RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Show Gardens 2005 & 2007
Fetzer’s premium Californian wines are made in an environmentally friendly way supported by the company’s leading edge, sustainable winery practices and organic vineyards. Yet pre-2005 brand awareness and understanding of Fetzer’s positioning was relatively low with its target premium wine consumers.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show provided Fetzer with a golden opportunity to leverage an apt mainstream lifestyle area (gardening) via the Society's most prestigious and highest profile event. This returned a much bigger marketing 'bang for their bucks' than previous press advertising campaigns. They company knew they were on ‘fertile ground’ having previously researched that 97% of RHS Show adult visitors consumed wine, with a strong skew to premium wine.
Chelsea ticked all the right boxes:
- Consumer awareness – attracting a lot of TV, press, glossy and other media coverage
- Brand imagery – with gold medal-winning ‘wine gardens’ communicating Fetzer's sustainability story and Californian personality
- Target consumers – packed with premium wine-orientated consumers
- Competitive edge – the show provided a lifestyle area Fetzer could ‘own’ versus its premium wine competitors
- Sampling – Fetzer's wine tasting stand complemented the show garden, enhancing the consumer/brand experience
- Sales increases –the show gave Fetzer’s sales force a ‘hook’ on which to hang summer in-store wine promotions and displays
- Corporate entertaining – an excellent venue for entertaining customers, thus engaging key buyers.
- Campaignability – Chelsea became the cornerstone of a wider association with the RHS, lasting five years from 2004 to 2008 incorporating RHS Hampton Court, Tatton Park and Malvern Flower Shows with sustainable, horticulturally enhanced sampling stands, facilitating greater experiential brand marketing.
In summary, both Fetzer’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show gardens impressed, engaged and provided positive tangible results to all the brand’s key stakeholders – consumers, retailers, shareholders and staff. Last but not least, they said their contacts at the RHS were straightforward and a delight to deal with.