April Showers bring May... Sales?

Floral delivery companies are counting on promotional discounts and advertising to keep sales up this year for Mother's Day despite the recession, as discussed in this Advertising Age article: http://adage.com/article?article_id=136417
Flowers are certainly considered a seasonal product, with peak sales during the December holidays, Valentine's Day, and 25% of sales occurring in May for Mother's Day. That's why sales this upcoming month are critical to keep the competing brands alive. The big players are Proflowers.com and 1-800-Flowers.com who both have devised advertising strategies to see a smaller hit in sales than one might expect. Luckily, its anticipated that most people who bought flowers last year will also buy this year, but at a lower quantity.
Proflowers.com offers discounts to people who mention the DJ's name that announced the promotion on the radio. This allows marketers to figure out which radio ad placements prove to be the most effective. A clever strategy for the marketers! 1-800-Flowers.com launched the Spot a Mom campaign across multiple media platforms with 50% of spending on the web. They utilized buzz marketing through Facebook, Twitter, and blogging to remind people to buy flowers for all the "moms" in their life. This should prove an effective Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) strategy because it encourages people to place more than one order through their website. It should be interesting to see which strategy works!