ALEXANDRIA, VA — To kick off its latest public relations campaign, the Society of American Florists (SAF) took the message that flowers and plants can help consumers lead happier, more fulfilling lives directly to national lifestyle publications.
In late April, nine editors participated in SAF’s Live Like a Flower (LLAF) media workshop in New York City, enjoying one-on-one time with experts, browsing SAF resources, including research on the benefits of flowers and plants, and learning more about popular flower trends.
“Our overall goal was to connect with editors of these national publications to educate them about the floral industry and let them know that SAF is a year-round resource for them,” said SAF Vice President of Marketing Jennifer Sparks. “We want to keep the floral message out there in a big way and get flowers in the news.”
Through the multi-faceted campaign, SAF has partnered with six outside experts in interior design, happiness, organization, love and relationships to present eight “life lessons” from flowers. The lessons offer easy-to-follow tips from the contributing authors, speakers and designers on how consumers can “bloom like a flower and live life to its fullest and most rewarding.”
“To hear about the benefits of flowers from these experts in their fields gives that all-important third-party credibility to the message,” Sparks said.
During the New York event, contributors Christine Arylo, author, women’s advocate and Tedx speaker, and Kelli Ellis, author, design psychology expert and TV personality, took participating editors through the eight topic areas “in a casual, conversational way and emphasized how flowers can make your life better,” Sparks said. “It was personal and intimate. The [editors] could ask questions and really experience the flowers and information.”
To showcase the talent of professional florists, Tim Farrell, AAF, AIFD, PFCI, of Farrell’s Florist in Drexel Hill, Pa., created fresh, beautiful centerpieces for each seating area in the workshop, along with arrangements that incorporated popular flower and design trends. Farrell also created custom designs for each editor to take home — a “big hit” with participants, and a strategic PR move, Sparks said.
“Being able to experience flowers and SAF in such a personal way through this workshop helps the editors remember us and keeps flowers top of mind,” she explained.
While it’s too soon for any of the magazines to have covered the campaign, “the editors who were at the event were very engaged in the information and, of course, the beautiful flowers presented,” Sparks said. “The Rutgers research (flowers make you happy) played out time and time again throughout the day. True smiles were found on all of their faces and they left happier than when they arrived.”
SAF will follow up with all of the editors in attendance, as well as others from high-profile magazines, including Parents, InStyle, Brides, House Beautiful, Parents and RealSimple, who expressed “great interest” in the campaign but couldn’t make it to the workshop, Sparks said.
Each month, SAF will highlight one of the key topic areas, starting with “Live Colorfully” in May, through outreach to media nationwide, as well as aboutflowersblog.com and all of SAF’s social media channels. The “Live Colorfully” theme will also serve as the inspiration for SAF’s latest VaseOff! Challenge — an all-star edition that runs May 15-29.
Contributing experts in the topic areas will be available for interviews to generate coverage of flowers in the consumer media.
Want to know more about Live Like a Flower? Follow SAF on Facebook (Facebook.com/SocietyofAmericanFlorists and Facebook.com/AboutFlowers ) and Twitter (@FlowerFactor) to see how we are promoting the program and to share and re-tweet our information. The full program is presented to consumers at aboutflowers.com/llaf. A wealth of tools and ideas for capitalizing on the program are available at safnow.org/llaf.
SAF’s 2014 marketing programs are possible thanks to SAF retail dues and voluntary contributions to the SAF Fund for Nationwide Public Relations by wholesalers, suppliers, importers and growers. Since the PR Fund’s inception in 2001, PR Fund programs have generated more than 1.1 billion consumer impressions. For more information, visit safnow.org/prfund or call (800) 336-4743.
Source: Society of American Florists