Bees campaign builds buzz for P.E.I.'s Veseys Seeds
The buzz over the "Bring Back the Bees" contest has turned Veseys Seeds in York, P.E.I. into a beehive of activity. The Island company and General Mills Canada are handing out free packages of wildflower seeds and the response has been 'overwhelming'.
The Island company has partnered with General Mills Canada for a national campaign to plant wildflowers and bring awareness to the importance of bees as pollinators.
Veseys is giving away packages of free wildflower seeds to anyone who enters the contest, and the original offering of 100,000 packages didn't last long.
"Actually it was just a matter of days," recalls John Barrett, director of sales, marketing and development at Veseys.
It was 'all hands on deck' in the warehouse at Veseys as they moved quickly to provide another 100,000 packages of seeds. (Submitted)
"They were quite overwhelmed, as were we."
General Mills asked Veseys for another 100,000 seed packages, so they had to scramble.
"We called in a lot of favours with a lot of people," said Barrett.
"It was sort of a all hands on deck situation in order to get them filled quickly."
The number of entries has now climbed to more than 255,000.
Catalogue shortage
Veseys was also flooded with requests for seed catalogues, with one out of every two contest entrants asking for one.
John Barrett is hoping that the investment in printing and sending out more catalogues will pay off. (Submitted by Veseys Seeds)
"We may have made it a little too easy for people to request a Veseys catalogue," joked Barrett.
"As of this morning, we've already had, just as a result of this campaign, 60,000 catalogue requests."
Shortly after the contest started, the company had to rush back to its printer for an additional 100,000 catalogues.
"There was a lot of sweet-talking there, just to have press time available," explained Barrett.
Veseys also came up with a creative way to keep reprint costs down by using the U.S. version of its seed catalogue — 76 pages versus the 180-page Canadian edition.
"We were able to print quicker and at a more economical rate," said Barrett, adding that it also helped save on postage.
There is a substantial cost to fulfilling the requests for the catalogues, Barrett admits, but he's hopeful the company will at least recoup the costs of printing and mailing.
"If the prize was a trip for two to Cancun, or simply a cash prize, well then everybody and their neighbour would want to enter this contest," said Barrett.
Veseys had to order more of the specialized seed packages after the first 100,000 were snapped up within the first few days of the contest. (Submitted)
The one redeeming feature from Veseys standpoint is that the grand prize is one of five $5,000 garden makeovers.
"If you're interested in receiving that prize, you obviously have an interest in gardening and your own particular gardens," added Barrett, saying their fingers are crossed that customers will end up ordering from those catalogues.
Encore possible
Barrett is also hoping that the overwhelming success of the Bring Back the Bees contest will convince General Mills to take the campaign south of the border, something he thinks could grow Veseys' U.S. business.
"I was told 'Well, we'll do a wait and see, and see how it goes in Canada,'" said Barrett.
"But General Mills has been amazed by the response to the contest and overwhelmed in fact, and their U.S. counterparts have been watching this closely."
Barrett is hopeful the companies will be able to team up for a similar contest to launch in spring 2017.
