Guerilla Gardeners, "dig, drop, done, move on"

The bulb industry is wondering how to invigorate the bulb trade. As we have talked before, bulb sales are way down and the bulb trade is looking for ideas. The have tried the Dig, Drop, and Done campaign, which was panned by most garden centers, and customers. The three ladies who are suppose to represent three different demographics never hit the nerve they we're suppose to.

Seems to me that bulbs would be a perfect match for the guerrilla gardening movement. Since the beauty of bulbs is revealed sometimes months after planting, it's perfect for the delayed gratification that is guerrilla gardening. Guerrilla gardeners savor passing by a "target", and watching the reactions from passerby's. "Who planted these?" someone asks, as the guerrilla gardener smiles to themselves knowing they are responsible.

What if "guerrilla grafters" carried a cache of bulbs along with their grafting bud wood? After grafting their bud wood to the flowering pear tree they drop to the ground, all the while repeating the mantra they we're taught, "Dig, Drop, Done, Move On". Imagine the look of surprise on passerby's when they see pears on formally barren trees, and bulbs sprouting from the soil. "Who did this?" people ask as our guerrilla gardener walks by the site, smiles knowingly, and continues down the street with her bag of recently purchased bulbs in hand. Where will she strike next?

This could be a whole series of fun escapades. Bulb growers, give me jingle if your interested.

Occupy the garden!

What is it about the Dig, Drop, and Done campaign that is missing? There is no way to spread the message, since there is no message to spread. When you watch the videos do you feel compelled to forward them to a friend? Do you hear a call to action? Where is the social object that we can use, and help spread? We have a product, bulbs. If you look at a tulip or daffodil bulb they are unique in shape and easily recognized. If this shape where used in a marketing campaign the bulb could become an easily shared "social object". Example: Showing Generation X or Y types under the cloak of darkness planting bulbs in abandoned city lot's, or street medians. Now the bulb is a object that can be used to spread a message.

"OTG" (Occupy The Garden!) might be more fitting for the time and place than Juliana's "On Trend" video.

"Occupy the Garden!" Spread the word.

The "Dig, Drop, and Done" bulb video's are here!

We have talked about the bulb industries new ad campaign, Dig, Drop, and Done here. Now for your weekend entertainment we present the video's you have all been waiting for. Check them out. Let me know what you think. Do they hit the right tone? Do they call you to action? Is this the right direction for garden marketing? More of the videos can be found here. Oh, and it looks like Juliana is suppose to be from San Francisco by that window shot. She would be a better fit for the LA lifestyle than what I see in SF, IMHO.

Garden Writers Today calls it quits

Garden Writers Today, is pulling the plug. This website was run by Cool Springs Press. Ray Wolf, publisher had this to say. "Effective October 31, 2011, Garden Writers Today website and newsletter will cease publication. Originally, GWT was conceived as a way to build a community among garden writers. As I look back on that goal today, it seems to me that, given the technological advances that have taken place since GWT was launched, other forms of social media have taken over the role of community builder and facilitator. Garden writers have many more gathering places today than they did when GWT was launched. Plus, the granddaddy of them all, Garden Writers Association, is stronger than ever."

The question is, are writers going to migrate from Garden Writers Today to The Garden Writers Association? We're they already members of both organizations? Or will more small niche oriented organizations develop? My guess is the latter. The trend is more niche oriented sites that mach up with the participants views.

Have you noticed the similarity between the logo saying for Garden Writers Today, "Dig, Plant, Grow" and the bulb campaign, "The Dig, Drop, Done" Ladies? Interesting. Garden Writers Today used the saying first.

Bulbs and The Dig, Drop, and Done Ladies

Back  in February we reported on a new bulb campaign designed to revitalize the depressed bulb market. It was there

where we talked about how, "the Royal Trade Association for Nursery Stock and Flower Bulbs headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands has decided to throw some money at the problem. They have committed to a three year, $1.9 million campaign. According to Peter Mitchell, Woodbine President & CEO, 'we believe our campaign has the potential to do for the flower bulb industry what ‘Got Milk‘ has done for the milk industry'”.

The ad campaign has arrived. It's called "Bulbs, Dig, Drop, Done" It features three ladies called what else, "the Dig, Drop, Done Ladies". There's Marci, The Super Mom who is the mother of 3 with twin sons and a daughter, lives in the 'burbs' and is a substitute teacher. There is also Juliana The Fashionista, and Evelyn The Empty Nester. Between the three they are going to revitalize the bulb market by showing us just how easy it is to enjoy the beauty of bulbs.

Over at Garden Rant Elizabeth is duly un-impressed saying, "welcome to Dig. Drop. Done. Where women come in 3 sizes: cocktail-swilling sex kitten, cupcake-baking mom, and attention-starved, curler-wearing golf widow. Each of the characters has her own wardrobe, props, and videos. I hope the actresses who played them were paid well. They’re quite bad, but even so, hard to see how anyone could say this crap convincingly." Ouch!

So is this a huge waste of money by the bulb industry,  a brilliant marketing campaign, or something in-between? Is this campaign you as a garden center owner can get behind. As a gardener does this inspire you to try bulbs?

"Got Bulbs?"

A post at Garden Rant today pointed me to an article at Garden Center Magazine titled, "Branding Company looks to   re-vitalize bulb market".  According to the article, "Brand revitalization agency, Woodbine, has been selected by a group of 17 flower bulb trading companies to develop and execute a marketing campaign to invigorate consumer demand for flowering bulbs throughout North America." According to Woodbine "North America accounts for 30% of worldwide flower bulb demand, indicating a growth opportunity here. In 2008, a North American market study undertaken by Knowledge Networks, Inc. identified opportunities to increase demand among current bulb gardeners, while introducing bulbs to a whole new generation of potential gardeners." As we have talked about before bulb sales have taken a nosedive in the last decade.  As people choose to fill their time with other activities, bulbs which require planting before the spring season has arrived, have gotten left behind. To remedy this Anthos, the Royal Trade Association for Nursery Stock and Flower Bulbs headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands has decided to throw some money at the problem. They have committed to a three year, $1.9 million campaign. According to Peter Mitchell, Woodbine President & CEO, "we believe our campaign has the potential to do for the flower bulb industry what ‘Got Milk‘ has done for the milk industry".

Remember the "Got Milk" Campaign from 1993? It was a $23 million a year campaign that is credited with, " greatly increasing milk sales in California though not nationwide." These bulb companies are going to spend 1/12 of what the Milk advisory board did back in the 90's, yet Woodbine say's it will have the potential of doing the same thing "Got Milk" did 25 years ago. Remember the "Got Milk" campaign only increased sales in California, so Woodbine has it's work cut out for it to do the same thing for bulbs.

It's amazing that we are still pointing at an ad campaign from  the last millennium, a time before The Internet and social media existed, as the way forward. It would be nice to think we can change people's behavior with a ad campaign, and bulb sales will increase. Not sure if bulb sales will increase with this ad campaign, but it does show that there is still money to be made with bulbs. Just not the way most of us expect.

Read the comments for the article by Garden Center Magazine for a clue as to what the problem really is with bulbs.