All the latest news from Bord Bia

March 28, 2022

LET’S GROW AUTUMN BURST

The final figures for the Let’s Grow autumn burst made for impressive. There were two strands of activity that were created for the campaign. Firstly, seasonal container videos covering flowers and herbs were created and presented by Fiann O’Nuallain, with his usual flair and enthusiasm. Secondly digital animations were created of some of the ‘how to’ guides on the gardening section of the Bord Bia site, including on topics like ‘How to plant roses’, ‘How to grow lettuce’, and children’s activities like starting a wormery. The target market for the campaign was younger gardeners and less confident gardeners that have started gardening during the pandemic. The aim was to encourage them to garden later into the year. The digital assets were promoted through the Bord Bia social media accounts. The overall results of the campaign are below:

In addition to being seen by an impressive number of people, it also produced 18,000 visits to the website, which exposed gardeners to all the grow guides and resources on the site. The overall sentiment and commentary was highly positive for the two campaigns. People tagged their friends and family in both the campaigns, and left highly positive feedback and commented on how helpful the videos were. ✽

GREEN CITIES CAMPAIGN

After the successful virtual launch of the Green Cities campaign in June, the major activities for the remainder of the year consisted of selecting candidates for the European Green Cities Award, and the Irish Green Cities award.

Dublin Landings was nominated to represent Ireland at the prestigious European Green Cities Awards. The project was designed by Arrow Architects, Henry J Lyons, and RKD Architects, and the landscaping was installed by Peter O’Brien & Sons Landscaping Ltd. The development was selected in recognition of its understanding of the role played by plant material in underpinning the social, economic and environmental fabric of urban life. With the nomination, Dublin Landings competed with twelve other countries for the European Green Cities award at a live event in Brussels in December. The event was opened with a speech from the ENA-president Mr. Henk Raaijmakers and Mr. Norbert Lins, Member of the European Parliament, Chair of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI Committee). ✽

GREEN CITIES AWARD WINNER

The winner of the European Green Cities Award 2021 was announced by Mr. César Luena, Member of the European Parliament, Vice-Chair of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI Committee). Although Dublin Landings wasn’t successful in the overall competition, it was awarded the national title. For the Irish Green Cities Award 2022, an Irish maritimeinspired building project was recognised for its ambition and innovation in the area of green landscaping and urban greening. The Opus Building at Hanover Quay in Dublin 2 was submitted by McCauley Daye O’Connell Architects, who worked with Cairn Homes and AIT Urbanism + Landscape on delivering the project. The Irish Green Cities Award highlights domestic green infrastructure projects on a European stage.

The Opus Building will represent Ireland at the European Green Cities Award 2022. The Opus Building is a maritime inspired residential development that provides a wide range of high-end quality apartments. It received the award for its curvilinear expression, transparency to the street, and generous, green residential amenities. Judges were particularly impressed with the generous landscaped roof gardens and communal areas that provide residents with a beautiful oasis of calm and stunning views. The European style landscaped courtyard allows the building to break the stereotype of urban living – being an exemplary addition to its neighbourhood and the city as a whole. ✽

GRAND PRIX AWARD BORD BIA RESEARCH ON APPLES

At the recent Marketing Society of Ireland’s Research Excellence Awards, Bord Bia’s paper “Building A Better Future For Irish Apples” won two awards for research excellence in the Brand Development & Strategy category and the overall Grand Prix for best piece of research in 2021. This is the 3rd time that Bord Bia’s work has been celebrated at this Grand Prix level.

The study was undertaken by Bord Bia Thinking House, and was a collaborative undertaking across the Strategic Insights & Planning and Horticulture teams, led by Lorcan Bourke along with research partners Opinions, who submitted this study to the Marketing Society of Ireland’s Awards.

The opportunity for Irish grown apples is seen in the context that we import €100m+ of eating apples each year into Ireland from places as far away as New Zealand and Chile, despite having a climate suitable to apple growing. Over 95% of all apples eaten in Ireland are imported. Bord Bia’s research involved in-home testing of 6 varieties of cooking apples, along with retailer interviews, stakeholder interviews with growers, consolidators and distributors. As part of the research, the team also looked at models from around the world where similar issues have been addressed, particularly in the UK and Denmark.

The outputs of this work have been used by the Horticulture team to galvanise a number of key stakeholders – including DAFM, Teagasc, IFA, and growers – around the opportunity for Irish grown apples. It’s a real example of true ‘thought leadership’ from Bord Bia.

The Judges’ comments were highly complementary; “A comprehensive holistic methodology incorporating all relevant stakeholders impressed the judges for Bord Bia. This programme of research showed a well thought through and sound methodology incorporating all stakeholders. The research provided clear insights for strategy development and clearly demonstrated the power of collaborative research in effectively influencing brand, category and sectoral decisions. A really excellent piece of work feeding into sectoral strategy.” ✽