Smart Scaling in the Wild: How Bloom & Wild Used TV to Break Through the Scaleup Growth Plateau
- Laura Derbyshire
- 7 hours ago
- 5 min read
What happens when a digital-native scaleup realises performance alone won’t get them any further as they've reached a 'growth plateau'?
For years, Bloom & Wild did what great digital-native brands do best; they built a smart product, they nailed paid social and CRM and they grew fast through moments that mattered - birthdays, apologies, “thinking of you”.
Then something familiar to many UK scaleups happened: their growth started to slow. Not because people didn't want their flowers anymore, or because their customers disappeared, but because they’d reached the natural ceiling of performance-led demand in the UK.
This is the moment many scaleups misdiagnose as a channel problem, but smart scaling Bloom & Wild recognised it as something else entirely.
The Plateau Problem
By the time Bloom & Wild seriously invested in TV, they already had:
Strong brand recognition within digitally active audiences
High repeat purchase and retention
Efficient performance marketing (up to a point)
What they lacked was the scale of potential buyers and the mental availability to serve them.
Flowers are an emotional category, but digital channels had trained the brand into functional, occasion-based buying customer behaviour. This was useful for sparking initial growth, but it was limiting their future ambitions.
TV wasn’t about “trying a new channel”.It was about increasing reach and re-anchoring the brand in people’s heads.
The TV Move (and Why It Worked)
Bloom & Wild’s TV campaigns leaned into the emotional truth that flowers make people feel.
The ads focused on:
Real heartfelt moments that people could connect with
Warmth, humour and relatability
Emotional storytelling that felt culturally British
Crucially, Bloom & Wild's first TV ad gave them something digital couldn’t: Shared cultural presence.
People didn’t just see Bloom & Wild, they talked about it and they remembered the brand when the moment arose. And this is what breaks a scaleup growth plateau: it is no longer just about more clicks; it's about more meaning.
What Changed After TV
Post-TV, Bloom & Wild saw:
Increased brand search and direct traffic
Improved efficiency across paid digital channels
Stronger emotional association with the brand
Expansion from “useful flower service” to a default and preferred flower brand
The crucial distinction here is that TV didn’t replace performance marketing; it just made it work harder, and, in talking to many founders and CEOs, this is the point that many scaleup leaders miss.
The Strategic Lesson for Scaleups
Bloom & Wild’s growth story is about recognising when your operating model needs to evolve and not seeing TV as a tactic, but rather bringing it into the overall channel mix aligned with one clear overarching strategy.
Performance marketing captures demand, but brand marketing creates demand, and this is crucial for scaling and growing a sustainable business. TV accelerates memory, trust and emotional recall. When growth slows, the answer isn’t always about optimisation; sometimes it is the inflection point to shift gears and create a wider net for your performance 'in market' audience to work more effectively.
Why This Matters Now: beware the 'Dashboard Daze'
In today’s market, digital channels are noisier, more expensive and less forgiving than ever. Scaleups that rely solely on performance eventually find themselves competing on frequency, discounts and short-term returns.
Brands that invest in broad-reach, emotionally resonant brand building create headroom again.
Bloom & Wild didn’t just “go on TV”, they graduated into the next phase of growth.
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FAQs: Founders and CEOs often ask us the following when growth starts to plateau:
What is a growth plateau in a scale-up?
A growth plateau occurs when a business continues to perform well - product, team, and channels - but revenue momentum slows or flattens. It’s common for revenue to be between £5m–£30m, particularly for digital-first brands. Crucially, a plateau doesn’t usually mean something is broken. It often means the current growth model has reached its natural limit and needs to evolve.
Why do performance-led scaleups often hit a growth ceiling?
Performance marketing is excellent at capturing existing demand, but weak at creating new demand. Over time, channels saturate, costs rise, and incremental gains shrink. Without broader brand-building activity, scaleups struggle to reach new audiences or increase mental availability - which is where sustained growth comes from.
Is TV still relevant for UK scaleups?
Yes, but not in the way it used to be. TV is no longer just a mass, all-or-nothing channel. For scaleups, it’s increasingly used as a strategic brand accelerator to build trust, recognition, and emotional salience, thereby improving performance across digital channels.
Can scaleups test TV advertising regionally in the UK?
Yes. Many scaleups now run regional TV tests to understand impact before committing to national spend. Regional testing allows brands to measure uplift in brand search, direct traffic and conversions in exposed regions versus control regions. This approach reduces risk and makes TV a strategic experiment rather than a blind leap.
Do Sky offer regional TV solutions for scaleups?
Yes. Sky Business (including Sky AdSmart for scaleups) offers targeted, regional TV advertising that enables brands to reach specific geographies, audience segments, and households. This has made TV far more accessible and measurable for growth-stage businesses.
Should every scaleup invest in TV?
No. TV is not a default answer; it’s a strategic choice. It tends to work best when:
Product-market fit is strong
Performance channels are plateauing
The brand story is emotionally resonant
Leadership is ready to think beyond short-term optimisation
The decision should be driven by growth stage, category dynamics and long-term ambition, not channel trends.
What role does OSER play in decisions like this?
OSER works with founders and leadership teams to diagnose why growth has slowed and what needs to change next. That includes evaluating whether brand investment, channel expansion or operating model shifts are required and then helping teams engage the right specialist partners, from broadcasters to outdoor and digital experts, to execute effectively. OSER remains strategy-first, not execution-led.
Has OSER supported a scaleup through their first TV campaign?
Yes. OSER worked with IRIS Audio, a Series A audio-technology scaleup, to define its brand positioning and creative strategy ahead of its first TV campaign.
OSER led the strategic work, clarifying the brand’s role in the market, shaping the creative idea, and determining how TV should support long-term growth rather than short-term awareness.
The IRIS Audio "Find Your Flow" campaign was executed in collaboration with creative house Hot Icarus and production company 23rd C, and delivered via Sky AdSmart, enabling IRIS to test TV regionally without committing to national spend.
Read the full case study → IRIS Audio brand & TV strategy
Does OSER work with media owners or agencies?
OSER is independent. We don’t sell media or take commission. We help leadership teams make confident, commercially sound growth decisions and then connect them with trusted partners where appropriate, such as TV, outdoor or digital specialists like Sky AdSmart and Cassie Outdoor, based on what will actually move the business forward.
