NPWW 2023 – Measuring the Success Part 1

Following years of COVID lockdowns and health concerns being more and more in focus, our Ambassador Ian Drummond of Ian Drummond Botanical Designs came up with the idea of using an ambulance filled with plants as the statement vehicle for this year’s #plantsatworkweek.

#plantsatworkweek #plantstotherescue

Whilst Joanna tracked down a vehicle to hire, Shirley and James Smith of Botanica Nurseries secured space at the Oxford Business Park to house the ambulance for the day in the week before NPWW week. They also ordered the plants and brought containers.

On the day, Ian built the ambulance installation with the help of Shirley and James and they were all on hand to answer any queries from those who work at the business park.

Ian (left) and Shirley and James (right) fine-tuning the installation

Whilst Joanna took photos to use during the week (see below), our professional photographer took photos to use for external publicity purposes (images above).

Once again our thanks go to this team for preparing this year’s #plantstotherescue installation for #plantsatworkweek

Podcast
Vanessa Champion of the Journal of Biophilic Design and Podcast visited to interview Ian about this year’s theme. You can listen to the podcast at the link below.

Link to Vanessa Champion’s podcast with Ian Drummond:

The release
Once again, the release was distributed via CISION/PR Newswire on Monday 10 July, Day One of NPWW. We also sent it to the Horticulture press, the FM and HR press. You can read the release here:

Here are some of the statistics from the release despatch:

Picked up by Pro Landscaper, Hort Week and the Oxford Business Park newsletter.

Total pick-up of 53 via CISON/PR Newswire reaching a potential audience of 55 million including:

Yahoo Finance; Finanzen.net; Finanznachrichten.de; Sambad; CEO.CA; One News Page; Sustainability Magazine; Exeter Daily; European Business Magazine; Devon Daily; Picante Today; UK Times; Agrigate Global; Cyprus Times; Industrial Guide Asia; Mudwen.net /Norway; Bulgarian Times; Medicin Man; Mahalsa UK
Statistics from Cision/PR Newswire

Favourite Office Plant 2023
The winning plants for the Favourite Office Plant over the last 10 years were offered to the judges as contestants in the Best of the Best Office plants this year.

The winner - the Favourite Office Plant of the Decade - the Monstera

The choice was between:

• Saintpaulia aka African Violet
• Howea forsteriana aka the Kentia
• Sansevieria
• Philodendron
• Monstera deliciosa
• Aspidistra
• Rhipsalis
• Medinilla magnifica
• Echeveria
• Spathiphyllum aka Peace Lily

The plants were considered by a panel of judges via email: Matthew Appleby, Editor of Horticulture Week, Lisa Wilkinson of Pro Landscaper, Claudia de Yong, Award-winning garden designer, Michael Perry aka Mr PlantGeek, Jo Perrone, Journalist & Podcaster, Rona Wheeldon of Flowerona and new to the team this year, Vanessa Champion of the Journal of Biophilic Design.

The overall winner was the Monstera, closely followed by the Spathiphyllum and then the Philodendron.

Second place: Spathiphyllum & third place: Philodendron

You can read the release on our website with comments from many of the judges.

Picked up by Pro Landscaper and Horticulture Week

Illustrating NPWW

As well as the many photographs, a number of supporting videos and gifs were created by Joanna for use on social media:

Joanna'a film - click on image to play

Ambulance gif

The prescription

The Banner

NPWW 2023 – Measuring the Success Part 2

The website

Published on the website during National Plants at Work Week 2023
• Main release: Plants to the Rescue
• Announcement of the Favourite Office Plant of the last Decade – Monstera and runners-up
• Ian Drummond plants@work Ambassador and owner of Botanical Designs engaged in podcast broadcast at the end of the week by Vanessa Champion on her Journal of Biophilic Design podcast
• Interviews with Ian Drummond of Ian Drummond Botanical Designs and with Shirley Smith of Botanica Designs

Website visitors
• Like last year, website visitors are down in general and that includes visitors to the site during NPWW
• There have been 16,523 unique visitors to the site during July to date (20/7/23)

Social media
On Monday, we reported the #Plants to the Rescue release about the plant-filled ambulance and the positive effects of plants in the workplace.
On Tuesday we focused on the Favourite Office Plant chosen from all the winners over the last ten years – the winner of the ten-year accolade the Monstera, followed by the Spatiphyllum in second place and the Philodendron in third.

We reported Ian Drummond plants@work Ambassador and owner of Botanical Designs talking to Vanessa Champion on her Journal of Biophilic Design podcast about the reasons for choosing an ambulance this year.

We finished the week posting interviews with Ian Drummond and Shirley Smith of Botanica Nurseries.

Interviews with Ian Drummond and Shirley Smith of Botanica Nurseries 

… as well as these we shared other news including support from members on four social media platforms (Twitter now X, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn) throughout the week.

NPWW 2023 – Measuring the Success Part 3
The things we loved most about this year's National Plants at Work Week:

Green Team Interiors Daily count downs – including

Other members who supported the week include:

Urban Planters' blog which you can read here

Biotecture's blog which you can read here

Fleurtations Plantscapes' entries on their FB

Once again, we’d like to thank our Ambassador Ian Drummond of Ian Drummond Botanical Design for overseeing and leading our design of the ambulance supported by Shirley and James Smith of Botanica Nurseries.

A big thank you to all members who did get involved in any way to help us celebrate another year of NPWW.