When Lucy Hutchings, also known as Instagram star She Grows Veg, contacted us to help her on her way to stardom, we immediately knew that she was our kind of ‘influencer.’ Her mission was to get everybody growing their own fruit and veg, regardless of skill or space available, and her passion was simply infectious! Lucy was already smashing it on socials, so our challenge was to increase her presence in the media, so that even more people would join the GYO movement with Lucy’s help.

• To raise Lucy’s profile across multiple media platforms and position her as an expert in all things GYO
• To reach both passionate gardeners and those getting their fingers green for the first time, communicating that anyone can get growing!
• To support Lucy’s wider career, including a book launch and RHS garden design
• To encourage more people to follow Lucy’s journey and have a go at growing their own produce too!

We devised a holistic media relations campaign designed to put Lucy in front of as many pairs of eyes as possible – from pitching expert advice and securing interviews to organising collaborations and promoting one-off projects.

Tapping into our extensive network of contacts in the media world, we targeted gardening, home and lifestyle titles, broadcast and radio, and fellow influencers to ensure Lucy had a continuous presence across all channels.

When Lucy launched her first book, “Get Up and Grow,” in January 2021, we worked closely with her publisher, Hardie Grant, to promote it, drawing on our connections to bring it to the attention of the right audience. We created and issued tailored press releases, coordinated book gifting to secure reviews, and organised exclusive previews and interviews with Lucy.

Later that year, Lucy secured the unique opportunity to design an edible allotment garden at the prestigious RHS Hampton Court Festival, and we were on hand to optimise her presence at the event. We set to work promoting Lucy’s plans, collating a press pack, organising on-stand interviews and Instagram lives, and inviting media for tours to ensure the garden had as much exposure as possible.

As well as providing ongoing PR support, we also worked with Lucy as she created her homestead, Cedarwood – a personal project that saw Lucy transform a derelict plot of land into a thriving off-grid home and garden. We researched, contacted and negotiated contracts with the best environmentally-friendly brands to partner with, sourcing everything from beehives and boreholes, to fruit trees and peat-free compost, to outdoor kitchens and irrigation systems.

In the space of just two years, the She Grows Veg brand skyrocketed to new heights. We secured interviews in leading titles such as Grazia, Gardens Illustrated, and Waitrose Weekend, radio interviews on the BBC, and expert advice pieces in Good Housekeeping, Yahoo and Countryside.

We generated best-buy book listings in Modern Gardens, Gardens Illustrated, Your Home, Kitchen Garden, Prima, Homes & Interiors Scotland, The Sun and many more, and secured Hampton Court coverage in House Beautiful, Country Living and Hort Week, to name a few!

In total, we achieved 176 pieces of coverage, with a print reach of over 3.8million and many more millions of views online, securing Lucy and She Grows Veg as the go-to grow your own expert for anyone looking to get their fingers green.