January 18. 1919 



II R T ICULTURE 



57 



SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FLORISTS 



AND 



ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURISTS 



NATIONAL PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN. 



Our Promotion Bureau is daily in 

 receipt of letters from subscribers to 

 the Campaign Fund highly commend- 

 ing the work of the committees. 



Wm. L. Rock, of the. William L. 

 Rock Flower Co.. Kansas City, Mo.. 

 B letter from whom was recently pub- 

 lished in these notes, writes, with a 

 cheque for $200 as his subscription for 

 1919: "I wish to state no bill or obli- 

 gation has come in to our establish- 

 ment that has given me more pleas- 

 ure to meet than this one. I sincerely 

 hope the florists throughout the land 

 will be able to see the benefits that 

 they will derive from this campaign. 

 The awakening will perhaps be some- 

 what slow ; the realization will be sure 

 to follow. Your committees are per- 

 fectly right in requesting that remit- 

 tance of subscriptions be made 

 promptly, so that they themselves can 

 see just exactly where they stand." 



A Washburn & Sons, Bloomington, 

 111., writes: "We enclose cheque for 

 $25 to cover our pledge for 1919. We 

 are pleased with the way the work 

 is carried on, and wish to express 

 our appreciation to the men looking 

 after it. Our sales the past year 

 showed an increase of 10y 2 per cent, 

 over those of 1917. Possibly some of it 

 is due to the national campaign." 



Contributors to the fund for 1919 

 should clearly understand that their 

 contributions are to be used toward 

 the publicity planned for this year. 

 The 1918 campaign was conducted and 

 financed wholly through the fund pro- 

 vided last year, consequently there is 

 no deficit to be made up from this 

 year's fund. 



Campaign Rally in Philadelphia. 



There was an enthusiastic rally of 

 the florists of Philadelphia and neigh- 

 boring cities as part of the program 

 of the. Florists' Club of Philadelphia 

 for its meeting on January 7th. Over 

 250 members of the trade were in at- 

 tendance, and interest ran high. 

 Among the speakers on "Publicity for 

 Flowers" were Henry Penn, Boston, 

 chairman of the Publicity Committee: 

 Major P. F. O'Keefe. Boston: Wallace 

 R. Pierson, Cromwell, Conn.: Wm. F. 

 ■Glide. Washington. D. C; Secretary 



John Young, New York; Robert Craig, 

 Philadelphia; and W. F. Therkildson. 

 Philadelphia. Charles Grakelow pre- 

 sided at the request of the club's pres- 

 ident, Alban A. Harvey, and in a most 

 able manner introduced the speakers. 

 Henry Penn told of the wonderful 

 results obtained from the 1918 cam- 

 paign. Particularly surprising were 

 they under the distressing business 

 conditions experienced by all trades. 

 With the work kept going, much 

 greater returns now were to be ex- 

 pected. He emphasized the impor- 

 tance of an extended use of the slo- 

 gan, "Say it with Flowers," and a 

 general linking up with the campaign 

 publicity through the use of the serv- 

 ice offered by the Promotion Bureau. 

 He advocated an extension of interest 

 in the campaign so that instead of 

 $50,000, the fund annually should 

 reach $150,000, and bring a corres- 

 ponding increase in benefit. Evidence 

 of wide benefit from the campaign 

 Mr. Penn fully demonstrated. 



Maj6r O'Keefe outlined the cam- 

 paign at considerable length. Some of 

 the points he made were as follows: 

 Advertising interests, and brings nec- 

 essary additional business. The cost 

 of a single page in the Saturday 

 Evening Post, $5,000 looked like a lot 

 of money, but people who were any- 

 thing but crazy were keeping on using 

 such space year in and year out. To 

 send a postcard to each person 

 reached by a page in that publication 

 would cost $23,000, and then not tell a 

 story so well. ■ There' was spent last 

 year on magazines of nation-wide cir- 

 culation, about $35,000 of the Florists' 

 Publicity Fund. It was necessary to 

 interest people in flowers, and make 

 them like them. Advertising in the 

 face of the unfavorable conditions of 

 last year was bold, but turned out to 

 be wonderfully successful; even had 

 it kept business only up to normal, it 

 would have been a great achievement. 

 It was advisable each year to keep on 

 building prestige -and adding to what 

 had gone before. One cannot force, 

 but may advise a customer. The Jan- 

 uary and February features of the 

 campaign would be carried in 33 mag- 

 azines, at a cost of about one- 

 twentieth of a cent per number of 



each, the slogan "Say it with Flow- 

 ers," predominating in all matter. 

 Philadelphia's share alone of the cir- 

 culation was estimated to be 350,000, 

 and retailers should make the most 

 of it. There were 3000 birthdays 

 every week In the population of that 

 city, a florists' opportunity in every 

 one of them. 



Wallace R. Pierson's remarks were 

 chiefly directed to growers, whose in- 

 terest in the campaign should be para- 

 mount, as they were the producers of 

 the flowers to be exploited. 



Wm. F. Gude declared that the pub- 

 licity campaign was a great factor in 

 stimulating the florist business. Every- 

 one was benefited so everyone should 

 contribute, and not stand aside and 

 "let George do it." All should tie up 

 at once to the campaign, and make 

 personal endeavor as well. 



Secretary Young spoke at consider- 

 able length, dwelling chiefly upon 

 the advantages to be derived from a 

 liberal use made of the various aids 

 provided by the Promotion Bureau 

 signs, electrotypes featuring the 

 magazine advertisements, lantern 

 slides, stickers and so forth, all pro- 

 vided at cost, and found to be great 

 business bringers. The live members 

 of the trade throughout the country 

 were actively interested in the cam- 

 paign, contributing their time and 

 money to make it a success. The re- 

 sults last year were excellent and 

 would be better this year, as the 

 movement was growing rapidly. As 

 showing the interest already in evi- 

 dence, he mentioned that the first two 

 days' mail after the bills to subscrib- 

 ers had gone out contained $3,000 and 

 there was a pledged fund of $27,000 to 

 start with. Those who contributed 

 and tied up with the work of the cam- 

 paign received most benefit. 



Robert Craig, who was given an 

 ovation, made one of his characteris- 

 tic addresses. Speaking of flowers, 

 he said that love of beauty existed in 

 every mind; some admired pictures, or 

 jewels, others horses or dogs, but 

 everybody loved flowers, therefore, 

 the thought of flowers should be con- 

 stantly before the public. 



W. F. Therkildson, to whom credit 

 was given as the real originator of 



