Case study: Sarah Raven
Growing audiences across gardening, food, and lifestyle sectors
Background
Sarah Raven is the UK’s leading D2C gardening business that sells plants, bulbs, seeds and the tools to support planting as well as hardware and gardening related gifts.
The business has been growing at over 20% per year since its inception in 2008 but has more than doubled in size since the start of the pandemic.
The brand is on a trajectory to become a household name and dominate the UK’s gardening retail market. The business champions the message that gardening brings people joy.
Brief
Sarah Raven first approached LLPR in late 2020 to assist with the launch of the brand’s first podcast, ‘grow, cook, eat, arrange’. Following an incredibly successful podcast launch that gained excellent media interest and as a result hit the number one spot in the charts only weeks after launching, LLPR was retained by the brand to maintain and build on the momentum built.
LLPR was tasked to:
- Provide strategic direction and counsel for Sarah Raven’s PR activity
- Build relationships with new editors and journalists
- Secure product placement opportunities
- Build brand awareness and identity through earned media
- Maintain interest in the podcast and engaging new listeners
Results
LLPR’s input into the brand’s PR function led to a 10% increase in organic online presence and brand mentions over the course of the year, with valuable peaks in activity during critical Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter periods.
- Over 210 million consumers reached
- Over 200 links to the Sarah Raven website secured
- Over 600 items of coverage achieved
- Equal split of online and print coverage secured, in line with targets
- Pre-podcast PR drove 10,000 listeners to stream the podcast trailer
- Analytics demonstrated that press drove readers to later search for and stream ‘grow,cook, eat, arrange’
- 41% of coverage included a brand image building recognition and awareness
- Increase in inbound enquiries from journalists requesting commentary from Sarah Raven demonstrating increase in trust and awareness
- Balanced mix of product placement, feature and interview coverage
- Majority of online coverage secured on sites with a good or better domain authority, increasing Sarah Raven’s SEO visibility
‘It’s been fantastic working with you. You’ve such a breadth of knowledge throughout LLPR and helped us last year to achieve coverage beyond our expectations!’
