Teleflora, the world’s leading floral delivery service took a bold stand in its 2017 holiday campaign, “Love Out Loud.” The brand erected a “Wall of Love” in front of the iconic Capitol building reflecting pool in Washington, D.C., composed of 1,000 of its floral bouquets. For one day only, the public was invited to take a bouquet from the wall and give it to a family member, friend, loved one—or even someone they barely know—to share the love.
The 50-foot wide, 8-foot high floral wall had one, simple message: “Love Out Loud.” A feat of collaboration between local florists, designers, engineers and fabricators, constructing the wall took three weeks following months of planning to determine engineering, logistics, material testing and securing permits.
Teleflora, which is owned by The Wonderful Company (whose other brands include POM Wonderful and FIJI Water), wanted to send a positive message by building a wall meant for tearing down, and by inspiring people to come together to show their feelings with a simple act of kindness like giving flowers.
Darren, what inspired this particular campaign and how does it differ from past activations for the Teleflora brand?
The “Wall of Love” activation and films kick off our new Teleflora “Love Out Loud” campaign. It was inspired by what we saw was a growing desire by people to come closer together at a time when so many things are pulling us apart. It’s why we chose the December holidays to launch the campaign, and the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. as our location.
With the “Love Out Loud” campaign, we want people to associate Teleflora with the grand gesture of love, one that seems to have gone the way of the boombox. Texting a heart emoji is cute—billions of them are sent every day, after all—but it can never compare to what someone will ‘feel, think and do’ when they open their door or get to their desk and find a beautiful, one-of-a-kind, handmade bouquet of flowers waiting for them, delivered by their local neighborhood florist.
Flowers aren’t just a nice gesture, they’re a necessary connection. And we want people to trust us to help build that bridge for them.
Traditionally, our marketing efforts for Teleflora have included broadcast TV, online video, social posts and CRM. This year, we wanted to do more than just deliver a message in paid media channels. We wanted to give people something to do, something to share, and something to believe in. This wouldn’t have been right for most brands, wouldn’t have been authentic. But given what Teleflora does, and pardon the pun here, it couldn’t have been a more natural activation to do.
This is also part of a larger branding strategy we are very intent on expanding within The Wonderful Agency. We understand that in today’s culture, consumers want to ‘explore and discover’ brands on their own, in a more organic way; rather than be told what to try or buy. Because of this, more brands like ours require a new way of thinking and marketing to our customers to connect with people in a more meaningful and engaging way.
We look forward to sharing more of these live experiential activations and larger campaigns in the coming year with The Wonderful Company portfolio of brands.
What has been the reaction so far?
The reaction has been amazing and inspiring. The highlight was listening to the hundreds of people who came to Teleflora’s “Wall of Love” on the day of the event as they told us who they were going to give their bouquet to: their estranged sister, overworked wife, a stressed-out bus driver, a homeless veteran, congressional staffer from the other side of the aisle, their congressman, and on and on. A young man even proposed to his very surprised boyfriend right there on the spot! (And, he said, “Yes!”)
Throughout the day, the same theme kept coming up: Now, more than ever, we need to show others we care. Not just the ones we already know and love, but even those we disagree with, fight with, have lost touch with or who we barely know. For those thousand+ people on the D.C. mall that day, each Teleflora bouquet was the reminder, the motivator, and the facilitator to not just love, but to “Love Out Loud.”
In the 48 hours after we posted the video documenting Teleflora’s “Wall of Love” activation on social media, nearly two million people have watched or shared it. And the comments have been overwhelmingly positive. I don’t need to tell you how rare that is.
Congrats—and yet, safe to assume you can’t sit back and relax, as Teleflora is facing more competitors than ever, particularly on the delivery front?
It’s a challenging time to be in the floral delivery industry, for sure. Teleflora has incredibly loyal customers who swear by its products and services, but like so many brick-and-mortar retailers and artisans, local florists are struggling to compete with the 800-pound gorillas like Amazon and the supermarket chains.
But when it comes to quality and service, those other players can’t compete with a florist hand-making and hand-delivering a beautiful arrangement like the ones Teleflora designs. We hope that experience like the “Wall of Love” will remind people that quality really matters when the message matters. And to love like you mean; it is a message that matters more than ever.
Biggest surprises along the creative journey for this activation?
We chose the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. as the backdrop to Teleflora’s “Wall of Love” for symbolic reasons. Regardless of your political leanings, who can argue with the idea that we need to break down the metaphorical walls that keep us from working together, expressing our feelings, reconnecting, and even asking or giving forgiveness? It’s not a left or right idea.
But still, I expected some people would have used the wall as an excuse to wag their fingers or fan a political flame. That didn’t happen. Instead of pointing at others, people internalized the message and used the idea of tearing down our Teleflora “Wall of Love” to think about their own actions and feelings towards the people in their lives. It gave me hope that we as a nation and as individuals are stronger than all the walls that are separating us.
How does this campaign change or strengthen your brand perception and personality?
Teleflora has always been an emotional brand. But with this campaign, we want to give even more purpose to the emotions that flowers elicit. We want to ground those feelings in fresh ways, with more surprising human truths, and in times and places where they’re needed most. In this way, I hope people will see Teleflora as more relevant than ever.
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