Summer Is a Hot Time for Creative Marketing in Floral

July 23, 2024

Well, this summer brings a whole new meaning to “Hot enough for you?”  I don’t think Spring or Fall last more than a week where I live anymore.

The summer is always a time of creativity for our floral marketers, with some of our biggest holidays behind us each year. This year, many retailers are taking advantage of some farms’ summertime excess to promote other international and national micro holidays. For example, coming up on August 1st is Girlfriend’s Day which is becoming more and more popular, especially as retailers have been celebrating in store for 2-3 years now.  

If you didn’t plan for this holiday, consider checking out other opportunities throughout the year. Some key tips to remember:

Bring in your in-store teams for promotions and social media engagement.
Commit on the long term and see the energy build year over year.
Measure your activities and success and make thoughtful decisions on what to change and improve on each year!
And remember, some micro holidays will be a struggle like “National Hot Dog Day”.  If your stores are successfully promoting this…kudos to you.  There are lots of other times like Mental Wellness, Suicide Prevention, Clean Air Day that might be a lot easier to promote plants and flowers.  The retailers that ARE doing well are putting it on social media.   Take advice from those that have promoted it and won.

Boosting summer sales is a huge win for the entire industry; these successes help the farms, transportation partners, stores, and more. Besides, trying new angles for consumer engagement is a great learning experience.   You can’t do the same things you have always done to get sales and expect different results. We’re all in this together to make floral an all-year-round purchase.

IFPA and the Floral Sustainability Task Force have put on a FREE Webinar called Petals on the Move.   It is all about opportunities with the way Flowers and Plants are distributed that can be more sustainable.  It’s happening on July 23rd at 1pm EST, but if you keep an eye on the page listed above, you can catch the recap and replay. I can say from personal experience, I used some of these opportunities that are being discussed in this webinar and saved the company I worked for millions of dollars initially and about $1 million each year after it was established. 

There are a few other major dates you should mark on your calendar:

October 17-19: The Global Produce & Floral Show. We’ll be coming together this year in Atlanta, Georgia for what, I think, will be the best show ever. In addition to our traditional Floral Reception, and the always incredible floral section of the Expo, we’ll also have some keyed in education sessions for the floral segment. Traditionally, IFPA supports many retailers to attend the show to ensure ROI for all of our members.
October 17: 2:45 – 5:45pm local time: Floral Committee Volunteers. At this annual meeting we will have updates from all of our Floral Task Forces so you can see what was accomplished by your peers.  We will also be working on what else we might be working on for Task Forces in 2025.   We encourage you as a committee member, to join one of these Floral Task Forces.  It takes a village to raise the Floral Industry.
The Floral Conference, February 24-26, 2025. We will be consolidating our two floral conferences to one packed event. We’re excited to share more with you about the new layout, and the new features of the event including more Breeder examples, opportunities for small group networking and more. One exciting addition will be the move to announce the Floral Marketer of the Year at this new combined Floral Conference. We’re excited to celebrate our community together in February and can’t wait to see you then!

Speaking of Floral Marketer of the Year, for 2024, Nominations are open now! Nominate and make sure you tell us why this person is deserving of this honor.  It should be based on the criteria that they selflessly worked on something to raise the Floral Industry over the years.   The 2024 FMOY will be presented on Friday night of the Global Show in Atlanta.  Please come and celebrate our winner this year!

There’s still time to sponsor this industry get together and sponsors for the Global Show Floral Reception will also receive a 4.5 ft column in the lobby for all to see, to put an arrangement or planter or whatever they would like, to promote their company and their booth number.  This is included in the cost of sponsorship and will be out in the public areas from the 17th through the 19th.

Summer Is a Hot Time for Creative Marketing in Floral

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