What’s your name and position within the organisation?
Hi, I’m Giles Mansell and I am the Commercial Partnerships Manager for the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).
We are essentially a rights holder and my role specifically is responsible for seeking partnerships across a broad portfolio of commercial assets. Within our team we are also responsible for managing existing partners such as M&G Investments, headline sponsor of the world-famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show (since 2010) which this year takes place from 22-26 May.
Our vision at the RHS is to enrich everyone’s lives through plants and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place. This requires significant commercial support from other like-minded organisations.
How did your organisation come to work with the current sponsors / rights holders?
We understand the value of nurturing relationships and, true to gardening, we pride ourselves on our long-term relationships which have grown over multiple years.
We work with a wide range of partners from various sectors e.g. finance, travel, lifestyle, FMCG, across a diverse array of platforms, from Flower Shows and Gardens to our Photography Competition and Podcast.
We understand the value of nurturing relationships and, true to gardening, we pride ourselves on our long-term relationships which have grown over multiple years with the likes of the BBC, Cunard, Lindt, Viking Cruises, Brewin Dolphin and The Telegraph. Our relationship with Witan Investment Trust spans over 20 years and has involved activity across a number of flower shows and gardens!
What “bigger picture” did this relationship seek to meet?
The RHS is reliant on the investment and content contribution from partners and all surplus funds from our commercial activities are reinvested into our charitable work.
How is the effectiveness of the relationship(s) measured? What metrics do you use?
We work together to understand what success looks like and how performance will be measured and evaluated.
Each partnership is different and as such requires different combinations of tracking measurement. From the outset of each partnership term we work together to understand what success looks like and how performance will be measured and evaluated.
This process is bespoke to each partner and their specified return on objectives (ROO). With the majority of our partners we will share attendance numbers, visitor survey findings, demographics, TV viewing figures/audience profiles, media and PR coverage, web traffic and social media engagement, brand awareness and perceptions and marketing performance (inc. e-comms).
What’s your rights holder USP?
We have the ability to connect brands with a charity of circa half a million gardeners (our members), a valuable segment of the UK population.
Gardening is one of Britain’s favourite hobbies. 85% of UK homes have a garden and nearly 60% of adults who own a garden say they actively enjoy gardening.
We put on the world’s biggest and best Flower Shows, from Chelsea, Chatsworth, Hampton Court Palace and Tatton Park to our partner shows at Cardiff and Malvern as well as a host of smaller specialist events, which together attract over 500,000 visitors a year. The Shows are the jewels in the crown of the gardening and social calendar, attracting the affluent and the influential, the active and the passionate.
We also welcome over 2.1m visitors a year to our four Gardens in Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Rosemoor (Devon) and Harlow Carr (North Yorkshire). In summer 2020 we will open RHS Garden Bridgewater just outside of Salford, a site spanning 156 acres!
National schemes such as Britain in Bloom with the RHS (300,000 volunteers) and RHS Campaign for School Gardening (35,000 registered schools) reach out to wider audiences in their own homes, schools or communities.
We have the ability to connect brands with a charity of circa half a million gardeners (our members), a valuable segment of the UK population. RHS is synonymous with excellence, quality and trust which brands can associate with and strike up conversations through a range of touch points.
What are the current trends within your business area, and how are they affecting how you work and how you deliver on strategy?
We are working harder with brands to enable year-round touch points and access to our audiences rather than focusing on one event.
Sponsorship has evolved and has moved on from the traditional model. We are working harder with brands to enable year-round touch points and access to our audiences rather than focusing on one event. Furthermore, we are working harder to optimise our sponsors’/partners’ assets and channels.
This differs by partner, but using Wedgwood (luxury fine china) as an example, we now stock their product ranges in all four of our Garden retail stores, promote year-round via our media channels (including The Garden magazine sent monthly to all members) and bring their beautiful branded Tea Conservatory “pop up” experiential activation to three of our major Shows. We are also helping to broaden their relationships with local gardening communities to support their CSR objectives. Deeper involvement with our year-round CSR/charitable projects is very much a growing trend among our wider client portfolio.
How has sponsorship changed in your industry over the past few years? And how do you think it’s going to change in the next five years?
With Brexit, brands will be increasingly cautious when entering into new lengthy partnerships and terms lasting a maximum of 3 years may become even more common.
The Brexit announcement (in 2016) did affect outside investment into our Shows content in 2017, however we are returning to expected levels in 2018 and for the first time on record all our Shows will have headline partners.
The next five years are indeed difficult to predict. A key advantage to sponsorship is major deals tend to last multiple years, however with Brexit, brands will be increasingly cautious when entering into new lengthy partnerships and terms lasting a maximum of 3 years may become even more common.
How are you harnessing and executing on digital strategy, and what problems / opportunities has this created?
Our website attracts over 6m unique visitors a month on average
Our website attracts over 6m unique visitors a month on average, with 500,000+ followers on social media (primarily Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). Engagement levels and traffic peaks in the weeks leading up to and during our large outdoor flower shows.
We are improving our ability to work jointly with partners to execute content which is relevant and of the quality expected by our audiences, both during the lead/show week and year round.
Social media – cure or curse?
Especially those who aren’t able to attend partner experiential activations
Social media is an important channel for RHS and our partners to reach gardening enthusiasts, and especially those who aren’t able to attend partner experiential activations – so very much a cure – and a key supporting channel to leverage our partnerships!
What challenges have you encountered, and how have they been overcome?
Another challenge we face, particularly when embedding new partners, is encouraging brands to understand the power, and investment, of leveraging their rights with activations which resonate with the target audience
When we first meet with brands it is often the case that they are only aware of some aspects of our work and opportunities e.g. the Shows, but not familiar with other areas such as our charitable projects and Gardens. So taking time to introduce and experience our assets first hand from the outset is hugely important and can open up wider partnership opportunities which may have previously been unforeseen.
Another challenge we face, particularly when embedding new partners, is encouraging brands to understand the power, and investment, of leveraging their rights with activations which resonate with the target audience e.g. RHS members, shows visitors etc. In the context of RHS, using the power of plants and horticulture can help bring branded messages to life.
Such beautiful displays were not only brilliantly received by visitors (resulting in significant engagement and data capture), but also enabled rich content for use across theirs and RHS’ social media platforms.
Our best examples at Shows are to produce a Show Garden – as this is the most anticipated attraction across all the Shows – or alternatively, a horticultural feature. Using Cathay Pacific Airways as an example, in 2016/17 they partnered with our world-renowned floral marquees at three of our major flower shows (Chatsworth, Hampton Court and Tatton Park). Their onsite activation was themed on tropical plants and vintage travel assets to celebrate the history of their brand and exciting routes from new/growing departure airports (Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester). Such beautiful displays were not only brilliantly received by visitors (resulting in significant engagement and data capture), but also enabled rich content for use across theirs and RHS’ social media platforms.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
We are proud to join ESA and look forward to meeting and learning from fellow members in the near future!