Longwood Gardens
Where garden design, horticulture, education, and the arts interplay to inspire and enlighten guestsVISIT WEBSITE:
LONGWOODGARDENS.ORGLongwood Gardens is one of the world’s leading botanical gardens, situated just west of Philadelphia in the Brandywine Valley. The Gardens’ 1,000 acres include 5 miles of walking paths and hiking trails, intricate fountain systems, and a continually changing landscape of stunning seasonal flora cultivated by some of the nation’s foremost horticulturalists.
Beginning in Spring 2017, Flyleaf has worked with Longwood to design print and digital media membership acquisition campaigns.
SERVICES
- Direct mail membership acquisition campaigns
- Digital and social media advertising for membership acquisition
VISIT WEBSITE:
LONGWOODGARDENS.ORGSERVICES
- Direct mail membership acquisition campaigns
- Digital and social media advertising for membership acquisition
Reimagining Member Acquisitions
Longwood first sought Flyleaf to help them plan and design a membership acquisitions campaign correlating with the re-opening of their Main Fountain Garden in 2017. The multi-million dollar renovation was met with high goals for membership, and Flyleaf was tasked with creating a direct mail piece that captured the extravagance of Longwood’s revitalized centerpiece as a selling point. Our mailer needed to reinvigorate previous members’ excitement for the Gardens while capturing the attention of prospective members as well.
We designed an innovative mailer which played with scale in an interactive, multi-fold format in order to engage readers and give them a taste of the Gardens’ immensity. We promoted a discount offer to all and extended benefits to a test segment to capture data-based behavioral learnings for the organization.
The results of that first campaign significantly surpassed all first-year projections with a 2.03% response rate on the full mailing, including a 6.8% response rate for lapsed members.
Reaching Goals, Season After Season
Flyleaf designs two membership acquisitions campaigns annually. To date, our campaigns have each met or surpassed projected revenue goals.
With each campaign we aim to:
- Create a bold, engaging, and inviting presentation of the seasonal power and splendour of the Gardens year-round
- Introduce and reinforce the benefits and value of membership
- Promote any upcoming special programming
While enacting a discount offer that has proven successful, we engage prospective and lapsed members by using bold photography and design paired with simple yet elegant messaging that re-imagines the evolving beauty of the Gardens.
Each year, we reconsider the format and materials for the mailer, and the photography and messaging of the campaign itself, making sure that the brand stays fresh and reminds audiences of the Gardens’ vast beauty and benefits of return visits. Our approach is also to build a narrative and voice that complements the visuals and encourages the recipient to read through the entirety of the piece.
Our attention-capturing designs have employed unique folds and die-cuts; magnificent, full-bleed photography on the outer envelopes; and a playful color palette that complements the very colors of nature on display at the Gardens.
Adding Digital Into the Mix
Beginning in 2018, and with increased emphasis each season, we’ve collaborated with a digital strategy team at Grapeseed Media and deployed banner and social media ads targeting lapsed members and other prospective member audiences.
To ensure consistent messaging, our digital designs take their cue from that season’s mailer. But those designs also expand on the unique opportunities digital provides with animating messaging and photos that complement the different shapes and sizes of the digital canvases.
