Experience
Experience F
THE EFFECT
By transforming downtown Tempe into a floral festival, Arizona Flower Market attracted nearly
100,000 attendees, elevated local floral artists and helped grow the audience for flowers — earning SAF’s 32nd annual Marketer of the Year award.
BY AMANDA JEDLINSKY
or decades, the floral industry has faced the same challenge: How to get people to buy flowers more often. Not just on Valentine’s Day. Not just on Mother’s Day.
Not just for weddings, funerals and anniversaries. But for everyday life.
That question led Brent Denham, Alexis Rigler, Brennen Rigler, Linda Miller
and the team behind Arizona Flower Market to rethink their approach to mar- keting. Instead of promoting flowers as products, they began promoting flowers as experiences. The result was Tempe Blooms, a community-wide floral festival that has grown into Arizona’s largest floral event and one of the country’s most visible celebrations of flowers. In just three years, Tempe Blooms has grown from a promising local festival
into Arizona’s largest floral event. Attendance climbed from 88,400 in 2024 to more than 99,500 in 2026, while social media reach soared from 910,000 impressions to more than 5 million. Today, the event transforms downtown Tempe into an immersive floral playground filled with installations, workshops, demonstrations, competitions, music and art. But its impact extends far beyond attendance figures. Tempe Blooms represents a different way of thinking about floral market-
ing — one that prioritizes emotional connection, community engagement and long-term category growth over short-term product promotion. Just as impor- tantly, it created new opportunities for local florists, artists, educators and small businesses to showcase their talents, reach new audiences and strengthen the community’s appreciation for flowers.
DESIGNED TO CONNECT Alexis Rigler, market and social media manager for Arizona Flower Market, helped shape Tempe Blooms as a participatory, shareable experience that would resonate with younger consumers and build lasting connections with flowers.
The magazine of the Society of American Florists (SAF) 23
BACKGROUND ART: SHUTTERSTOCK/TWINS DESIGN STUDIO
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