Vitacress - watercress bed

The Watercress Alliance, the body that represents UK growers, packers and suppliers of watercress, has announced the launch of a new three-year PR campaign, ‘Good For Every Body’.

Backed with in excess of £150,000 funding, the consumer campaign will communicate that watercress is uniquely healthy, delicious, versatile and easy to prepare.

Run by specialist agency PamLloyd Food Marketing and PR, the campaign will be active across a wide range of media platforms including print, broadcast and digital.

Social activity will engage with existing watercress shoppers as well as younger consumers who are instinctively using a variety of channels to talk about trends, ask questions and post images. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts will work interactively to help users and share news.

Traditional media relations, sampling and new content will target people interested in good food and healthy eating.

Tom Amery, MD of The Watercress Company, one of the founding members of the Watercress Alliance alongside Alresford Salads and Vitacress, said: “We are investing in increased production of watercress to enable us to meet consumer demand. Part of this investment involves us finding new audiences for our crop, including those who might never have tried it, or think it’s there simply as a garnish.

“Given the increasing consumer appetite for products that are naturally healthy, the campaign’s key messages will focus on the incredible natural health properties of watercress. We need to explain that it’s not just for health enthusiasts or hard-core foodies, but in fact is good for everybody, from first-time cooks to families – hence the umbrella theme.”

The campaign will talk to younger people by creating and sharing content that interests them, with an aim of making watercress a staple product on their shopping lists, securing a long and healthy future for the product.

Dieter Lloyd, MD at PamLloyd PR, said: “Working across a broad media base is vital to the success of our campaigns. Of course we take social seriously – it’s not something to be dabbled with, or left on the sidelines; it’s a fundamental part of the marketing programme.

'The watercress campaign will benefit from an entirely new approach to digital communications to deliver a real and measurable impact on its audience. Talking to people in a language they understand in a place where they are already having conversations is what will make this campaign a success – you can’t expect your audience to come and find you, you have to go out and find them and give them a reason to engage.”

The Watercress Alliance is made up of the three largest producers in the UK, Alresford Salads, Vitacress and The Watercress Company, who, together, farm, pack and distribute from 100 acres in Hampshire and Dorset.