BuzzFeed Will Tell You What Millennials Want, for a Fee

Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., the plant-care giant, had a problem: Millennials weren’t gardening enough.

So the company turned to one of the most renowned experts on millennial behavior, BuzzFeed Inc. But Scotts didn’t just advertise on the site, known for its viral quizzes and lists. Scotts worked with a more obscure part of BuzzFeed focused on inventing new product ideas.

The result was a subscription service for Scotts called Lunarly, which mails houseplants and wellness items based on the lunar calendar. Since launching in July, Lunarly has repeatedly sold out, bringing hope that the garden company can make inroads with younger consumers

“BuzzFeed helped me build a better product and not just sell my product,” said Patti Ziegler, vice president of global marketing at Marysville, Ohio-based Scotts.

The case highlights BuzzFeed’s push to find new sources of revenue -- an increasingly urgent mission as Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google vacuum up ad dollars in the digital-media industry. BuzzFeed reportedly fell short of its $350 million revenue target last year.