GROWING MOMENTUM

Sandra Doran of Retail Excellence Ireland, tracks the success and challenges of GroMór in 2015 and sets out plans for how the industry driven initiative will encourage Irish consumers to get growing in 2016

Initiated in 2015, GroMór is a nationwide campaign which aims to get the country growing, specifically focussing on younger generations.

The primary objective of GroMór is to outline the benefits of growing and to demystify the process and prove that with a little advice, it’s easy to get started.

GroMór has 66 Garden Centre and 20 Nursery members in 23 counties and a GroMór Centre with experts on hand to offer advice is never too far away.

Much was achieved during the inaugural year for GroMór.

In addition to reaching out to over 18,000 people at Bloom and to 100,000 Irish Independent readers, GroMór invested significantly in radio, digital and social media advertising, to create awareness of the movement on a large scale.

As with all above-the-line advertising, it is difficult to quantify its’ success in monetary terms. Participating Garden

Centres fed back to the GroMór committee that whilst much awareness was achieved, extra footfall cannot be directly attributed to this advertising campaign.

With this feedback on board and with the continued support of Bord Bia, the GroMór committee set about creating an exciting schedule of events for 2016. Four Ambassadors have been appointed as the face and voice of GroMór. Jane

McCorkall, Fiann O’Nuallain, Kevin Dennis and Ciaran Burke will each host ten demonstrations across the country throughout the season at 40 GroMór events in participating Garden

Centres. In addition, they will promote these events on local and national radio and on social media channels.

Videos with the Ambassadors will be filmed with their

“top tips” for growing based on four different themes to encompass different aspects of growing for the different seasons. These videos will be shared online and on www. gromor.ie and will help to achieve the GroMór objective of proving that growing can be easy and fun!

The GroMór website is being re-developed with additional functionality and clear calls to action, to direct consumers to the GroMór stores for events and to speak with experts for advice on how to get started.

In addition, participating centres will receive new point of sale with the evolved logo and hanging signs have been developed to highlight the growers and to encourage consumers to “buy Irish”.

James Byrne, Marketing Manager, Glanbia Country Life says “We’re really excited about GroMór this year. The

We Use local Specialist Growers

To provide the Best for your Garden

Tim Schram

SCHRAM PLANTS

Specialist in Perennial and Herbaceous

Jim O’Connor

O’CONNOR NURSERIES

Specialist in Bedding

Rory Rentes

RENTES NURSERIES

Specialist in Shrubs and Climbers

www.gromor.ie

ONE OF THE GROMÓR POS POSTERS BEING USED ACROSS THE COUNTRY.

new GroMór ambassadors are going to be travelling the country telling consumers about the health benefits of getting into your garden and growing. It’s fantastic to have such well known experts to front this year’s campaign. The ambassador activity will complement one of the key messages of this year’s campaign; putting a face to the local growers who grow all the fantastic plants you see in your local garden centre and encouraging customers to buy local as much as possible. The new signage is fresh and engaging – we’re looking forward to seeing it all in place. All we need now is the weather!” ✽

SANDRA DORAN is a

Group Manager with Retail Excellence Ireland (REI).

She can be contacted at 065 5846927 or sandra@retailexcellence.ie