful brand.

Social media, an extremely effective marketing medium, helps brands reach people on a large scale. In today’s world, public relations campaigns must utilize social media to increase brand awareness and grow consumer demand.

To teach garden brands how to properly convey marketing messages over social media, Garden Media Group released its latest free e-Book, “How The Espoma Company Bloomed: A Social Media Case Study.” The e-Book outlines the best practices for monitoring and posting to a variety of social sites.

Continue reading to learn more about Espoma’s case study.

Anyone who works in this industry knows that pitching and PR go hand-in-hand. An interesting, timely pitch sent to the right contact ultimately means you’ll be successful. It also helps you to build relationships with new contacts.

While good pitches can do wonders for your brand, bad pitches can lend your email straight in the trash.

This infographic from PR Daily shows exactly what makes bad pitches unappealing and what you can do to fix your pitch.

Why are people bad at pitching?

For more than a decade, Garden Media has introduced the garden industry to ground breaking trends and provided insight to its clients. Since we first published our annual trends report in 2001, our mavens have cited dozens of exciting new things that  shake up the garden industry each year.

This month, we’re taking a look back at some of our favorite trends. For our first throwback trends post, we’re revisiting a classic from 2010: Slow Gardening.

Continue reading to learn more about Slow Gardening.

Last week marked a major milestone for Instagram. The app passed 500 million users—and 300 million of those 500 million visit Instagram daily.

To put that into proportion, “500 million” equates to about seven percent of the world’s total population. It’s also larger than the population of the entire United States.

Instagram is proud to announce its users share “500 million windows to the world." The app is blossoming into a virtual space where everything from “the everyday and the epic, are always within reach.”

Instagram’s CEO has described Instagram as a “media destination,” a place where users can learn about what’s happening in the world as it happens. Although this perspective reflects the attitudes of many other platforms, too, Instagram’s growth is really soaring.

So, what can we learn from this?

Continue reading to discover some of the biggest takeaways from Instagram's milestone.

You know by now that the Layered Landscape trend helps attract local wildlife and encourages people to design yards that are built to last far beyond one season.

Native plants and diverse species help create a true layered landscape.

Continue reading for a look into the essence of layered landscapes.

You know that building a brand is an art. But there’s also a science behind connecting with your audience.

And in PR, you have to connect with your audience or you're dead.

Channeling all of your efforts into creating a perfectly assembled pitch or video without targeting an audience first is a surefire way to waste your time.

All consumers are different, but the science behind what catches someone’s interest is surprisingly universal.

Here are a few fundamental tricks that will help you craft material for your intended audience and, when implemented, make you stand out to consumers.

Continue reading for tips on how to incorporate the science behind PR in your strategies.

Last year, we sat down with Dr. Doug Tallamy to talk biodiversity and native plants. Tallamy, professor of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware said that yards that truly thrive support ecosystems.    

We cited layered landscapes as a top 2016 garden trend. The trend of choosing plants with a purpose will continue to spread to the backyard and beyond. (Layered Landscape concepts can even apply to the PR industry!)

Here are some tips on how to create your own layered landscape.

Continue reading to learn how to create a layered landscape in your backyard.

Thirty seconds. It’s enough time for you to stretch, send a quick text message or plan what you’re going to make for dinner. Half a minute can seem very trivial in the scheme of your day.  

But if you’ve ever tried to write an elevator pitch, you’ll know that thirty seconds can also be a secret weapon.    

With a well-practiced elevator pitch, you convey to potential employers who you are and what you’ll bring to the table on an interview.

Quickly catching an employer’s interest on the spot can be challenging if you're not prepared, so here are a few tips for selling your skill set in half a minute or less.

Continue reading for tips on how to craft the perfect elevator pitch for an interview.