Positive evaluation of The Trend Collection Autumn/Winter 2020

_{March 2021}

Funnyhowflowersdothat.co.uk and Thejoyofplants.co.uk launched The Trend Collection Autumn/Winter in September 2020. We have now evaluated the international campaign both quantitatively and qualitatively, and we found that the campaign generated a high engagement rate* and scored high overall. 

The collection in brief

The Trend Collection Autumn/Winter 2020 is a harmonised selection of flowers, houseplants and garden plants, which was based on the ‘Inner Retreat’ trend. The campaign to draw this first collection to consumers’ attention started on 21 September 2020 in the Netherlands, Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

Evaluation of the media campaign
With the media campaign we encouraged a large amount of traffic to the online Lookbook, achieved a high reach on Pinterest and a very positive engagement rate*: the Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest posts were widely shared, and we received various requests for information about purchasing the products.              

The content relating to The Trend Collection on Funnyhowflowersdothat.co.uk and Thejoyofplants.co.uk was felt to be relevant: consumers visited 1.2 pages per session on average during 45 seconds. A large number clicked through to three or four pages, and spent at least a minute reading them. These positive figures show that consumers found this content interesting.

Qualitative research results
The research agency Motivaction explored the effectiveness of the campaign in the four core countries. The findings amongst the Aesthetic Explorer, our campaign target group, were particularly scrutinised. The most important findings, averaged across the respondents in the four core countries, were: 

• The Aesthetic Explorer gave the campaign a rating of 8.2. This is the highest rating that we have been given since the first campaign studies began in 2018, and is comparable to the Let Hope Bloom campaign. 
• 84% of the respondents from this target group found the campaign attractive, 76% found it personally relevant, and a 6% thought it was credible. 
• 70% of the respondents in this target group indicated that they plan to buy flowers as a result of the campaign, 66% said they were going to buy plants, and an impressive 77% wanted to get to work with garden plants. 
• The Lookbook proved very effective for a trend-led campaign and was given a rating of 7.1 in the research.

The ratings from the British respondents were exceptional:  

• A rating of 8.3 from the Aesthetic Explorer in the United Kingdom 
• A remarkable 100% found the campaign attractive, 94% found it personally relevant, and 94% thought it was credible. 
• 92% of the respondents in the United Kingdom indicated that they plan to buy flowers as a result of the campaign, a remarkable 100% said they were going to buy plants, and 97% wanted to get to work with garden plants.

Successful campaign
The results were recently presented to the participants in the stakeholder sessions that we organised when we started developing the concept for this campaign. We looked back at a successful campaign, with a high rating and  the targets were achieved. Consumers were very engaged with the campaign, and it prompted them to make purchases. This is a good strategic starting point for the next Trend Collection campaigns.

What the campaign looked like
The 360 degree marketing plan consisted of a digital Lookbook, an extensive content dossier on our consumer websites, posts on Facebook and Instagram, and collaborations with influencers. There was also a social media campaign with a focus on Pinterest, a PR plan, POS materials, and images available for use on social media channels. Dutch consumers also received a newsletter ‘special’ about The Trend Collection. 

The covid-secure PR launch, in the form of a Trend Collection Press Pack for leading journalists, scored highly with the international media. 

In view of the results of the Autumn/Winter Trend Collection campaign, we will continue this strategy for the new future collections.

Any questions?
For more information about The Trend Collection, the campaign and its evaluation please contact campaign manager Isabel Groot at igroot@bloemenbureauholland.nl or get in touch with UK Country Manager Chanel de Kock at cdekock@flowercouncil.co.uk.

_{* Engagement rate means the number of reactions (likes and comments) to social media posts.}