Bailey brings consumer brands to life in NYC
Fall is for planting, and Bailey brought its Endless Summer Hydrangeas, First Editions Shrubs & Trees, and Easy Elegance Roses to life at an immersive two-day brand activation Sept. 5-6 in the garden at Ladurée SoHo in New York City — strategically timed to coincide with the start of the fall planting season.
I attended the VIP Morning on Sept. 5, where industry partners, media and content creators got a sneak peek of the installation before it opened to the public later that day.
The garden at Ladurée SoHo served as a leafy oasis in the city decorated with Bailey trees and shrubs. A hydrangea wall served as a popular selfie spot while interactive displays allowed attendees to learn more about the Bailey brands. The First Editions Plant-Sona quiz matched people’s personalities to plants (take the First Editions Plant-Sona quiz), and attendees could create their own souvenir bookmarks at a dried flower bookmark station.
Data-Driven Marketing
Bailey began a data-driven marketing campaign in New York City in May, when the brands lit up Times Square. The immersive activation at Ladurée SoHo intended to bring that momentum full circle, delivering an experience to build awareness, engage consumers and ultimately drive retail conversion
Flora House had more than 1,400 attendees visit over the two days, contributing to a 606% year-over-year increase in impressions and 189% year-over-year increase in engagements across Bailey and Bailey Consumer Brands social media channels.
“Flora House allowed home gardeners to interact with plant brands in ways they don’t typically get to,” said Gretchen McNaughton, communication and content strategist at Bailey. “By adding experiential marketing to our campaign this year, we were able to create tangible, memorable experiences for home gardeners. We met people where they were, showed them what’s possible with plants, and provided them with a pathway for how to make those garden ideas a reality. At the bottom line, Flora House allowed home gardeners to foster emotional connections to our plants and our brands, and those connections will make lasting impacts on their purchasing decisions for many gardening seasons to come.”
Bringing Consumer Marketing to Plant Brands
McNaughton said as they began planning for 2025, they knew they wanted to try something different.
“After many strategy-focused conversations, we decided to move forward with producing an experiential brand activation — something that’s very common for brands in the consumer packaged goods industry that haven’t made it to our industry,” she said. “New York City is a hotspot for those activations, a large media market and a place where people travel from across the country to visit.”
Once they chose New York City as the destination, they partnered with Dera Lee Productions, an award-winning experiential marketing agency based in the city, to produce this event.
“Through conversations with them, we landed on hosting Flora House at Ladurée in SoHo,” McNaughton said. “Not only was the location perfect, with its garden situated in the heart of the city, but we could also leverage the brand equity of Ladurée, a spot that locals and tourists already sought out, and in turn tap into their audience for this activation.”
She said they spent about 14 hours setting up — 12 hours the day before it opened and another two hours of finishing touches before the event began.
“However, that number doesn’t include the two prep days we had in New York City leading up to the onsite setup and all the pre-event work that both the Bailey marketing and DLP teams put into this. Onsite teardown took place from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on the final day.”
Garden Center Applications
For garden centers considering partnering on a similar event, McNaughton said it’s important to define your goals and then tie the event back to the desired results.
“Our goal was engagement, but that might not be the same for everyone putting on an experiential activation,” she said. “Determine those goals and keep them as your guiding principles for all decisions. Of course, have fun trying new things, experimenting with new tactics and going outside what’s seen as usual or typical to create an event that is memorable for attendees.”
Photos by Teresa McPherson.
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