The gardening season got off to a slow start this year, with cold weather in March and April extending into early May, but the season is at least in full swing now, with both nurseries and garden centres reporting busy trade.
GroMór 2018 was launched in late April with a photo shoot and press release featuring campaign ambassador gardening expert Dermot O’Neill and model and mother of two Sarah McGovern with her children. GroMór 2018 is a nationwide campaign aimed at encouraging everyone to visit their local garden centres, buy Irish plants and get growing. Online results to date have been impressive.
On Facebook, there is a weekly reach of 33,829 and the strongest engagement is on Instagram, with a reach of 5,628 but 2,552 engagements from early May to early June. A feature of this year’s campaign is a focus on three different garden designs: Birds and Bees was the theme on the May bank holiday, with Blooming Gorgeous for mid-June and Brighten up your Doorstep for mid-July. Each design has an attached plant list, with the intention of helping to provide more metrics on the effect of the GroMór promotion. To date for the season, nearly 10% of the website visits have been to the Birds and Bees design. Check out the website at www.gromor.ie or join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. An application has been submitted by Bord Bia to the EU, seeking co-funding for a long-term promotional campaign for gardening, which if successful, will benefit all stakeholders. ✽
