Submitted by Smoking Gun

Interflora 'Pollen Station'

Smoking Gun built a Pollen Station stunt in Westminster for Interflora to launch an Alexa ordering Skill, reporting 18 pieces of media coverage and 25million total reach.

12,232 Instagram Stories views and 3,797 grid post engagementInstagram Stories views and grid post engagement
Skill downloads up 25% on predicted volumeSkill downloads versus predicted volume
17 backlinks to the websitebacklinks to the website
18 pieces of overage Our consumer PR Stunt gained 18 pieces of media coverage across national news, lifestyle and tech pages - including The Times and London Evening Standardpieces of media coverage
90% of coverage containing Pollen Station photography, all hits featured key messagingshare of coverage containing campaign photography

Case in 60 seconds

Interflora needed to launch a voice ordering Skill on 12th December, the day of a British General Election the agency describes as the most hotly contested for decades, in the run up to its busy Christmas period.

The campaign appears to turn on the reading that election day saturates attention rather than removing it, so a brand that borrows the day's own rituals and social habits can enter the conversation instead of competing against it.

Rather than treating the vote as a separate problem, the agency built the launch out of it, turning a voice ordering Skill into a Pollen Station where the public voted with their voices for who should receive flowers.

A Pollen Station was staged in Westminster with Amazon Echo devices inside each pollen booth and flower-clad basset hounds newsjacking #DogsAtPollingStations, while six Instagram influencers with a combined following of 80,000 produced Stories, grid posts and blog posts with backlinks after ordering through the Skill.

Smoking Gun reports 18 pieces of media coverage across national news, lifestyle and tech pages including The Times and London Evening Standard, 25million total reach, 12,232 Instagram Stories views and Skill downloads up 25% on predicted volume.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

The public in Westminster asked to vote with their voices for a free bouquet, alongside Interflora customers in the run up to Christmas and the national news, lifestyle and tech readerships the coverage reached.
A General Election absorbs national attention for a single day, and a flower brand arriving with a technology launch on that day risks being ignored or reading as tone deaf, so the work had to borrow the election's rituals rather than ignore them.
Flower delivery is bought on occasion rather than on interest, and a voice ordering Skill is a behaviour change that cannot be explained in a headline, so the launch needed a demonstration the public could perform in person.
Interflora positioned itself as the retail first in voice ordering, with the page reporting that the Pollen Station sat at the centre of positive internal comms around brand reappraisal and led to Smoking Gun taking on a complete repositioning.
Based on the available evidence, the campaign reads as built on the habit of documenting election day on social media, including dogs at polling stations, which gave the brand a format the audience was already producing and sharing.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Amazon Alexa
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

Partners

  • Smoking Gun (lead_agency)

Participation mechanic

  • Members of the public entered a pollen booth and spoke to an Amazon Echo device to vote on who they wanted to receive a free bouquet, mirroring the act of voting at a polling station.

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult type
Instagram Stories views and grid post engagement12,232 Instagram Stories views and 3,797 grid post engagementvideo_views
Skill downloads versus predicted volumeSkill downloads up 25% on predicted volumeperformance
backlinks to the website17 backlinks to the websiteperformance
pieces of media coverage18 pieces of overage Our consumer PR Stunt gained 18 pieces of media coverage across national news, lifestyle and tech pages - including The Times and London Evening Standardperformance
share of coverage containing campaign photography90% of coverage containing Pollen Station photography, all hits featured key messagingperformance
social engagement rankingBest social engagement Interflora's best social engagement in Q4engagements
total reach19,682 total reachreach
total reach25million Total reachreach
video content produced18-minutes of video contentoutput

Why Smoking Gun's strategy worked

  1. 1

    A crowded news day can carry a product launch where the product mechanic maps onto the event's own ritual, because the Pollen Station made voting with your voice the demonstration of the Skill rather than a separate message.

  2. 2

    Newsjacking an existing social trend such as #DogsAtPollingStations supplies content the audience is already looking for, which appears to be how a single Westminster installation produced material across national, lifestyle and tech pages.

  3. 3

    Influencer activity that ends in a real order rather than a post gives the creator something to review, which is what connected the six Instagram accounts to Skill downloads up 25% on predicted volume rather than to reach alone.

  4. 4

    A stunt built to be photographed gives coverage a consistent shape, and the reported 90% of coverage containing Pollen Station photography suggests the physical build was doing the work of a press asset as much as an experience.

Related Case studies