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Lawn and Garden Centre Directory Drives Big Business

As Good As Grass editor:
Traffic is the primary factor for success in any online business. Garden centres are benefiting from the publicity provided by topical business directories.

Proven Winners has selected the Lawn and Garden Yellow Pages (LGYP.com) as a media partner in an effort to increase the on-line exposure of Proven Winners Certified Garden Centres. Currently, Proven Winners Certified Garden Centres consist of over 1200 of the finest Garden Centres throughout the United States, with thousands more in the process of becoming certified.

Proven Winners has selected the Lawn and Garden Yellow Pages (LGYP.com) as a media partner in an effort to increase their on-line exposure. Currently, Proven Winners Certified Garden Centres consist of over 1200 of the finest Garden Centres throughout the United States, with thousands more in the process of certification.

Using LGYP.com's BrandMax marketing program, Proven Winners Certified Garden Centres will be prominently featured when consumers search for gardening needs. Functioning as a virtual search funnel, LGYP.com is a part of the massive search engine space connecting the consumer to a garden-rich content of plant varieties & images, product categories, relevant brand matches and local businesses which supply the targeted product or service.

Proven Winners 160 plant varieties will also be featured throughout the LGYP.com 'Virtual Plant Tag Suite' (www.virtualplanttags.com). The Virtual Plant Tags will also be displayed via enhanced listings on individual Proven Winners Certified Garden Centres websites as well as their LGYP.com on-line brochure.

"We are extremely excited that Proven Winners selected LGYP.com's marketing program to connect to a huge audience of customers who are on the web searching for information about local garden centres and plants," says 10-20 Media, Inc. CEO, Steve Cissel. The newly created BrandMax program educates the consumer about brands that are specific to the on-line search that they are conducting. Cissel continues, "Brands can be somewhat perplexing to the consumer, and when combined with the depth of the gardening products and services that are available, can become overwhelming. BrandMax simplifies the search by organizing relevant brands and their message."

Marshall Dirks, Proven Winners Director of Marketing, envisions a tremendous opportunity that will take the Proven Winners Certified Garden Centres program to new heights with the additional exposure that LGYP.com offers. He states, "Proven Winners is constantly looking for ways to add additional value to independent retailers who are supporting our programs. We feel the staff at Certified Garden centres are most knowledgeable about our plants and are aware of our marketing programs, so it just makes sense to position these retailers as the place to purchase our products."

About Proven Winners
Proven Winners is the leading brand of high quality flowering plants and shrubs in North America, sold under the Proven Winners name. The Proven Winners brand is owned by three leading U.S. plant propagators - Euro American in Bonsall, CA; Four Star Greenhouse in Carleton, MI; and Pleasant View Gardens in Loudon, NH. These companies "founded" Proven Winners 14 years ago, and, together with 3 licensees in Canada, produce superior liners under the Proven Winners name. Liners are then sold to wholesale growers to "finish" and sell to retailer garden centres across North America.

The Proven Winners group also sells a complementary brand, Proven Selections®, which consists of regional favorite varieties that complement Proven Winners. And recently added a line of shrubs sold as Proven Winners ColorChoice™.

On a retail sales level, Proven Winners brand and Proven Selections sales are greater than a half-billion dollars annually. The plants are available from just about every garden centre in North America.

The goals of Proven Winners are to introduce the best, most unique, high performing plants, to produce them under the highest quality standards, and to market the plants innovatively. Proven Winners plants are unsurpassed in terms of flowering, growth habit, disease resistance, and garden performance.

No other plant line goes through the same rigorous plant selection process, which takes 2-3 years and occurs at facilities in the U.S. and Canada, as well as at trial stations in Europe, South Africa, and Japan. Every Proven Winners variety is protected by U.S. and Canadian patents. What also separates Proven Winners is its viral control process, which is second to none.

Besides producing better flowering plants, Proven Winners is also credited with creating the "container gardening" craze, and making new plant genera known. Most consumers had never heard of Bacopa, Nemesia, Verbena, etc. until Proven Winners introduced these varieties. In terms of innovative marketing, Proven Winners has created a consumer plant brand that means value to home gardeners. Some groundbreaking marketing program from Proven Winners include the industry's only Certification program for garden centres across North America; TV advertising on major networks; the industry's only on-line photo library, a plant selection and promotion partnership with Country Living Gardener magazine, and introduction of Proven Winners branded line of all-natural skin care product, designed with the gardener in mind. This luxury line of products is made with pure essential oils, goat's milk, glycerin, meadow foam seed oil, shea butter, soy wax and certified organic botanical extracts.

About Lawn and Garden Yellow Pages
Lawn and Garden Yellow Pages, www.LGYP.com, is the leading search directory for tens of thousands of home gardening consumers. It helps Internet users find gardening products and services that are relevant and local to them.

LGYP.com is a publication of 10-20 Media, Inc., formerly Green Industry Yellow Pages, Inc. (www.10-20media.com), an interactive media publisher founded in 2001. "As Good As Grass" wish every success to the continued development of their business directory.