Just Add Flowers: Inside That Flower Feeling’s Mission to Make Flowers an Everyday Habit

Episode 326: In this episode, Vonda and Lori welcome Vanessa Leite, Executive Director of That Flower Feeling, for a timely conversation about the industry-wide marketing movement designed to keep flowers top-of-mind beyond the “marrying and burying” peaks. Vanessa shares her nonprofit leadership journey, how the initiative launched with a bold industry investment, and why the goal is bigger than a single campaign—it’s about building everyday flower-buying into modern life.

You’ll hear what’s behind the new “Just Add Flowers” campaign, what early performance metrics are showing across major social platforms, and why a third-party test market delivered a notable lift in local floral sales. Vanessa also breaks down how florists can use the free (and contributor-level customizable) marketing assets, why participation matters for long-term industry growth, and what’s coming next—including a mid-year campaign check-in webinar.

Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

If you concentrate your efforts on consumers to get them to see flowers differently, we have that ability to change their mindset.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Welcome to the business and pleasure of flowers. We're your hosts, Vonda LaFever.

SPEAKER_03 0:22

And Lori Wilson. And we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda. All right, good morning, Vonda LaFever. We have a special guest with us today. I know. We're so excited. We've been trying to get her on for a while. Oh my gosh. I don't know that we have ever had such a two ships, three ships passing in the night. We have Vanessa Late, executive director of That Flower Feeling. And Vanessa, you have been quite the traveler, and then you got sick.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

I have, yes, yes. Uh six weeks and counting, but I am on the mend. Thank goodness to modern day medicine.

SPEAKER_03 1:07

Um doctors.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

So thankful for them. Lots of travel didn't help it. It actually impeded, you know, the healing process. But I am feeling probably 95% better at this point. And I'm just so excited to be here.

SPEAKER_03 1:23

Yeah, yeah. And the good news is you can do this from your home or your office or wherever. So we didn't make you travel for this.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

No, a nice gray day here in Boston Mass. We're St. Patty's Week coming up. And the parade was yesterday. Did you go? I did not. I I am not doing anything outside of my house until I leave. I don't feel better. Just because it has been going on for so long. But we've got some really impactful rain today, about two to three inches. My dog's not happy. And yes, you can probably see from my background we've got a lot of gray.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

Yeah, I get it. All right. Well, I want to dive in because you know Vonda runs a tight ship around here, keeps me at my 30-minute mark usually. And I got to see you at Glyffey from afar. We again, I knew you were not feeling well, so I got to hear you talk a little bit. But we've talked before, and I know you and Vonda have talked. And we have been wanting you to come on and talk about that flower feeling. We see it all over social media. I know a lot of our flower click members use it every time I go to NextGen or SAF.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

Yeah, no, that's interesting. You're going on and on about who knows it and who uses it. But I'm on the other side because I've had a lot of people say, What is that flower feeling? Right. Well, that's kind of the balance. It's like you're out there. And even this weekend, you know, that flower feeling, I was at Illinois State and people are still not totally familiar with it. And you would think at this point, right, Vanessa, every would be like, oh my gosh, everybody should know about that. But it's about our like our podcast. People don't know about that.

SPEAKER_04 2:56

It's like, yeah, how do you not know?

SPEAKER_02 2:58

What do you mean? You don't know about that flower feeling. Right. Yeah. So that's why we thought it was so important for you to come on because there are still people after you're going to tell us how many years that flower feeling has been out there for people to really take advantage of. So why don't you give us a little bit of your background personally first? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

I have spent my whole career in nonprofit development work running the fundraising department and then becoming executive directors for everything from the Irish Cultural Center of New England, Brockton Day Nursery, a local chamber. And my last position prior to coming on to That Flower Failing was with Homes for Our Troops. It's a nonprofit 501c3 organization that builds homes for severely injured veterans. I did community engagement and fundraising for them. And here I am now at That Flower Failing. I came on two years and 10 months ago. Wow. Wow. Yeah. It doesn't seem like we're hitting the three-year mark. It was an interview process that was very interesting. At the time, Steve Dion, who was the executive director of Cowflowers and of That Flower Feeling, brought me in for an interview. This was a 501c6 nonprofit association that deals with marketing, which is something that I've never done before. I'm always interested in trying something new, hence the different areas in my career. You know, normally when someone gets into nonprofit, they stick with like hospitals or higher education or something around that line. And I've kind of run all over the place because I love new experiences. I love being able to take something that needs to be built and really kind of work on the strategic architecture of infrastructure, of fundraising development, of just kind of making the organization run. And so that's what Steve had said. You know, at first, I'm going to come in and be the community engagement and fundraising manager, which I thought was interesting. They really didn't have that infrastructure in place. So this was an opportunity for me to get to work, kind of designing and thinking out of the box and using my creative spin to really take it to the next level. About nine months later, he asked me if I wanted to move into managing director, as he needed to move a little bit more back into his cowflowers role. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then last year they asked me if I could take on the whole shebang. Sure. I don't have annuals to say, well, I know. Been there, done that. And I love what I'm doing. I do miss that I I really get to put a whole lot more into the fundraising aspect because that's where my passion lies. But there is so much to accomplish within this organization, which just hit the five-year mark in January.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

That I just want to keep driving this ship forward and taking us to the next level.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

So for those that don't know, again, Vonda's Vonda's crowd. Yeah, sorry. That's right. How did the flower feeling initiative begin? We heard how you came on board, but for people that don't know, how did this whole thing start?

SPEAKER_00 6:26

So five years ago, Cal Flowers, which is California Growers and Shippers Associate out of California, they had a war test of funds available, and they wanted to do some sort of give back to the industry. So they decided to take the moonshot and invest into a marketing campaign that would go direct to consumer and try to get consumers to see flowers differently. We know the success of flowers in Europe and other countries that are not the US, where people, it's just part of their daily ritual to pick up flowers. Well, this is what Cowflowers strived for when creating that flower feeling. So they invested upfront two and a half million dollars into creating the brand, the foundation, which is a 501c6 marketing foundation. And then also the campaign at that time, the first campaign was Self-Care Made Easy. Folks involved with this was, as I mentioned, Steve Dion, Frank Biddle, rest in peace to him, such a great man, Jeannie Bose, Jos Bongards, Ben Dobe, and just many, many folks on that Cowflowers board who saw the need for this in this industry. Other organizations have campaigns like this. You know, remember Where's the Beef? You know, pork the other white meat, the gut milk campaign. But there's never been anything that has stayed current, trendy, and relevant in the floral industry. Now, when I came on, I've heard we've had other campaigns. I've heard a buzz, buzz the bee from FTD. Yep. Then there was a couple of other things I can't remember off the top of my head, but the campaigns have kind of come and gone. So upfront, that $2.5 million, once the campaign was established, they had a goal of gifting this to the industry with the thought that it would be ran by folks in the industry and that the industry would sustain it by providing the financial resources to keep this campaign afloat. Now, Calflowers is still very heavily involved, although we did separate as a separate entity last year, in August actually. The goal is to maintain a fundraising level by voluntary contributions that come in from industry businesses. So whether that's an association, a grower, an importer, a retail florist, a wholesaler, we need the whole industry coming together behind this to keep this afloat. We've hit the five-year mark. We need to make it to 10.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

That's incredible. So I I get the goal. Like you had funds and you wanted to create this, but what problem are you trying to solve for our industry? Like why the flower feeling?

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Yeah. So the industry has pigeonholed themselves into what I call the marrying and burying. Whether it's a you know sure on holidays like Valentine's and Mother's Day or weddings and funerals, there's those peaks and then there's long-term valleys. So our direct-to-consumer marketing campaign is there to fill in the valleys, to keep flowers present in the mind of consumers all the time. We have an evergreen direct-to-consumer marketing campaign on social media right now that's always on. We don't turn off even during the big holidays because keeping consumers with flowers in front of them front and center all the time is going to continue to drive into their heads that flowers are there for every day in life. They're not just there for sometimes. So we have our new campaign, which launched November 17th of 2025. Campaign is called Just Add Flowers. And what we're talking about to consumers is just adding flowers to any point of your life, whether it's gift giving, home decor, every day, just because, self-care, mindfulness, flowers are there for every moment in your life. And we don't want you to just think about them for those holidays, although that is good and keep thinking about them for those holidays. Think about them for every single day in your life. The new campaign as of March 5th has drove 11.13 million digital impressions on Pinterest, Google, Meta, and TikTok. We're expanding into influencer marketing this month. We're hoping to get on to some CCTV, depending on the level of money that we bring in from the industry, along with billboards in some major cities. The campaign has had 912,000 views across all of those social media platforms, and then 268,000 total engagements, including link clicks, shares, comments, reactions, and profile visits. So we're continuing to see a big shift in how consumers are interacting with this campaign. And we are hoping that it is driving them to purchase floral.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

That's amazing. That's what we need to do. I think it's that awareness. It's like in your face, right? And that's what we need to do is to have everybody be able to see what flowers do because we know, right? We're in it every day. And we can tell you the experiences, but the everyday person out there thinks sometimes that flowers are not reachable. Yeah. You know, whether it's cost or where they're at, or it's like they don't think of those things. They think of maybe, you know, chocolates. Hey, believe me, I'm not against chocolates, but you know, it's but add flowers to them. Yes. Just add flowers. Just add flowers, just add flowers, add flowers with those chocolates, add flowers with whatever you're dropping off at a friend. So yeah, I like that. I really connected, as you and I talked earlier, with this particular campaign, just add flowers, because it seems like it's so easy for people to understand and to connect with. Because what you're showing is like, oh yeah, no, that makes sense. So yeah, I really love this campaign.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

It's effortless, so to speak. It can just be inserted into any component of life, which is why I think it's resonating so well. Our other campaign did exceptionally well, self-care made easy. It came at a time when COVID was here and people were scrambling, want to fill something and fill a void, and the flowers were that void filler in life during self-care made easy. But as time went on, you know, the landscape has changed on how consumers think. And self-care, yes, is still prevalent, but it isn't as prevalent, which is why we moved into that next period of this campaign, which is just at flowers. I should mention when I first came on, a lot of folks said to me, Well, this is great, the campaign is wonderful, self-care made easy, but I want to know efficacy and is it really turning into sales? Right. So last year, in the first 24 weeks of 2025, we did a test market in the Midland Odessa area of Texas. We had Midland Odessa is the test market, and then we had six control cities that were surrounding there. We drove through billboards, through social media, and then some radio spots, a 10.59% increase in sales across florist wholesalers, and grocery stores in that Midland Odessa, Texas area. Wow. I did not know what to expect with that market. Honestly, I was probably on pins and needles the whole time thinking. What if we come up with nothing? You know, I mean, and this was all done by a third-party data scientist. We did not control the data at all. So everything was done by Omnicron, and they took the lead of creating what the plan was to get out the ads to the consumers, and then they collected the data from the participating florists that we had in the wholesalers, and along with the grocery stores that participated. And to see that double digit increase was remarkable to me. That this campaign over 24 weeks of time, and we actually only ran 20 weeks, the four weeks additional was the over the overlap, the overlap that happens. That's what they call it, the overlap that happens from the ongoing ads that played before, and people are still thinking about that in their mind. So 10.59% beautiful digital marketing works. And if you concentrate your efforts on consumers to get them to see flowers differently, we have that ability to change their mindset. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:21

So when you first talked about just add flowers, and again, when you mentioned it at Glyffy when you were saying that, so my mind, Von Done knows this, works in short spurt visuals. So think TikToks, short Instagram, like that's how my brain works. All I'm thinking of is all of the marketing and how easy that would be for a flower shop to take that tagline through the summer and all of the cool visuals they can take of their store and then put just add flowers, do this and just add flowers, this, just add flowers like so many marketing opportunities with that tagline.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

And also the tagline oh that flower feeling. Yeah. I mean, that would be great too. You know, the delivery person and the face and it's like, oh that flower feeling. Right.

SPEAKER_03 16:22

But but so speaking of marketing, so you guys have marketing for these people, right?

SPEAKER_04 16:28

We do. Your brains don't work like mine.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

We have this full plethora of assets that are available for the industry to use. They're on the back end of our website. You do have to register to be able to get to them, but there are digital assets, there are point of sale signs, there are posters, pre-made social media assets. And if someone is a contributor, we also have customizable assets, meaning that we give you a template and you can add in your own logo, you can add in your own saying. If you want to switch out some of the funny little glyphs that we have in there, you can add that in. So we want to make sure that people are aware that that is available. I go on social media on Florist page every Monday and I post these assets are available for you. We know that you don't have directors of marketing in most of your mom and pop shops. Right. So please feel free to utilize the assets that we have. Does that turn into anything? Once in a while we'll see a couple of people sign up. And we were so fortunate SAF just did a big postcard mailing with us to all of their members to ask them to consider using the free assets. Yeah. And we say free loosely because they are free, but wouldn't it be great if Erie Flores gave $25 to this cause? The one thing that people don't fully understand is that yes, we're not a cause charity. You're not giving to a United Way or the American Red Cost. So it's not all written off, but you can, as a 501c6, write off your donation as part of your marketing spend. So whatever you're spending on marketing and advertising, if you give us $500, that's just like giving yourself $500 to do some marketing and advertising for your company. And you can write your $500 spend off as part of your wow.

SPEAKER_03 18:34

And it's going back into our industry. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

It's buying the national message that all consumers across this nation need to hear. We are focusing right now with this campaign on 25 to 55-year-olds, women and men, because men need their flowers too. We want to change the men mindset for flowers also. Men have always thought of flowers for just buying them for their wife or their mother or their children. Wouldn't it be great if men just started buying them just because, as well? That office space needs to be perked up. Come on, add some flowers in there. Yeah. Went to church yesterday and I was sitting in my music ministry pastor's office during the service. We were having a little conversation, and I noticed he had flowers that had wilted on his desk. That it's kind of like a common area in his office. I said, Oh, I hate to say this, but you know I work in the floral industry, right? And I think it's time to refresh those flowers. And he said, You know, you're absolutely right. And I am trying to get in the habit of having flowers in my office all the time because when people come in, they say it gives them comfort and peace to have the flowers in here. Hello, this is the we're trying to get out to everybody. And he's important and he understands that. So we want to continue to amplify that.

SPEAKER_03 19:58

Yeah. You know, I will say my youngest son, who is 25, so he's that generation buys flowers a lot. Now I'll say he'll buy them like when he's at Trader Joe's, he'll grab a bouquet for himself, but he also sends flowers. He's a big flower sender, but he picks up flowers because he likes them on his island in his apartment. So I think that generation too understands flowers make it feel nicer. But I was also raised in my home.

SPEAKER_02 20:33

And he sends flowers to his mama.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

Yeah, he sends me flowers. He'll sit as a girlfriend. So I think you're on the right track there. I think marketing for that generation, they get it. They get it. And who was it? Who's after? Jeremy White, I think. He's the main actor in that show, The Bear. He's carrying every time he leaves a farmer's market, he's got a big bouquet of flowers. I've seen so many retail florists repost his content. And I'm like, I love it. I love it. And again, that's my son's favorite show. So there you go. Perfect. There you go. Perfect influencer. I just want to ask some more uh questions here. If somebody logged in, would you give them examples of flower shops that are doing a really good job using your content? Or would they have to email you if they wanted to see how it's being used? Because it's one thing to see it. Yeah. But it's quite another, you know, to see a website or social media of somebody that's actually using it.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

That is a good question. And that's not something that we have done. Like we haven't added anything like that to the back end of our website. Did most recently have a webinar. It was late last year, and Cameron Pappas of Norton is one of our one of our clickers. And he was speaking to how he's been utilizing the assets and what a difference it's made and why he supports this campaign because of the difference it's made. So those are definitely things that we can think of adding just so that folks when they are able to sign in and create that username and password have some examples. Yeah. That might even be a great thing to put out in our newsletter, you know, like Jackie Levine at Central Square Floor is another good example of utilization. Our chair Chris Drummond is another good example. So we have come out. They're all sharing. So yeah, I will definitely talk to Madison who's our communications manager and and have her start putting something like that together. That is very, very great idea.

SPEAKER_03 22:43

Well we've learned that from just through our industry because people are like can I see what Flower Click members' websites look like? And you know so we're like sure here's some you can preview. So we've learned that the hard way.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

Yeah it makes a big difference. It really does and that trust because they hear about it but it's like how do I implement that myself? Show me somebody who's using that. So Lori that's a fantastic idea.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Yeah. You never think of those extra steps sometimes when you're behind the scenes like me. It's like oh okay I'm thinking this knows and just use it. But no it is great to show examples.

SPEAKER_03 23:19

Yeah. Yeah. Well especially you think the exciting part is we have a lot of new people coming into this industry that we have new flower clip members that are just like barely a year old and owning a flower shop and they still aren't quite sure how to do social media really well. So they're like what exactly am I to do with this? And so they still need that step by step and what is that Vonda used to get the curse of knowledge. We always talk about we sometimes just assume you know here it is do it.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

And they're like that's kind of what Vanessa was saying right is that curse of knowledge because you're like everybody knows this. This is easy, right? Because it's easy for you it's easy for some people and then are like no I I forget sometimes that not everyone knows this.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

So that is a very very good idea. We do try to have at least one webinar a year to kind of show people how to put stuff into motion and last year also included our director of Creative from Logical Media, which is our outside group that does all of the just marketing and he was talking through how to put this into action but we do need to yes have examples as well and there are so many people that are utilizing this which is great and we want more to get involved.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

So that webinar that you had last year is there a link on your website that people can click and listen to that recording of the webinar? I believe there is but if not I can definitely make sure something gets up there. Because that would be fantastic right now we're telling everyone how much great information you shared if they had access to that that might just spark them to go oh let me hear more and let me learn more. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Great. I agree so speaking of Cameron and other people talking about you guys what can flower shops do and floorists do to help amplify your message of that flower feeling they can follow our social medias they can share the posts coming out of our social media we don't focus on any specific flower any specific type of bouquet any specific flower shop store any of that we try to remain neutral at all times to make sure that we run the gamut for everyone in this floral industry. So sharing signing up using the assets there's a brand guide behind the scenes there as well that kind of show you a little bit about the templates and the fonts this includes some like I said posters pre-made social media assets there is a brand guide that talks about all the different type fonts and all of that that you can use if you are a contributor get the customizable assets. I can't tell you how many people are not taking advantage of that and that's just a whole other encyclopedia of all of this you know assets that are available and they're not being used. I think that one yes sorry would you say oh yeah maybe maybe Ellie or I need to have that log in nothing if you have that idea Lori wrong person on that one right we announced that the customizable assets are available and Madison holds the key to them so you have to email her to get the link. Okay. We've had five out of our 400 contributors ask for them.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

Five really I would imagine Vonda is not one of those that's what I'm saying Lori that's what I'm saying. I didn't even know they had them so funny.

SPEAKER_04 27:01

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

Well and I'm obviously not the only one at only five of you are in good company. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

They are it is going out again in the newsletter and you know all we can do is continue to talk about it which I'm glad I'm here to be able to appreciate yes please do I mean imagine having this resource available in less than oh my gosh I can't even say less than a quarter quarter quarter of a quarter percent is using it.

SPEAKER_03 27:31

So yeah. How would one sign up for your newsletter?

SPEAKER_00 27:35

So you just visit our website and there is a contact us tab on there and then there's also a sign up for the newsletter add in your email and so our newsletter is going out.

SPEAKER_03 27:49

Maybe we can put the link to your newsletter in our newsletter.

SPEAKER_04 27:54

Yeah I would great idea Lori we we've we're just talking about the newsletter to the newsletter. How about we'll try that I love it I love it.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

Yeah it can't hurt right that I've learned since I've been in this industry is it is so much bigger than I ever thought. Every time I think I've yeah familiar with all of the players then I find another company that I'm like oh didn't know about you know about you and to some degree it's a bit fragmented in the fact that like you said Bonda you went to Illinois state and there most of the people didn't know about us because there are so many different fragments and pieces. And even to today our newsletter the amount of subscribers we have only stands at about 11,000. And I know the industry probably has 4000 to 5000 email addresses that could be reading this newsletter and learning about that flower feeling. So in year five now that we're here we've really got to set that as a goal to reach as many people as possible with such a small staff and even going out to these trade shows that I do, we're reaching people but that's just one portion of the industry you know so we really have to figure out what is the mechanism to reaching the entire industry to get them involved. I stated that we had 400 donors that's what not even a quarter of the industry. So much reach that is there to be done but we need folks to listen and want the desire to actually amplify the message and want to get involved and want to be a part of this organization. I have a goal of reaching year 10 and then from there it's endless. If we can reach year 10 with this we will surpass any other campaign that had been out there in this industry. And we need to really make that work as not only an industry but as my board of directors, my committee members making sure that we are saturating not just consumers but the industry themselves with information to get them involved.

SPEAKER_03 30:02

Wow well you just answered my last question. Yep I was going to say that's that was absolutely perfect. It was what do you think in five years because of the campaign and that was the perfect ending. Vanessa thank you so much for finally being able to get us together. Thank you and Vonda and I I don't want to speak for Vonda but I think oh you can Laura you usually do we both feel like this is in a very very worthwhile conversation and we will do anything we can to share the message. Great because we are we are for it looking forward to hearing more and more and more about it.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

And where will you be next physically physically not anywhere until May I'm gonna give my ears some time to heal. Good for you yes but I will plan on going to the floral conference for IFPA along with Flora Expo and then from there the calendar becomes jam-packed and will we see you at AIFD when is that July 4th weekend I have not had any outreach about that yet but I will definitely look into it I was there last year very much myself I believe it's Orlando this year.

SPEAKER_03 31:17

It is we'll be in Orlando hot Orlando in July yeah that's right that's okay they have a great lazy river so we do have a nice lazy river we're inside the whole time so it's not like it matters what it feels like outside.

SPEAKER_00 31:32

We are also having a webinar if we can sneak this in on May 21st we are doing the state of that flower feeling a half year check-in we will be talking about the campaign we will be showing some of the new because this is fluid we're not keeping the same images and reels and videos all the time logical is behind the scenes constantly creating new stuff so we'll have a half year check-in it's May 21st at 1230 p.m and Madison will be sending out some information on that shortly a save the date by the end of the month and we hope that you and your followers and your members will be able to join us as well.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

So be sure and go on your website register for the newsletter specifically and register for account and then you'll be sure to get the information and the invitation for that webinar. So thank you again Vanessa for being here and sharing all this information.

SPEAKER_03 32:27

We appreciate you thank you thank you for having me thank you so much for listening to our podcast we hope you enjoyed spending time with us because we enjoy spending time with you. If you did make sure you hit that subscribe button or add the business and pleasure of flowers to your Google morning routine or your flash briefing on Alexa. We look forward to seeing you next week.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

So please come back and join us and discover how a bit of knowledge and one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life and business