When the much-loved British plant fertiliser brand, Phostrogen®, introduced a new range of organic fertilisers in Spring 2022, we were tasked with establishing and growing the brand’s presence to target a new wave of “post lockdown” gardeners with a particular interest in organic gardening.

One element of our strategy was influencer marketing. As the activity marked Phostrogen’s first dalliance into the world of social media, our challenge was to start from scratch, utilising every tool in the shed to ensure profiles flourished through the season – and collaborating with influencers was the first.

• Reach a new audience of “post lockdown” gardeners
• Highlight the benefits of organic gardening
• Raise brand awareness amongst a younger demographic
• Increase digital presence, engagement and followers on social media

To ensure our budget worked as hard for the campaign as possible, we devised a dual influencer marketing approach to partner with a variety of paid and gifted influencers.

Firstly, we researched and identified three hero influencers to lead the campaign, approaching Dahlia Beach, The Hairy Horticulturist and Wellies and Waffles to become Phostrogen’s brand ambassadors. With a combined following of over almost a quarter of a million, each influencer created and published three pieces of content featuring Phostrogen during the key growing season.

To complement the paid activity and create multiple touchpoints for customers across social media, we gifted bundles of product to over 30 micro-influencers, in turn building a bank of trusted reviews and influencer content to increase the brand’s awareness and social proof, as well as creating collateral to be used on Phostrogen®’s social media.

As a result of our campaign, Phostrogen®’s Instagram followers increased by 302%, growing the profile from a brand-new account at the start of the season.

Through the paid activity with our three brand ambassadors alone, we reached 48,644 accounts, made 58,358 impressions, and achieved 3,230 engagements.

One Instagram user even described the advert as “the best paid post I’ve ever seen,” while many comments on posts described how they would be purchasing Phostrogen® for their garden!