Exclusive Marketing Solutions for IGCs

Marketing service exclusively for our IGC customers that aims to make your life easier while putting the power of the Proven Winners brand to work for your business. Subscribe to our Proven Winners CONNECT+ program at your preferred level, from the free Getting Started option to our premium Elite level, and let our marketing experts get to work for you.

Once you have subscribed, you will start to see the benefits included in your selected package roll in. Our CONNECT+ marketing specialist will guide you through the process to ensure you maximize these valuable opportunities to connect with your customers.

Click Here to See Updated Locations of CONNECT+ Participants

In the chart below, you’ll see that all your favorite benefits like a free pizza party for certified retailers, Proven Winners t-shirts and readymade social media graphics are still available to you free of charge. We’ve also added many more unique marketing solutions for our paid subscribers, including custom graphics and targeted ads for Facebook, free cases of our popular Gardener’s Idea Book, custom videos by Laura of Garden Answer, and an innovative new approach to helping consumers find products in your store with our new online inventory listing.

Please notify me when it's time to subscribe to CONNECT+ for the the 2022 season:

Take Advantage of These Valuable Resources

Become a Certified Proven Winners Retailer

The foundation of strong sales of Proven Winners is having trained staff members who are excitedto go out and confidently sell this product. That’s why we require all businesses who wish to participate in our Proven Winners Connect+ marketing service to complete our CertificationProgram each spring.

 BENEFITS >  Available to all Proven Winners IGC customers

Enhanced Find a Retailer Listing

Looking for greater exposure to potential customers? Certified retailers are automatically listed on our Find a Retailer locator at provenwinners.com. With 6 million website visitorseach year, that’s a tremendous free benefit!

 BENEFITS > Available to all Certified Proven Winners Retailers

Proven Winners University

We’ve listened to retailers who’ve asked us to keep our training video under one hour long, but there is so much more knowledge we want to share with you! That’s why we developed ProvenWinners University which is accessible through our new OnDemand system. You'll find 50+ additional short but valuable training videos there. This bonus material is available exclusively to IGCs who complete our Certification Program.

 BENEFITS > Available to all Certified Proven Winners Retailers

Free Pizza Party - Celebrate or Donate!

It may sound simple, but a free pizza party is a fun and effective way to help build teamwork among your staff. Complete our Certification program as a group and then enjoy a lunch on us! “Our group of 11 certified employees really enjoyed our pizza lunch! It’s becoming a fun tradition here.” – Garden Pleasures, Erhard, MN.

New for 2021, rather than being reimbursed for your pizza party, you'll have the option to donate the funds we have allocated for your pizza party to help stamp out hunger in the U.S. and Canada instead. Donated funds will be accumulated throughout the Certification Program with a donation made by Proven Winners in July 2021. In the U.S. 
we have selected Feeding America and in Canada we have selected Food Banks Canada.

 BENEFITS > Available to all Certified Proven Winners Retailers

Free Proven Winners T-Shirt or Hat

Who doesn’t love a free t-shirt or hat? We’ll provide one for all your employees who complete our Certification Program. It’s a simple but appreciated reward you can offer them for their efforts in becoming trained to sell Proven Winners.If you’d prefer to exchange a reward for a $6 credit per employee to use towards POP or branded apparel in our online store, let us know.

 BENEFITS > Available to all Certified Proven Winners Retailers

Proven Winners Photo Library Access

Proven Winners Connect+ subscribers have full access to our photo library which contains over 12,000 professional quality images.Choose from inspirational lifestyle imagery, beauty shots of individual varieties, container recipes and much more in both high and low resolution sizes suitable for print or online use. It’s at your fingertips online 24/7 for easy download.

 BENEFITS > Available to all Certified Proven Winners Retailers

Subscription to Retailer Newsletter

When you subscribe to Proven Winners Connect+, you’ll automatically be signed up to receive our monthly e-newsletter written specifically for retailers by Jessica and Meg-han. They’ll keep you up to date on trends they’re seeing from the road, unique mer-chandising ideas, best practices, new opportunities for retailers  and much more.    

 BENEFITS > Available to all Proven Winners IGC customers

Access to IGC Connect Google Drive

Our IGC Connect Google Drive was built to provide easy, free access to a comprehensive set of marketing tools all in one place. Retailers will find free images and descriptions for all of our plants, social media graphics, downloadable benchcards, signage templates, Club Sprout projects and more in the drive. Additional content will be added throughout the year.

 BENEFITS > Available to all Proven Winners Certified Retailers

Gardener’s Idea Books (2022 Gardener's Idea Book Plant List)

Gardeners love free giveaways, and our annual Gardener’s Idea Book is always a huge hit. When you subscribe to Proven Winners CONNECT+ at the Basic, Enhanced or Elite level, you’ll receive free copies to give away at your store’s events, at the cash wrap, or any other creative way you’d like to use them. Available beginning of March 2022.

BENEFITS > Available to Basic, Enhance and Elite Subscription

Upgrade - Order extra cases ($65/case) – shipped to your location.

Have a mailing list? - Gardener’s Idea Book co-op program

Take advantage of our Gardener’s Idea Book co-op program by personalizing the back cover with your company logo or work with us to create a completely customized back cover. We’ll even mail them for you!  If interested in this valuable marketing opportunity, sign up online or download the sign up forms at the top of this page. Need help? Contact Sandy at 815-895-1872 or sandy@provenwinners.com. We will need your logo by January 1, 2022.

United States:
Basic - 2 CONNECT+ cases at $32 / Additional cases can be mailed for $77
Enhanced – 5 CONNECT+ cases at $32 / Additional cases can be mailed for $77                                                                     (See examples)
Elite – 10 CONNECT+ cases at $32 / Additional cases can be mailed for $77
Elite only (Custom back cover - 20 case minimum) – 10 CONNECT+ cases at $77 / Additional cases can be mailed for $122

Canada:
Basic - 2 CONNECT+ cases at $140 / Additional cases can be mailed $185
Enhanced – 5 CONNECT+ cases at $140 / Additional cases can be mailed $185
Elite – 10 CONNECT+ cases at $140 / Additional cases can be maileds $185
Elite only (Custom back cover - 20 case minimum) – 10 CONNECT+ cases at $185 / Additional cases can be mailed $230 (in US dollars)

 BENEFITS > Available to Basic, Enhance and Elite Subscription                                                                                       

Professional Store Merchandise

New this year, all Basic, Enhanced and Elite customers will receive a coupon that may be applied towards POP or Proven Winners branded apparel in our online store – www.provenwinners.com/shops.

 BENEFITS > Basic - $75 coupon; Enhanced - $150 coupon; Elite - $200 coupon

** Coupons expire June 30th of each year. This coupon can only be used once and cannot be applied towards shipping or taxes.

PowerPoint Presentations

When spring rolls around and it’s time to start hosting in-person or virtual workshops, the professional quality presentations you need will already be done for you! Complete speaker’s notes are included with each presentation. They could also come in handy for playing in a loop on your in-store kiosks or on monitors near your cash wrap.

Choose from ten presentation topics including:

1. Best New Annuals, Perennials and Shrubs for 2021
2. Container Gardening Inspiration
3. Gardening for Pollinators
4. Hydrangeas Demystified
5. Gardening with Native Plants
6. Solution Gardening
7. Made for the Shade
8. Heat-Loving Plants
9. Gardening with Children
10. Creating a Garden Sanctuary

 BENEFITS >  Basic – 1 Presentation; Enhanced – 3 Presentations; Elite – 6 Presentations

Exclusive Facebook Graphics with Your Logo

Basic and Enhanced subscribers gain the benefit of having pre-sized Facebook graphics that feature their store's logo ready to post online. During the busiest time of year, it’s incredibly handy to have pre-approved graphics like these available. Elites ubscribers have the added benefit of putting our graphic designers to work for them to create totally custom Facebook graphics that match their store’s look and feel.

 BENEFITS >
Basic and Enhanced subscribers – We’ll add your company logo to our readymade social media graphics and deliverthem back to you correctly sized and ready to upload to your social channels.
Basic: 15 graphics included; Enhanced subscribers: 25 graphics included.

Elite subscribers – Our graphic artists will work with you to create a totally custom look
for up to 45 social media graphics, all sized and ready to use on your social channels.

Connect+ Video System

Last year we received requests from a number of garden centers who were looking for an easy way to store a playlist of Garden Answer videos, and we’ve found a solution. No WI-FI is needed for our new video system – simply plug the Media Player into your laptop or TV monitor, insert the included USB drive and select Play. We’ll pre-load the USB drive for you with 20 hours of Garden Answer videos on new varieties, AquaPots, the National Plants of the Year and more.

Upgrade - purchase additional systems for other locations or to have multiple systems at one location - $65 each.

 BENEFITS > Available to Enhanced and Elite subscribers

Canva Subscription

If you don’t have a graphic designer on retainer, Canva can get the job done. Use this online graphic design platform to craft anything you could need to market your business including social media posts, direct marketing messages, in-store signage, postcards, event invitations, business cards, gift certificates and much more. We will provide Proven Winners branded templates for social media graphics and more.  Canva training webinar

 BENEFITS > Enhanced – 3 month Canva subscription;  Elite – 6 month Canva subscription 

Targeted Facebook Ad Campaign

Reaching the right demographic on Facebook requires the use of targeted paid advertising, which has proven to be far more effective than boosting posts. Enhanced and Elite subscribers will select from three date ranges to run their Facebook ad campaigns. These will occur during the peak seasons which typically run from lateApril through early June on the East Coast and Midwest, and much earlier in warmer climates like Florida and Texas. Our team will work with each IGC individually to craft social media graphics to use for the campaign.  We ask that you provide us with the zip  codes you would like to target  with these  campaigns so that we may key in on your desired communities appropriately.

 BENEFITS > Enhanced – 5 week campaign; Elite – 8 week campaign
Upgrade this benefit to include an additional ad or extend its run for $75/week.

Customized Pandora Ad Campaign

EEnhanced and Elite subscribers have the opportunity to target local garden enthusiasts within a 20-mile radius of their garden center’s zip code or another preferred market with Pandora internet radio ads. Laura of Garden Answer is the voice behind all of our Pandora ads, and she will mention your garden center’s name and city (if desired) at the end of your customized ad. It is imperative that all participating retailers provide us with an audio recording of how to pronounce their business name and city. Listen to sample recordings at www.provenwinners.com/pandora. There will be three Pandora ad campaigns in 2021 to accommodate markets fromNorth to South. They generally run from late April through early June on the EastCoast and Midwest, and much earlier in warmer markets. As a bonus, each garden center will also receive 3,200 banner impressions from a digital ad which will include your company logo and link to your website or Facebook page. Pandora internet radio is available in the U.S. only. Canadian Enhanced and Elite subscribers may exchange this benefit for additional targeted Facebook ads.

 BENEFITS > Enhanced – 3 week ad run/15K impressions; Elite – 6 week ad run/30K impressions

Upgrade this benefit by adding 1wk/5K impressions for $75 each.  Learn more

Eligible for Inventory Listing on provenwinners.com

Thousands of times per season, consumers ask us which of their local stores carry specific Proven Winners varieties. To better meet their needs and send foot traffic to your store, we’ve developed a way to track and relay the names, addresses and in-stock dates of retailers who have the items available to consumers. This information will be displayed on the individual plant records on our website.

 BENEFITS > Enhanced and Elite subscribers are eligible.

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Garden Answer Custom Videos

With over 890 million gardening video views, Laura of @Garden Answer is the #1 gardening influencer in the world. Every day, she inspires a whole new generation to garden with Proven Winners. We encourage all our IGC customers to share Laura’s videos on your social media pages, website, newsletter and in-store kiosk.Elite Connect+ subscribers have the exclusive benefit of putting Laura to work for you by customizing your choice of five pre-determined key variety videos with your garden center’s name and logo. We’ll create the videos; all we need is your company name and logo. Then, we’ll deliver the finished product to you for use in your online marketing efforts.

You’ll find a playlist of Garden Answer videos and be able to share them directly from this link. 

 BENEFITS > Available to Elite subscribers only. Includes your choice of up to 5 custom videos featuring our 2021 Annual of the Year Supertunia^® Mini Vista^™ Pink Star Petunia, 2021 Perennial of the Year ‘Cat’s Pajamas’ Nepeta, Truffula^™ Pink Gomphrena, ‘Serendipity’ Allium and Black Lace^® Sambucus video.

Garden Design Website Listing

Looking to boost your business’ visibility online? Take advantage of the enormous reach and SEO/SEM tools Garden Design has to offer. 13+ million gardening enthusiasts visit www.gardendesign.com each year where Proven Winners annuals, perennials, shrubs and hard goods are featured prominently. Enhanced and Elite subscribers will be listed as Certified Proven Winners Retailers on the Garden Design website. When a consumer visits that site from an area where your garden center is located, your contact information and a link to your store’s website will be displayed. This link also serves to boost the search engine ranking for your store. Besides showing a picture of our store - new this year, each garden center can choose from a list of popular Proven Winners plants to have featured within the Garden Design listing.

You can view an example here:  https://www.gardendesign.com/plants/index-billboards.html

 BENEFITS > Available to Enhanced and Elite subscribers only.

Watch the video below to learn more about the GardenDesign.com listing.

If your garden center has additional stores, rather than signing up for a new subscription, you can simply subscribe to one of the levels, and then add $250/location for additional Facebook & Pandora campaigns and Garden Design listing(s).  Only available to Enhanced and Elite levels.