What’s Your Avocado? Marketing & Public Relations, spearheaded by Stacie Zinn Roberts, was honored with four national awards recently at the 2025 Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) conference held in Charleston, South Carolina. The awards include:
Client: Tahoma 31 Bermudgrass by Sod Production Services
First Place: Writing a Feature Article
The article, “The Landing at Torresdale”, ran in the Fall 2024 issue of By Design, the official publication of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. The article aimed to educate golf course architects about the benefits of grassing their golf course designs with Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass on the tees, fairways, collars, and driving ranges. Promoting the grass was accomplished with a profile of the design and construction of a new golf course called The Landing at Union League Torresdale, a new 9-hole course developed to handle overflow from the Union League’s historic 18-hole course designed by legendary architect Donald Ross. The story held special meaning for me as the author. When I was a child, I lived in the working-class neighborhood surrounding the golf course. The plot of land where the course was built was a dense woods behind my elementary school. The very first time I ever saw a golf course was the day I emerged from those very same woods and saw the rolling fairways of the Union League with the clubhouse beyond. At the time, I had no idea I’d spend my career writing about golf. When I shared my personal story with the architect and golf course superintendent, they were both touched by my personal connection to the place. More than a profile, the story was an act of love.
Client: Horizon Turf Nursery
Merit Award Websites – (overall, discuss design and writing, strategy) horizonturfnursery.com
Horizon Turf Nursery is a family-owned sod farm operation in Colorado. The farm’s website was old, outdated, and failed to tell the company’s story. The structure was disorganized, with one-paragraph pages, choppy information, and no SEO. We rewrote every word of the website with an eye toward Search Engine Optimization in the Denver area metro, while also telling the family history. We created sections for each grass the farm grows using data charts and information to help customers could compare and contrast varieties. We created a comprehensive About page that offered history, leadership, and sustainability content. An old newspaper clipping on the Home Page links to this section, adding continuity and credibility. Giving potential customers a peak behind the curtain, we dropped in whimsy (the family dog Odin is listed as a staff member with the title of “Professional Napper.” The owner’s son whose baby pictures are on the site came up with the name). Animations and elements that flip or slide make the site feel up-to-date and modern, which gives customers a sense that this company understands technology and grows a quality product while also being family-run. A contact form at the bottom of every page with a strong Call To Action makes it easy for customers to contact the farm and buy their sod. Services such as installation and delivery are highlighted to help the farm sell more than just grass. We used a mixture of family photos, recent photos, and stock photography to strike the right balance between local and professional. Upon launch, we started a location-specific Google Ads campaign to drive traffic to the website. Sales increased immediately, and the owners were ecstatic!
Client: Mach 1 Ultradwarf Bermudagrass by Modern Turf
Two Awards:
Merit Award: Websites – (overall, discuss design and writing, strategy) horizonturfnursery.com
Merit Award: Branding – Written brand identity elements (product name, brand story, supporting brand ID elements including but not limited to Mission, Vision, Core Content, and brand descriptors and standard language)
We combed through nearly 20 years of scientific data to convert raw research stats into useful data points that could be converted into marketing language. Sources included research from the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program, the inventor’s background materials and webinars, and the original grass patent. Once data was organized, Stacie classified each data point into categories and crafted marketing messages that drove home the many benefits of Mach 1 Ultradwarf Bermudagrass for use on golf course greens. Once the research data illuminated actual product benefits, she moved on to creating standard language for the brand. Although a name and tagline were already in place, brand descriptors were not. For several years, the sales staff had made up all terminology on the fly without standardizing any of the sales language. Now, that language was crafted so the entire team could be “singing from the same hymnal.” This new standard language was then used to create the website, PowerPoints, trade show materials and handouts, and other marketing tools.
About TOCA
The Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) membership includes editors, writers, publishers, photographers, public relations/advertising practitioners, industry association leaders, manufacturers, and others involved in golf, sports turf, and green industry communications. It is a national organization based in New Prague, MN. toca.org
About What’s Your Avocado? Marketing & Public Relations
What’s Your Avocado? Marketing & Public Relations, founded by Stacie Zinn Roberts, creates messaging, marketing, public relations, and advertising campaigns for a national audience. The firm serves clients nationwide, with a focus on the agricultural, turf, landscape, golf, and real estate industries. By the way, the Avocado? It’s the element that makes a person, product or company special. What’s Your Avocado? guides our clients to find their avocado and express it in the marketplace, thereby building a recognizable brand and a successful business. What’s Your Avocado? Marketing & Public Relations is based in Mount Vernon, WA.
Stacie Zinn Roberts is a nationally recognized, award-winning writer and marketing expert with more than 25 years of experience. She has won more than 40 national awards for her work including the United Nations Environmental Program for retail environmental marketing, as well as from organizations such at the Public Relations Society of America and the Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association. She’s written for industry publications such as Golf Course Management, Sports Turf, Golfdom and PR Daily. She spent eight years as the president and director of marketing for Environmental Turf, where she developed the branding for SeaDwarf Seashore Paspalum, the grass that eventually became the greens grass for the Rio Olympic Golf Course. Stacie served for six years on the Board of Directors of the Florida Turfgrass Association as Chair of the Research & Scholarship Committee where she worked closely with the scientists from the University of Florida’s turfgrass breeding program. Stacie founded What’s Your Avocado? Marketing & Public Relations in 2012.
0 Comments