The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2024
Floward parodied gangster films to relaunch gifting; sales orders rose 54%
Instead of licensing movie scenes, the MENA gifting platform recreated genre tropes with a villain softened by a gift — 390 million views and 54% more orders.
Floward
the move
Floward, a Middle Eastern online flowers-and-gifts platform operating in 40 cities across nine countries, launched its first global brand campaign in early 2024 after a major rebrand.
The insight was that a thoughtful gift can bridge any gap — even a mafia boss about to whack a man spares him when a Floward delivery arrives. 'The Mobster' recreated the mood of films like Goodfellas without copying a specific scene, because licensing famous footage would have quadrupled the budget.
The campaign drew 390 million video views — 80% on TikTok — with 50% better viewer retention than the previous campaign, 580% more complete TikTok views per 1,000 impressions and 54% more sales orders.
It also earned 350-plus social mentions, 79% positive, the first time the brand saw that scale of word of mouth, and a Silver Lion at Cannes 2024.
why it works
- Genre homage gives the recognition of famous films at a fraction of the licence cost.
- A universally readable 'villain softened by a gift' story works across cultures.
- Playfulness around a violent trope makes the delivery promise feel powerful, not sentimental.
what transfers
When iconic references cost too much, borrow the genre's grammar instead of the scene: audiences feel the recognition either way, and the budget goes into craft that travels across markets.
what came after
'Works Like Magic' became Floward's reference campaign as it expanded across MENA and Europe, and the mobster idea carried into later seasonal executions.
references
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