The AHDB Horticulture website needed a major overhaul when we took the site over. We were appointed to the task in 2012 following a competitive pitch against 4 other agencies. We continue to support it post launch, and also establish online communications through email marketing.
Where as the RHS serves the needs and requirements of amateur growers in the UK, AHDB Horticulture promotes the British professional ornamentals, fruit, vegetable and mushroom growing industry. They promote the latest scientific techniques to the Industry and undertake research to develop new ones. Weather is important to every farmer and the division uses professional forecasting to provide the best advice for the most abundant crop. When you appreciate just how changeable the British weather is, you begin to understand how complex this task is.
The AHDB Horticulture Website is vast
All the accumulated knowledge for Professional farmers is assembled into this enormous website. The scale is daunting. There are hundreds of subjects. Each subject contains thousands of documents covering every conceivable area. They are regularly updated in line with scientific breakthroughs and consequently revisions are common.
The major task was how to make the expert knowledge available intuitively.
Scientists and academics told us that we created the best example of its kind for the industry, anywhere in the world. That is quite high praise. It makes all the hard work we put in worthwhile. It also demonstrates just how much work goes into putting food onto the shelves and flowers into garden centres.
The site makes it’s knowledge available as a tiered set of prices. Each price depends on criteria such as whether the user is a Levy paying farmer, a journalist, an academic etc. Members of the public can purchase the information at full price but considerable cost savings are available to key audience groups. The eCommerce engine was so complex that we had to write it bespoke for AHDB.
http://horticulture.ahdb.org.uk
Promoting the AHDB Horticulture Website
The content is constantly updated. It is therefore important to disseminate information to the industry. We developed a full Email management system connected to the user database. It provides highly configurable options that ensure users receive the information they need without unnecessary clutter.
The system and website have been in use now for several years and are making a huge contribution to professional farming in the UK.
If you would like to hear more about the professional horticultural industry, please get in touch. We can help you with online communications and enormous databases.
More Client profiles
