Case Study: Scotts Miracle-Gro Uses Mobile App to Grow Engagement

scotts lawn care appGardening might not be the first industry youd think of when it comes to embracing the power of mobile marketing, but industry leader Scotts Miracle-Gro has been making use of an innovative app and supporting campaign to connect with its customers.

The companys My Lawn app was recently relaunched with a new design and new functionality, including personalised recommendations for lawn care, notifications for optimum feeding and watering times, and the ability to create a personalised care plan for your lawn.

To accompany the update, Scotts teamed with Fiksu to help ensure that the app was downloaded by its target audience, and drive as many users as possible to complete their personal lawn care plans.

Scotts launched a mobile app ad campaign that cast a wide net, combining display, video and native advertising running across multiple channels including Facebook, Twitter, RTB, AdColony and Adwords, with the aim of driving installs and having 50 per cent of users complete a lawn care plan.

The campaign ran in three waves across the US, corresponding to the three main climate regions, in order to optimise the likelihood that consumers would be looking to begin a period of lawn care.

Thanks to Fiksus combination of programmatic buying and ongoing optimisation of the campaign, the company was able to beat its new user goal by 60 per cent, as well as seeing over 60 per cent of new users through a personalised plan for lawn care. Overall, the campaign resulted in 95 per cent more high-value users than the company expected, and beat their cost per install target by almost 60 per cent.

“It was very valuable to have Fiksu as a partner, not just to run the media, but also to think strategically about direction and say Lets try this next,” said Patti Ziegler, vice president of global marketing and communications at Scotts. “Its a great feeling to have a partner that is so well aligned with our goals. It was great to know that we could count on them to be responsive and engaged throughout the course of the campaign.”

Having completed their main user acquisition push for the season, Scotts is shifting to user retention and retargeting, making use of push notifications to let consumers know the next steps in growing a great lawn.