Creating buzz through brand-led promotions

We've posted before here and here about how innocent smoothies were masters at moving beyond boring promotions to true "brand activation".

The team at Jordans Cereals have taken inspiration from this approach, and have recently launched another great example of brand-led promotion with their "Big Buzz". This on-pack offer invites you to redeem tokens to get a bee-friendly plant for your garden. As you may know, there is a bee crisis in the UK, and other countries, with their population in sharp decline. Bees are important not just for honey, but also for many other parts of the food chain.

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Here are a few things I life about the Big Buzz:

1. It builds on a brand truth
Jordans Cereals have for years used only "Nature Friendly" oats from farmers who put 10% of their land to use for bees, birds and butterflies. So the Big Buzz is the next logical step in a long line of actions to help wildlife.

2. Its creating a "buzz"
Its nice that the Big Buzz is doing some good for nature. But it also has to do good for the brand and business. Its early days, but a google search of "bees and Jordans Cereals" returned no less than 129,000 hits. That's a lot of people talking about the brand and communicating what it is all about. And this is much more powerful coming from other trusted websites than coming direct from the brand. As a comparison, this is getting close to innocent's "buy one get one tree" promotion, that returns 160,000 hits but has been going for much longer.

Just a handful of examples of websites linking to Jordans include:
– I love my grub
Countryside Online
Blooming Direct
National Association of Allotments

3. Nicely activated on the website
There are some nice interactive features on the website, including a map of "Buzz stops" that shows where people have been planting, and a downloadable screensaver. All this helps people that visit the site spend more time interacting with the brand.
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4. "Peer Group Brand" tie-ups
Jordans have also linked up with Kew Gardens, to offer reduced family tickets to this amazing place in South West London, where we are members. Acres and acres of woodland, plants and green countryside in the city! Well worth a visit.