Research demonstrated that Morrisons ‘fresh’ programme should engage families and local communities by supporting primary schools. After thorough analysis of competitor activity in and out of store, we found open territory in an idea rooted in food and the environment. We conceived Let’s Grow – a ground-breaking programme to help children grow fresh fruit and vegetables via an instore voucher scheme. Let’s Grow enabled children to redeem vouchers for ‘growing kits’ to experience the journey ‘from seed to plate’ in their own classrooms. Families collected vouchers for their local school with every £10 purchase at Morrisons. Central to Let’s Grow was an online interactive hub, which became the main interface between Morrisons and the participating schools. To promote Let’s Grow, a two-tier marketing campaign was launched targeting teachers (below-the-line) and consumers (above-the-line, fronted by celebrity gardener Diarmuid Gavin and supported by key government bodies) to encourage online programme registration.

Let’s Grow has involved more schools, more seeds and more sales than could ever have been anticipated. Within three months, 18,000 primary schools had signed up (over 85% of primary schools across the country), shattering the initial target of 6,000 schools. So far, there have been over 40m vouchers redeemed (with some even traded on eBay), 15,115 equipment orders and 166 press articles with 150 MPs applying to visit participating schools. The success has equated to £1.1m additional weekly sales during the voucher redemption period, driving 2 million extra visitors in-store and creating significant ROI (6:1) compared to marketing investment.