We’ve got a multi-layered relationship with the much loved institution that is the Chelsea Flower Show, having worked for the RHS, for garden sponsors and even helping a friend find a last minute sponsor for his debut Balcony Garden – thank you Viking!
There are two sides to Chelsea – the corporate audience who attend the opening night, and the RHS members and enthusiasts who attend the rest of the show.
This year, from a sponsorship point of view - and viewed from under an umbrella - we felt things shifting. The Newt in Somerset remains the show sponsor but grant-making organisation Project Giving Back is supporting more of the main gardens, and more smaller commercial sponsors are involved in projects and activations that spoke to the main Chelsea demographic. It’s also good to see all the gardens now have action, not just messaging, around sustainability and reuse.
Here are some of our favourites from a marketing perspective:
- Netflix’s flouncy, over-the-top Bridgerton display promoting the new season
- UBS’s advertising take-over of Sloane Square tube station, and its project that championed the role of nursery growers and edible plants and vegetables.
- Jewellery firm Boodles has collaborated with the National Gallery celebrating NG200, its 200th anniversary, with a new collection inspired by works in the gallery, and a show garden reflecting the themes and colours.
- EY celebrated inclusion with its support of the National Autistic Association garden explaining the concept of masking in neurodiversity.
- Finally, Affinity Water’s Water Saving Garden had a new spin on recycling and reusing its garden, offering the whole thing as a competition prize to be planted in a location of the winner’s choice.