For marketers to, as the conventional wisdom goes, move at the speed of culture, they need to be embedded in the dirt of social media, in touch with grassroots developments and ready to scale organizational branches. Doing so can allow ideas to bear fruit, as in the latest campaign from Miracle-Gro, which encourages consumers to embrace the idea of a “Full Bush Summer.”

As with almost every contemporary trend, “full bush in a bikini” kicked off with a video on TikTok that now has over 17 million views. That direct, body-positive sentiment about pubic hair has since spread across social and traditional media, showing up in Vogue, Glamour and Women’s Health. It also caught the eye of The Martin Agency, which serves as Miracle-Gro’s creative agency of record.

“There wasn't [a brief] — this was a fully proactive idea from The Martin Agency team,” said Nadezhda Camperlengo, vice president at head of social at the agency. “They brought it to me, and I was like, ‘This is bigger than one post. This is bigger than just a social moment. This is bigger than just one element.’”

The campaign, which will run across organic and paid social with digital banner placements, merchandise giveaways and an influencer partnership, is the type of lightning-in-a-bottle moment that marketers are always looking to capture — even when they come with possible brand safety concerns.

“Obviously, this concept is a bit edgy, but it is really true to our roots and our brand purpose, which is encouraging growth, empowerment and self-expression through gardening,” said Sadie Oldham, vice president and head of gardens at the company.  “While it was playful, the message was sincere in that Miracle-Gro supports healthy growth, however that might look to you.” 

Growing an ecosystem

While the “full bush” idea had a clever connection to Miracle-Gro’s purpose and products, it would need to be more than just an ephemeral trend or TikTok format for the Martin Agency to craft a durable brand campaign around it. But beyond the pun, the agency found a resonant brand truth in the moment. 

“This is a return to natural beauty and self-expression. It's a larger cultural phenomenon… there's longevity to that,” Camperlengo explained. “The conversation itself is way more than a TikTok and way more than a hashtag.”

Camperlengo quickly reached out to folks throughout the agency and encouraged them to embrace blue sky thinking as they generated every idea they could around the concept, knowing that Miracle-Gro has pushed the agency to be creative and embrace the uncomfortable.

“It was truly like a writer's room type of vibe, of how we built this ecosystem as a team, but we knew that beyond TikTok, this is a human truth and experience that we wanted to hit from as many designs as possible,” Camperlengo said.

@miraclegro we're declaring it's officially #FullBushSummer with @Gabby ♬ original sound - Miracle-Gro

For Miracle-Gro, the campaign represented a way to speak to the young consumers who are new to the gardening category and also highly engaged online. 

“We felt the spark. it was unexpected. It felt culturally relevant. It aligned with how our consumers are engaging… They don't take themselves too seriously. They are confident in themselves and their abilities, and they really just like to express themselves,” Oldham said. 

‘Millennial Jennifer Coolidge’

As with any socially inspired campaign, “Full Bush Summer” needed the right influencer partner to make the creative connect with consumers. The Martin Agency scored their top pick for the effort in Gabby Windey, a celebrity known for her appearances on reality and competition hits including “The Bachelor,” “The Bachelorette,” “Dancing with the Stars” and “The Traitors.” 

“She had so many cultural touch points,” Camperlengo said. “She's incredibly wise, but very dry, and her comedic timing is so unique, like a millennial Jennifer Coolidge.”

Windey is also a growing personality on TikTok and in the podcast space, and her balance of tongue-in-cheek comedy and a focus on grounded self-affirmation made her a good fit for “Full Bush Summer.”

“We didn't want this campaign to be slapstick or crude, we wanted it to be clever and tight. She stood for those things in addition to just being herself and always standing for self-expression,” Camperlengo said.

Along with Windey’s content, banner placements across Amazon and other social media elements, the campaign also features baby tees emblazoned with the tagline, "Nobody knows I'm growing a full bush rn” — another example of how the effort jumps on another trend that has hit the pages of Vogue.

“To be connected to culture, you need to show up in places where people experience cultures,” Oldham said. “We cannot wait to continue to explore other fun and kitschy ways to surprise and delight our audiences with funny campaigns like this.”