RHS Hampton Court 2024.

There’s nothing we love more than show garden PR, so when bespoke garden designer Melanie Hick got in touch looking for support ahead of RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, we were buzzing to get stuck in.

As a Melbourne-born, London-based designer, Melanie knows everything there is to know about creating beautiful yet resilient spaces, from drought-tolerant planting and permeable surfaces to incorporating wildlife habitats and utilising reclaimed materials.

Our challenge was three-fold – to promote the “Climate Forward” show garden while raising Melanie’s profile and boosting her website’s SEO.

• Promote the Climate Forward Garden at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival and spark conversations around climate-forward garden design
• Position Melanie Hick as the go-to garden designer for stylish yet sustainable garden designs through expert advice
• Generate backlinks from high Domain Authority websites to boost the MHGD website’s SEO

With just two months to devise and deliver our strategy before show week, we wasted no time in getting to work.

We set about drafting and issuing press releases announcing the details, themes and key messages of the garden, creating a biography for Melanie, and compiling a press pack.

Our next step was to reach out to key contacts in the home and garden world to pitch Melanie for interviews, expert advice opportunities, and pre-show features. We penned expert advice on a range of relevant topics, including the top drought-tolerant and flood-resistant plants, the best materials for a garden path, how to transform your front garden into a usable space – as well as plenty more.

We explored wider promotional opportunities with the RHS team and Melanie’s sponsors, FH Brundle, to optimise partnerships.

On the lead-up to show week, we invited key media contacts to the join us on the garden on Press Day and liaised with Melanie’s VIP guests to coordinate their attendance.

After Press Day, we were poised and ready to circulate photography and issue a medal-win release, sharing the fantastic news that Melanie had been awarded Silver-Gilt, while helping generate votes for the People’s Choice Award.

In just two months, we generated 36 pieces of coverage across top target titles, such as The English Garden, Gardens Illustrated, House Beautiful, The Telegraph, Pro Landscaper, woman&home, and Homebuilding & Renovating.

Coverage included a varied mix of content, with 13 show garden features, 17 pieces of expert advice, and exclusive interviews in the likes of The Telegraph, The Daily Express and Pro Landscaper. We also established four expert biographies for Melanie across leading digital publications.

Importantly, 58% of coverage secured included a backlink to Melanie’s website, with 23 of those being from websites with a Domain Authority of over 60 and 13 of those being above 80.

Not to mention, we reached 13 million pairs of eyes, helping to spread Melanie’s message and encourage more people to put climate-forward thinking at the forefront of their gardens.