Petal It Forward 2016
Last week, florists across the country took place in the annual craze that’s sweeping the floral industry: Petal It Forward. For one day in October, The Society of American Florist and florists nationwide take to the streets to hand out two bouquets to as many people as possible: one to be kept, one to be passed along. The purpose? To spread cheer and make people excited about flowers!
This year’s Petal It Forward took place on Wednesday, October 19th, and we’re happy to report several of DVFlora’s customers took part in their communities and documented their success via live Facebook videos and tagging #petalitforward on Instagram and Twitter. A big round of applause goes to longtime DVFlora customer, Richardson’s Flowers Inc., who passed out an amazing 500 bouquets at 2 locations in Medford, NJ! Their team created beautiful t-shirts, and thoughtfully attached $10 coupons for future in-store purchases to entice recipients to come back for more flowers!
SAF’s Petal It Forward Event (NYC)
On Wednesday, October 19, 2016, SAF’s marketing team, along with several employees from both the Delaware Valley Floral Group and Starbright Florals (NYC), hit the streets of New York and randomly presented two flower bouquets each to people throughout the city blocks near Radio City Music Hall.
Longtime PR Fund supporter, Delaware Valley Floral Group provided transportation of the flowers from Holland America Flowers’ bouquet assembly facility and coordinated delivery of the flowers on site at the New York City event. An astounding 4,400 bouquets were transported by two 16ft DVFlora trucks, then handed out in New York City by SAF volunteers!
“Only by leveraging many companies throughout the entire industry supply chain could an event the size and scope of Petal It Forward be pulled off,” said Ken Wilkins, DVFG’s VP of Business Development. “We are delighted and honored to participate with the hundreds of other flower companies.”
Recipients were asked to “Petal It Forward” by giving one of their bouquets to someone special in their life, or even a stranger who could use a smile. They were encouraged to share how they Petaled It Forward by posting a picture using the hashtag #PetalItForward across their favorite social media channels. And they were reminded that they can continue to spread the happiness throughout the year by visiting their local florist.
To learn more about SAF’s Petal It Forward event in New York City, click here. Check out some great photos from this year’s event, followed by a video highlighting Petal It Forward 2015!
Studies Show: Flowers Make You 🙂
According to studies performed by researchers from Rutgers University and La Salle University: flowers have a positive effect on emotions.
For more than 5000 years, people have cultivated flowers although there is no known reward for this costly behavior. In three different studies we show that flowers are a powerful positive emotion “inducer”.
In Study 1, flowers, upon presentation to women, always elicited the Duchenne or true smile. Women who received flowers reported more positive moods 3 days later.
In Study 2, a flower given to men or women in an elevator elicited more positive social behavior than other stimuli.
In Study 3, flowers presented to elderly participants (55+ age) elicited positive mood reports and improved episodic memory.
Flowers have immediate and long-term effects on emotional reactions, mood, social behaviors and even memory for both males and females. There is little existing theory in any discipline that explains these findings. We suggest that cultivated flowers are rewarding because they have evolved to rapidly induce positive emotion in humans, just as other plants have evolved to induce varying behavioral responses in a wide variety of species leading to the dispersal or propagation of the plants.
Basically what they’re trying to say is: flowers = 🙂 Check out the entire study here, and be sure to keep an eye out for next year’s Petal It Forward event in your community!
