The RHS helps UK gardeners ‘speak plant’ in new campaign

The RHS boasts more than 600,000 members, but Wunderman Thompson’s new campaign aims to make it the go-to for gardening advice and inspiration for the UK’s estimated 30 million gardeners – no matter their expertise or experience.

The ‘We Speak Plant’ campaign brings the 200 years of RHS knowledge to life with an integrated approach centring around a light-hearted animated film, created by Blinkink, where disgruntled plants air their grievances about the problems they encounter at the hands of gardeners – from being watered too much to being stuck in the shade. The solution? Gardeners need to ‘speak plant’ and the RHS can help them to do it.

The campaign, which also features a new visual identity for the charity created by fellow WPP agency and partner, Design Bridge, represents a shift in how it communicates its public gardens, community gardening schemes and sustainable gardening science.

It will launch on May 23rd across video on demand, out-of-home and across social media, and will run until July.

RHS President Keith Weed said: “The RHS wants to inspire, support and help more people to get joy from gardening. We needed something that would push us out of our comfort zone to get the RHS and all our great work noticed. This campaign breaks away from the norms in the sector and shows that the RHS’ heaps of expert knowledge and advice is accessible and available to everybody.”

Tom Drew, Executive Creative Director at Wunderman Thompson UK, said: “’We Speak Plant’ allows the RHS to talk to all their audiences, across all their touchpoints with one voice. It’s a beautifully integrated idea that inspires and educates in equal measure. My kitchen basil plant may yet survive!”

Campaign credits:

Business lead: Charlie Martyn

Senior Account Manager: Alice Mercer

Senior Strategy Director: Nicky Buss

Executive Creative Director: Tom Drew

Creative Director: Clare Wilson

Senior Producer: Charlie Woodall

Art Director: Anders Wendel

Copywriter: Elliot Tiney

Copywriter: Alice Booth

Head of Art: Guy Sexty

Senior Designers: Chris Hutton & Rob Joyner

Designer: Conor Bevan

Artworker: Chrissy Carr

Retouchers: Dave Jewel, Trevor Quilbish, Howie Lake

Post-production: Dan Brown, Ed O’Rourke, Lee Bamsey, Russell Bradley, George Louca, Fabio Liguori, Theo Waterfield

Rebrand & visual identity: Design Bridge

Media planning & buying: Essence

Production company: Blinkink