With the popularity of houseplants exploding in recent years, the plant retail market had become over-saturated. Our client, PLANT DROP, needed an idea that would make them stand out, drive sales, and position themselves as an industry leader. This work is relevant to ‘Brand Experience & Activation’ because it reframed something we all know and love - the humble houseplant – and gave it a deeper purpose and value. The campaign, with a simple repositioning (from plant, to Smart Plant) managed to engage the audience and change their behaviour when it came to purchasing houseplants.

Plants have exploded in popularity in the past years, but this means that the plant market has become saturated. Plant Drop is an online plant retailer, but they face stiff competition. They needed a way to set themselves apart from the competition and steal market share, whilst also encouraging people who have never considered houseplants to see the value they bring.

Plants have air-purifying properties. This was proven way back in the 80s when NASA conducted research to see if plants could help clean the air for astronauts living in the International Space Station. This data was declassified years ago, but nobody has truly done anything with it. Many plant retailers advertise their plants as ‘air-purifying’ - but never go into detail about how specific plants can purify the air in our homes.

The air inside our homes can be up to 5x more polluted than outside, with toxins coming off everyday items like paint, scented candles & cleaning products. The NASA ‘Clean Air Study’ was conducted in 1989 and discovered that some everyday house plants had the ability of removing harmful toxins from the air. The study was declassified data, however, for the average person it was impossible to decipher and understand. Partnering with the lead botanist at Oxford University, Chris Thorogood, we crunched the data, built upon the research, and reimagined it into something entirely new.

Taking inspiration from the ‘Energy Rating System’ for appliances, we created the ‘Pollutant Absorption System’ for plants – a simple design key that categorises house plants based on their ability to scrub the air of harmful toxins.

To bring this new news to the world we ‘relaunched’ house plants as a new range: ‘SMART PLANTS’.

We wanted to engage a wide audience and make them aware that there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to buying house plants. We broke down complex science into something everyone could understand – pulling out the 5 main toxins found in homes and making people aware of where they come from. For instance, the harmful chemical benzene is often found in paint/cigarette smoke, whilst ammonia is given off by cleaning products. This hyper-targeted approach changed the way consumers shopped for plants. Instead of buying plants based on appearance, they now bought plants based on their lifestyle. If they had recently painted or smoked, they could opt for the Red-edged Dracaena, as it has the power to remove benzene from the air. Alternatively, if they had pets, they could buy the Weeping Fig as it has the power to remove xylene, a toxin given off by flea treatments.

Inspired by the ‘Energy Rating System’ for household appliance, we created the ‘Pollutant Absorption System’ for houseplants. Complex NASA data detailing plant variants and the toxins they can help remove was distilled down into a simple key that anyone could understand. The design system fused together the design language of molecule structures with the visual aesthetic of plants and educated people about the 5 main toxins found in the home, and from what items give them off. The design system took the form of stickers and plant tags that were affixed to plant pots, as well as living online within the e-commerce buying experience. A simple e-commerce tool reinvented the plant buying process. Customers were invited to answer a few simple questions about their lifestyle, and were served the plants that would help create a healthy, pollutant free home.

The Pollutant Absorption System democratised clean air data for the masses – breaking down thousands of data points into an easy-to-understand system. Consumers now had a better understanding about the toxins inside their homes and could now buy plants based on their lifestyle and living arrangements instead of just looks.

- 64% increase in web traffic since launch.

- 45% increase in sales.

- 50% of customers buying more than one plant

Plant Drop believe that everyone should have the right to breathe clean air. So the Pollutant Absorption System was made open-source and free to download online for other plant retailers to adopt and integrate into their own e-commerce sites.

Indoor air pollution is much lesser known, but equally damaging as outdoor air pollution as the toxins given off by common household products find it hard to escape our homes. In the past few weeks, it has become a hot topic, being covered by CNN, The New Scientist and the BBC.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/02/health/voc-levels-consumer-products-wellness/index.html

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25834350-100-how-indoor-air-pollution-affects-your-health-and-what-to-do-about-it/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1681913064-1

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200909-why-indoor-air-pollution-is-an-overlooked-problem