Just Add Flowers: Inside That Flower Feeling’s Mission to Make Flowers an Everyday Habit
After three ships passing in the night, Vonda and Lori finally got Vanessa Leite, executive director of That Flower Feeling, on the podcast — and the timing gap in awareness is exactly why the conversation matters. Lori sees the campaign everywhere: all over social media, in use by Flower Clique members, at NextGen and SAF. Vonda hears the opposite; at a recent Illinois State event, plenty of florists were still asking, "What is That Flower Feeling?" Five years into the industry's biggest direct-to-consumer marketing push, both things are true — and Vanessa is on a mission to close that gap.
A career nonprofit builder takes on floral marketing
Vanessa didn't come up through flowers. She's spent her whole career in nonprofit development — from the Irish Cultural Center of New England to a local chamber to Homes for Our Troops, which builds homes for severely injured veterans. Nearly three years ago, Steve Dion brought her on to build community engagement and fundraising infrastructure for That Flower Feeling; nine months later she moved to managing director, and last year she took on the whole organization. What drew her in was the chance to build something from the ground up — and the sheer scale of what the industry had wagered on it.
Filling in the valleys between "marrying and burying"
Five years ago, CalFlowers — the California growers and shippers association — had a war chest and wanted to give back to the industry. They took a moonshot: a $2.5 million upfront investment to create a 501(c)(6) marketing foundation and a consumer-facing campaign that would get Americans to see flowers the way much of Europe does — as part of a daily ritual, not just a holiday obligation. As Vanessa puts it, the industry has pigeonholed itself into "marrying and burying": Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, weddings, and funerals create peaks, with long valleys in between. That Flower Feeling's evergreen, always-on campaign exists to fill those valleys — it doesn't even turn off during the big holidays. Other industries have done this ("the other white meat," the milk campaigns); floral efforts have come and gone. The goal now is for the industry itself to sustain it through voluntary contributions from growers, importers, wholesalers, associations, and retail florists. The org hit its five-year mark in January. Vanessa's goal: make it to ten.
Just Add Flowers — and the numbers behind it
The first campaign, Self-Care Made Easy, landed during COVID when consumers were looking to fill a void. The new one, Just Add Flowers, launched November 17, 2025, and reframes flowers as effortless: add them to gift-giving, home decor, self-care, the just-because moments — every point of life. As of early March it had driven 11.13 million digital impressions across Pinterest, Google, Meta, and TikTok, with 912,000 views and 268,000 total engagements, and influencer marketing is next. Lori's short-form-video brain immediately saw the shop-level play: carry the tagline through your own content all summer — photo of your cooler, your delivery van, your workroom — and caption it "just add flowers."
For the data-driven owners asking whether any of this sells flowers, Vanessa came armed. In the first 24 weeks of 2025, the organization ran a test market in Midland-Odessa, Texas, with six surrounding control cities — billboards, social media, and radio. A third-party data scientist ran the whole thing; That Flower Feeling never touched the data. The result: a 10.59% increase in floral sales across participating florists, wholesalers, and grocery stores. "Digital marketing works," Vanessa says — concentrate on changing how consumers see flowers, and their mindset actually moves.
The free assets almost nobody is using
Here's the part that should make every shop owner sit up: register on the That Flower Feeling website and you get access to digital assets, point-of-sale signage, posters, and pre-made social media content — built precisely because most mom-and-pop shops don't have a marketing director. Contributors also get customizable templates where you can drop in your own logo and copy. Out of roughly 400 contributors, only five have asked for the customizable assets. And while the assets are free, Vanessa makes the case for chipping in: as a 501(c)(6), a contribution can be treated as part of your marketing spend — $500 given to a national campaign putting flowers in front of 25-to-55-year-old consumers (men included; Vanessa wants to change the male "flowers are only for gifting" mindset too) is $500 of advertising working for your own shop.
How else can florists amplify the message? Follow and share the campaign's social posts — they stay deliberately neutral, never favoring one flower, bouquet, or shop — sign up for the newsletter on the website, and look at how shops like Cameron Pappas of Norton's and Jackie Levine of Central Square Florist are already putting the assets to work.
Key takeaways
- That Flower Feeling is the industry's own consumer campaign — built to fill the valleys between the "marrying and burying" peaks, and funded by the industry itself.
- The proof exists: a third-party-run Texas test market showed a 10.59% lift in floral sales across florists, wholesalers, and grocery.
- Register on the website and use the free assets — posters, point-of-sale signs, and pre-made social content are sitting there unused.
- "Just add flowers" is a ready-made content hook for your own shop's social media all year long.
- Contributions are marketing spend, not charity — and they buy a national message no single shop could afford alone.
Mark your calendar: That Flower Feeling hosts a half-year campaign check-in webinar on May 21 at 12:30 p.m. — sign up for the newsletter to get the invitation.