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 hard-

landscaping 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 from 450 in Dorset Magazine to 5,134 on

www.housetohome.co.uk.

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…..