All the latest news from Bord Bia

MIX IT UP WITH MUSHROOMS FROM EUROPE

An application for more EU co-funded mushroom promotion in the UK, Ireland and (for the first time), Germany was made on June 3. The €3.18 million “Mix it up with Mushrooms from Europe” campaign, will start in 2021 and last for three years. The spend split is approximately 80% in the UK and 10% each in Ireland and Germany.

The three-year programme aims to broaden the role of mushrooms in the UK, Irish and German diets by reinforcing health benefits and increasing understanding of their versatility and quality credentials.

Consumers in the UK, Germany and Ireland are all trying to eat more healthily and the interest is highest in younger consumers, so it makes sense to lead with a health message.

Mushrooms are extremely versatile and can accompany a broad spectrum of meals, ranging from favourite dishes in the UK, Ireland and Germany, to exotic recipes from around the world.

A cornerstone of the new campaign will be promoting the concept of blending mushrooms and meat to make meals healthier, tastier and less expensive. ✽

#BLOOMATHOME In response to the cancellation of Bord Bia Bloom 2020, Bord Bia launched an alternative, virtual celebration #BloomAtHome. We encouraged the public to join us for a series of online events, including gardening panels and cookery demonstrations and also to share images and videos of their own gardens at home.

Since the announcement on May 12, our website, BordBiaBloom.com, gained 70,000 page views. Over 70 food and drink companies who normally participate at Bloom ran offers or competitions, or took part in our Virtual Food Village online in the lead into and over the Bloom weekend. RTE’s Countrywide special featured Gary Graham and Aine Lawlor, as well as some food producers who have traditionally taken part in the Food Village at the festival.

The culmination of the #BloomAtHome activities proved a great success. It received over 2 million impressions across our social channels over the June bank holiday weekend and the following two weeks. There were over 6,000 uses of the hashtag as exhibitors and visitors alike joined the campaign. #BloomAtHome was featured in the media over 60 times and the public’s gardening efforts were celebrated online through our competition with RTE, which gained over 5,000 entries. Check out BordBiaBloom.com to view all of the broadcasts of the campaign.

Bord Bia/ Healthy Ireland Show Garden

Bloom 2020 would have marked the second year Bord Bia partnered with Healthy Ireland on a show garden. While it wasn’t to be this year, we wanted to keep the conversation alive and get their message out there.

The theme of this year’s show garden was never more fitting for the times we live in now – how being out in nature, spending time outdoors especially in green spaces and being physically active (gardening) can help your mental health and wellbeing.

So to keep the spirit of Bloom and our conversation alive, we worked with Jack Caffrey from The Pimlico Project to produce a wonderful piece featuring our show garden designer, James Purdy, which captured our message in a beautifully creative way. The video formed part of the Government’s ‘In This Together’ campaign and was aired as part of our Bloom Day event on Sunday, May 31. Follow this link to view the video: https://vimeo.com/423955136/a203237521. JAMES PURDY ✽

CELEBRATE STRAWBERRY SEASON

‘Celebrate Strawberry Season’ launched w/c May 18, and will run right through to September 2020. A revised COVID-19 response means that this year the campaign features enhanced digital activity including fun visual elements, stop-motion videos and new content targeting children at home with parents. Other activities targeting millennials and main household shoppers will include influencer activity, recipe collaborations and an online cookery competitions, print advertorials and grower profile activity, with continuous social media supporting each element of the campaign. ✽

GARDENING TV ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

To further support the amenity horticulture industry during this time, Bord Bia developed our first above the line gardening advertising campaign ‘Let’s Get Growing’ which was fully supported with a social media campaign and a revamped gardening section on the Bord Bia website. This aired on May 17, for the first time across TV, radio and online and ran until the middle of June. The objectives for the campaign were to support the amenity sector and promote and drive plant sales. With so many people based at home there was the opportunity to encourage consumers to spend more time in the garden and engage in a range of activities.

Coyne Research carried out a full evaluation of the campaign, and overall the campaign performed very well at delivering key messages. Almost unanimous agreement that the campaign clearly communicates that the garden is a great family space and that the garden can help with people’s physical and mental wellbeing. Also communicating that Bord Bia supports plant growers and outlets selling plants. Overall, it encouraged two-in-five ‘non’ gardeners, with over one-in-10 claiming to have bought plants on at least one occasion, when they wouldn’t have otherwise. ✽

FOOD DUDES PROGRAMME

Prior to school closures, the Food Dudes Programme successfully completed its four-block intervention for the 2019/2020 school year, with a total of 700 schools and 112,962 pupils taking part. In response to school closures, a revised Phase 3 Food Dudes Week programme was developed and launched on April 15. For nine weeks (to June 10), new weekly themed activities and online digital content was made available to the general public on the new Fun at Home section of www.fooddudes.ie via social media channels. To date, over 1 million online impressions and almost 10,000 new visits to the website have been recorded. ✽

INCREDIBLE EDIBLES

The Incredible Edibles growing challenge launched in schools in February 2020. One thousand grow packs containing peat-free compost, turnip, carrot, lettuce, chive and spinach seeds and strawberry and potato plants were delivered to 550 schools (25,000 pupils) across Ireland, with the first 250 registered schools receiving a free trowel. In response to COVID-19 and school closures, a revised programme of online activity was developed in line with the five core tasks and launched on April 6, running for five weeks (to May 10, 2020). Over 1,340 families and 3,900 children took part with over 9,000 views to the website (+483%) during the campaign. Keeping the traditional programme alive, dedicated ‘School of the week’ posts also proved popular, with Instagram stories viewed by 700 people daily. ✽

GROMOR AND SUPERGARDEN

GroMor 2020 was launched in April, after a good deal of changes brought on by the COVID 19 situation and considerable alteration of the website. The initial campaign message started out as ‘Get Out, Get Healthy, Get Growing’ to reflect the closure of garden centres. This changed back to ‘Visit Your Local Garden Centre’ on May 18.

The highlight of the campaign activities is ‘Gary’s Gardening Tips’ which are based on interviews carried out by campaign champion Gary Graham with garden centre and nursery owners; this has been well received on Facebook and Instagram and Gary was interviewed in the Sunday Business Post with good regional pick up. The series has a reach of over 20,000 per episode on social media.

With most of the country being at home during the lockdown, there has been an increased interest in gardening in general - visits to the GroMor website are up 100% from this time last year, with visitors also spending more time per visit.

The GroMor promotion is scheduled to continue until the end of August to aid the gardening sector hit hard by garden centre closures and no doubt the hosepipe ban as well. A gardening promotion started on June 1 on The Ray D’Arcy Show on RTE 1 sponsored by GroMor and featuring Gerry Daly started on June 1, and is garnering a lot of attention. It will run until late August.

Supergarden is now an integral part of the gardening promotion strategy. This year it was a one-hour show (up from 30-minutes previously), and had a greatly increased focus on horticultural content as a result of Bord Bia’s plant budgets. The audience for the show this year was 400,000 - double the average in previous years. ✽