Get Growing Foundation is a nonprofit in Chicago, Illinois. Their mission is to provide year-round educational programming and community outreach, including garden installations, to inspire interest in horticulture and the environment, especially among youth in underserved communities. They operate an amazingly creative mobile plant shop called Plant Truck Chicago. They use this truck to bring green to communities in and around Chicagoland with a special focus on underserved communities.
Beyond their regular outreach, this year they launch the Get Growing! Expo. Over the course of three weekends in June Team Get Growing visited communities across Chicagoland. They built 10 display gardens to help educate expo visitors. They had plant experts onsite to teach people how to green their space inside and out. And, they hosted DIY terrarium classes! These cute terrariums were free to guests, thanks to generous sponsors. Plant Truck Chicago was also a main attraction at each location.
My role in this project was focused on digital marketing and graphic design. Below are some of the elements I helped design and implement.
Event Logo
Website Landing Page and Email Campaign
It was important to develop a custom landing page on the Get Growing Foundation website. This landing page included all of the relevant information for all three weekends. This included information like date, location, time and activities included. We also sent out email campaigns to the database ahead of each Expo weekend. This was useful in getting the information directly into the inboxes of Get Growing supporters.
Social Media Outreach
Having a robust social media strategy was key to spreading the word and informing the community. We focused our efforts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. We focused on lead-up event posts, and then posted in real time during the events.
Billboard Campaign
The Get Growing! Expo was presented by Wintrust. They very generously allowed GGF to display an outdoor advertisement on their digital billboard along 90/94. This additional exposure was great for driving traffic to the website.
Event Signage
Each event featured 10 display gardens. Each of these containers was complimented with a large sign with a tip to help combat climate change with plants. Things like growing your own food, making compost, using organic fertilizer, and eating more plants were some of the tips. We also created signage to highlight the event sponsors, as well as the educational sessions and terrarium workshops. We kept it bright, simple and straight forward with a focus on the GGF lime green brand standard.
Newspaper Advertising
We also secured a spot in the Chicago Sun Times. Often times this more traditional style of advertising is overlooked in today’s social media focused world, but there is still a place for print advertising. In addition to the print version, the ad buy also came with a digital package. The various pixel requirements for banner and display ads are shown below. These digital ads were all hyperlinked to the Expo landing page on getgrowingfoundation.com.
Event Photography
Last but certainly not least was photographing the events in action. Being on site to capture the event in action was helpful for a number of reasons. For one, it was great to be out with the community and witness how they interacted with the garden displays, terrarium workshops, and the plant truck. Secondly, it was very helpful to gather original content to help promote the following weekends. Visuals are always helpful when implementing a digital marketing strategy. Below is a gallery of images captured from the first weekend of the Expo at Pioneer Court on Michigan Avenue.
