A family Garden Centre has hailed its first TV advertising campaign a success.
GardenSite.co.uk, based in Sutton Coldfield, is a successful online garden supplies retailer. Launched 18 years ago when online selling was in its infancy, the company now employs over forty people and has more than 10,000 products listed on its website with an annual turnover of over £5 million.
Up until 2016, GardenSite had relied on its reputation and social media presence to generate sales. Recently Senior Partner Robert Hall decided that a television advertising campaign would increase public awareness of his company and attract new customers to the site.
This was not a low cost option and required an investment of over £100,000, a significant sum for a business that is still family owned. This is why Robert approached Peter Tooke, his Senior Relationship Manager NatWest.
Robert said, “We have always banked with NatWest and value their advice, they have always backed us in the past and this time was no exception.”
GardenSite brought in advertising agency The Traditional Media Agency (TTMA) and a strategy was put in place. This initially involved advertising in February on Sky TV focusing on specific postcodes and then the campaign was rolled out to terrestrial television.
Scheduled to appear during ITV ‘Love Your Garden,’ the adverts featured ‘Create Your Perfect Space’ as the strapline, the advertising featured a number of different products from three of GardenSite’s popular categories which include sheds, greenhouses and water features.
The campaign was refreshed with 30 second commercials running on ITV1 and ITV3 in the West Midlands. Results were very encouraging with visitor numbers to GardenSite.co.uk increasing immediately by a factor of 14 against normal figures at the time.
Robert said, “We have been very pleased with the support, we have received from NatWest, GardenSite achieved record sales between May and August. Much of the additional sales success can be attributed to our investment in TV advertising which would not have been possible without the support from NatWest.”
Peter added, “GardenSite is a sound business but we both recognised the value of using fresh ideas to develop their customer base and drive sales. TV advertising was certainly well worth considering.”
Richard Whiley, Co-founder of TTMA, said, “The results were very pleasing. TTMA ensured that GardenSite appeared first, in the first break, in the first programme of the new series. Visitor numbers to the GardenSite website immediately after the commercial ran, were up by a factor of 14 against normal figures at the time.”
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www.gardensite.co.uk