You might have spotted Kin&Co appearing on Gorkana last week, with a case study of our work for our client Somerset Garden Day. It’s an example of some of our recent work that we’re particularly proud of!
Read on for more detail about how we launched a local gardening movement in just three months…
Our team worked on the launch of the first ever Somerset Garden Day, a new local initiative aimed at encouraging people to enjoy their gardens. The integrated communications campaign resulted in hundreds across the county taking part on 14th May 2017.
The non-profit initiative, which was founded by a group of gardening enthusiasts with links to the area, aimed to provide an alternative to existing gardening events out there by encouraging diversity and inclusion. The aim is to build the foundations in Somerset over the next two years before rolling out nationally.
The integrated campaign, which united under the platform ‘down tools’, involved a website build, initiating local partnerships and supplying posters, securing ambassador support, paid media, content production, social media marketing and regional press.
Challenges included gaining cut through amongst a very busy gardening calendar, with National Gardening Week and Chelsea Flower Show bookending the day. Furthermore, social media and press activity were only permitted three weeks ahead of the launch limiting potential exposure.
But never a team to be phased by potential challenges, the campaign was a resounding success! We secured support from over 50 garden centres promoting the day and nine well-known gardening ambassadors including Guardian and Telegraph writer Lia Leendertz, ‘No Dig’ gardening pioneer Charles Dowding, and even Kevin McCloud. More than 70 pieces of local coverage were secured with a reach of over 1.5m people. A further 145,000 were reached through the campaign’s social media channels and paid-for content campaign. This resulted in hundreds taking part in the day, and many keen to take part again next year.
Clarisse Coetzee, project lead, Somerset Garden Day, says: “Kin&Co’s approach stood out from day one. Their passion for the project was evident throughout the 3-month campaign, going above and beyond to deliver outstanding outcomes.”
She continues: “Thanks to Kin&Co we created a hugely successful movement around Somerset Garden Day engaging gardening influencers in the area, building an online community, harnessing support from local landmarks and garden centres and much more. Plus, the media coverage was incredible with over 70 pieces secured. This meant participation on the day was much greater than expected and now we have a solid, engaged foundation to expand the campaign even further next year.”
Rosie Warin, CEO, Kin&Co says: “We’re an agency full of gardening enthusiasts (at home at work, our desks are covered in plants) so – like all the work we take on here – this campaign was a real passion project for us. As experts in building movements, we knew the audience triggers and channels we needed to use in order to build a positive, emotive story and encourage people to take part. Seeing the impacts on the day meant our approach definitely paid off.”
