The National Gardens Scheme

The National Gardens Scheme opens 3,600 gardens (mostly private) to the public, raising around £2 million a year for cancer, caring and gardening charities.

To help amplify the charity message we developed the strapline “Charity Begins at the Garden Gate” and brought on board celebrity gardener Charlie Dimmock to launch the start of the gardening season with the key message “You don’t have to run a marathon to raise money for charity, just visit a beautiful NGS garden.”
 
We achieved 14 live bulletins on BBC Breakfast (24 minutes air time with equivalent advertising value of £340,320), an endorsement from Alan Titchmarsh on BBC2, coverage in the Daily Express & 18 BBC radio interviews.

Other activities have included commissioning a design for a Garden of the Future to reflect climate change and a Turf Wars story about the battle of the sexes in the garden. Both stories generated extensive national coverage, including a full page in the Times, stories in the Daily Mail and Evening Standard and an in depth feature on BBC Breakfast. 

MD Wendy Akers also persuaded her fellow allotment holders in Richmond to open for the scheme. Everyone in the team helped out, baking cakes, manning the tea stall, building scarecrows and selling plants, helping to raise £790 for the charity.