THE BADGER BEER GARDEN
RHS HAMPTON COURT PALACE FLOWER SHOW
3 – 8 JULY 2012
OVERVIEW Research highlighted that Badger’s target consumer had a love of not only beer, but also gardening. Therefore the concept of creating a show garden at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show was presented by Positive PR as an ideal opportunity to raise the profile of the brand and to undertake an extensive sampling campaign at the show.
Garden designers were identified and a selection process undertaken resulting in the appointment of Flemons Warland Design, who identified with the brief and aimed to create a garden which celebrated the brewery’s heritage dating back from 1777, and more importantly, reflect a contemporary forward-facing organisation. These messages were captured through a traditional Dorset countryside theme with a contemporary twist.
Traditional Dorset materials such as Portland stone were used to create a dry stone wall and pathways, a brick well reflected the bore hole used at the brewery to draw the spring water for the brewing process and a wall of beer with a moon gate entrance to the sampling area referenced the brewery in Dorset. The contemporary elements were demonstrated through a sculptural bottle wave and several dandelion bottle clocks which punctuated the garden’s planting. The natural countryside planting was inspired by the Dorset countryside.
Visitors to the show were invited to walk through the garden so they could fully appreciate the style and planting. A Portland stone pathway led visitors to the sampling area, where Badger Ales were served.
In addition to the show’s visitors, a VIP party was held on Gala Night and key influencers were invited such as trade buyers, beer journalists alongside trade and consumer magazine competition winners. The Countryside theme continued throughout the party and was reflected through the food and styling.
The picnic, by Dorset catering company Provisio, used all Dorset ingredients. Picnic blankets and hay bales were available for the guests, although the lashing rain made picnicking difficult!
Sampling of Blandford Flyer, Hopping Hare, Golden Champion and Golden Glory continued on the garden throughout the remainder of the show resulting in nearly 55,000 samples over the six days.
OBJECTIVES
To design and create The Badger Beer Garden for RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2012 – to achieve the following: Raise the profile of the bottled Badger Ale brand – through engagement with the public and significant media coverage Reflect the Badger pawprint Winning a top medal would be the jewel in the crown
PARTNERS In order to bring the garden to life within the initial budget it became obvious that partnerships would need to be forged so the budget could be extended by resourcing materials, plants and labour from appropriate Dorset suppliers.
Kingston Maurward College was approached to see if its horticultural students would be interested in helping on the garden for both hard landscaping and planting.
Heritage Fingerpost Signs and Dorset AONB were contacted to see if they would be able to financially support the inclusion of a traditional Dorset fingerpost which was planned for the garden and which will be relocated at The Crown Hotel in Blandford.
Joint promotions were run with Plantify who created Dorset countryside plant boxes for both pre and post promotion of the garden.
TEAM MEMBERS There was a core team on the garden for the build–up and show week which consisted of:
John Warland Sim Flemons Anna Corbett Rachel Burleigh Laurence Dolland Joanne Myram Martin Myram Nickie Davies
In addition, Landform Consultants, the hard landscaping company were on site for the three weeks of build prior to the show.
Students and staff from Kingston Maurward College were invaluable in the hardlandscaping and planting weeks. Led by tutors from the college Steve and Joanna Jeffery and Ruth Whitty a team of students came to the show daily, staying at the nearby campsite. During the two weeks they helped to build the dry stone wall, create the bottle wave and plant thousands of plants.
During the show week team members from Hall & Woodhouse came to help with the sampling. This created a great sampling team who were knowledgeable and passionate about the beer and able to talk easily to the show’s visitors. Additionally, this type of interaction with a marketing activity and the end consumer always creates a positive and bonding experience for the whole team involved.
SAMPLING The main purpose of the sampling activity was to communicate with “Liz and Clive” about the range of Badger Ales and to introduce them to the range of ales, including a “special”.
Prior to the show a target of 60,000 samples was set for the six days of the show plus the Gala Evening. Communication with the Portman Group identified that a sampling quantity of no more than 100ml per consumer was a suitable measure and it was agreed that samples of approximately 50ml would be served throughout each day of: Blandford Flyer Hopping Hare Golden Champion Golden Glory In addition to sampling, leaflets containing the Badger story, garden and planting information and a beer menu were handed out to all visitors to the garden.
During the week 483 cases of beer were used and the sampling breakdown was as follows:
Monday & Tuesday
5,000
Wednesday
9,000
Thursday
10,000
Friday
10,100
Saturday
13,008
Sunday
6,700
Giving a total of 53,808 samples throughout the week, which given the weather conditions, Murray in the finals at Wimbledon and the grand prix was an outstanding achievement. As well as the sampling reaching such a significant number, anecdotally, there was a huge amount of valuable feedback from the many visitors to the garden and sampling area. Significant and commonly expressed comments included – “It was far nicer than I thought beer could be” (from thousands of Liz’s) “I buy beer for my husband but would definitely buy this one for me” “I am familiar with Badger but have never tried this one – that is now on my list!” “I am going to keep the beer list and take it with me to Tesco”
“I never knew beer could taste of peaches” “I love the branding and will look for the little Badger” “Can I buy this at Waitrose/Morrisons/Tesco/Asda/Sainsbury?”
And, finally a comment which was heard hundreds of times each day…
“When are you coming out with the Ginger one!” On Saturday, Toby used the opportunity to talk to visitors on the garden and this proved very popular – his knowledge and confidence shone through and this made for a very successful day of tasting – 13,000 people tasted Badger and many will have gone away with a greater understanding of the style, flavour and brewing heritage of the Badger brand.
MEDIA COVERAGE In addition to consumer sampling the garden was always a means to generate media coverage about the Badger brand primarily within Liz’s consumer press. This was achieved by running competitions in key publications including:: BBC Countryfile Country Living Dorset Magazine As well as using digital via: www.housetohome.co.uk www.womanandhome.com Facebook Twitter Badger Sett Ale Club
Competition entries ranged www.housetohome.co.uk.
from
450
in
Dorset
Magazine
to
5,134
on
The competitions were supported by press releases distributed throughout the planning, build and finally medal announcement stages. These were sent to consumer, regional and trade press and the industry value placed on this for editorial coverage is £218,797.74. This figure does not include a monetary value of broadcast or on-line coverage. Also garden bloggers and websites were targeted and this achieved ‘Opportunities To See’ of 66,889,299. During the week, interviews with John and Sim were broadcast on The Hampton Grapevine Show which ran four times a day throughout the show. Contact was made with all the key publications and the BBC prior to the show and press packs, including bottles of beer, were given to the Press Office at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.
In addition, members of the Badger Sett Ale Club were kept up-to-date with the progression of the garden through blogs from the garden designers, gardening competitions, as well as the opportunity to win a visit to The Badger Beer Garden.
‘Celebrity’ visitors to the garden included:
Monty Don (BBC Gardeners’ World presenter) Jo Swift (BBC Gardeners’ World Presenter) The Countess of Wessex
Also, photos were taken by the national press of The Rt. Hon. Michael Heseltine with the Badger Beer Garden as the backdrop. Moira Stuart (BBC Radio 2) and David Seaman (former professional footballer) also dropped by and were happy to engage in conversation about The Badger Beer Garden – both wanted to know if it was real ale flowing!
SOCIAL MEDIA A strategic social media campaign to promote the show garden, increase footfall to the garden and to strengthen the relationship between Badger, the countryside and gardening, was carried out beginning with the announcement of the garden in February 2012. The garden was promoted through blogs and the Badger newsletter. A competition on twitter and facebook to win Dorset plants, to create a buzz in the build-up was also organised. In the weeks running up to the show there were posts about the garden itself, and a second competition two weeks before the show to win beer, with the aim of increasing facebook likes before kicking off show activity, which achieved 92 additional likes in one day alone and it picked up 158 likes over the five days that it was promoted (26 June – 30 June). One week before the show, there was a competition on twitter to win a VIP Trip to Hampton Court which created a real stir with 301 retweets of the post. Garden bloggers and writers were invited to the garden via twitter and an Instagram account to filter the photos which now has 72 followers was set up, it was very useful for applying filters to photographs – especially the rainy ones! During the show pictures were taken with celebrities, of the garden, and of plenty of Liz and Clives sampling Badger, which were all posted to Instagram, facebook and twitter immediately. The posts throughout the show received some of the highest ever numbers of likes, shares and comments and some fantastic comments on a daily basis on twitter. Date range 14 June – 14 July Facebook: Total likes: 1,962 to 2,173 = 211 gained Some of the highlights... Win beer competition gained 92 extra page likes in one day, and it picked up 158 likes over the five days that it was promoted (26 June – 30 June) – just before Hampton kicked off, which shows the power of simple competitions to gain likes and followers Photo of Landform worker installing Badger barrel received 91 likes, 15 shares and 19 comments = 193 engaged users (includes photo clicks) creating a reach of 1,630 – for that photo alone Instagram picture of beer on the garden received 42 likes, 1 share, and 3 comments = 72 engaged users, creating a reach of 1,143 Instagram photo of barrels received 48 likes, 1 share and 4 comments = 88 engaged users, creating a reach of 994 Twitter Total followers: 2,579 to 2,818 = 239 gained Some of the highlights...
Win a trip to Hampton received 301 retweets Win Badger beer just before Hampton received 267 retweets Comments including ‌ @jo_tweety: Had a lovely day with @TheRealKagscourtesy of @Badgerales - thanks so much we really enjoyed it :) @martinicus1973: At the @Badgerales garden @ rhc garden show. Ale flowing from taps down a wall. Dreams do come true. @michellehiscutt: just found out @Badgerales are at Hampton Court. 2 of my favourite things - beer & gardens in one thing. I may burst with excitement. Instagram We also created an account on Instagram for Badger Ales on 27 June and the account has since gained 72 followers. Badger Sett Ale Club We documented and publicised the build up, through the BSAC blog and newsletter and ran competitions through the newsletter to create awareness of the garden with BSAC members.
OUTCOME
The garden was a success!
It was awarded a Silver Gilt Medal Achieved a significant, and very unusually for the BBC, amount of Badger branding on BBC2, including Monty Don drinking Hopping Hare on the garden, as well as targeted coverage throughout the media Achieved more air time television coverage than the “Best in Show” garden Successfully communicated with the target consumer with over 53,000 samples tasted Successfully used social media to engage and communicate with a younger audience Raised the profile of the brand, both internally and externally and created a sense of belonging and ownership of the project for many Hall & Woodhouse team members The sampling activity repositioned consumer perception of the brand Created a tool for the sales force to increase on-shelf presence of the “specials” Will it increase sales and distribution – we look forward to hearing…..