Alexandria, VA — Top Chef. Project Runway. Extreme Makeover. These reality shows test virtually everything from culinary skills to home renovations, and viewers can’t get enough. To showcase the breadth and depth of creativity in the floral industry and to expose more consumers to the value of professional florists, the Society of American Florists (SAF) is launching a new public relations program — a series of online floral design competitions called Vase Off!
In these competitions featuring SAF member florists, contestants will be presented with a floral design challenge developed from suggestions by influential bloggers and asked to submit photos and a philosophical description of their entry. SAF will post the photos and descriptions on its social media channels, including www.aboutflowersblog.com and www.facebook.com/Aboutflowers. Visitors will vote online to select the winning design.
Three competitions — each with a different design challenge and different contestants — are in the works for 2012, with the first kicking off in mid April. (Contestants will be chosen by SAF's PR agency based on specific criteria.)
The Vase Off! program is part of SAF’s 2012 PR program designed to increase SAF’s Flower Factor social media presence to engage and educate consumers, influential bloggers and the media on using flowers and plants in their everyday lives for decorating, entertaining and gift giving with the help of their local florists.
“We are working with influential bloggers to create the floral design challenge as a way to lend third-party credibility to the program and generate additional online media coverage for flowers and florists to capture consumer attention,” said SAF’s Vice President of Marketing Jennifer Sparks. “The voting aspect of the challenges will take the floral message and creativity of florists ‘viral,’ quickly expanding awareness of our social media channels to the Gen Y audience and beyond.”
Keep an eye on SAF’s www.aboutflowersblog.com and www.facebook.com/SocietyofAmericanFlorists for details.
Source: Society of American Florists (SAF)
