FLWR: deliver in 20 seconds, but take the time to build a brand

Automatic but beautiful: that is Franck Mallez’s promise with his instant bouquet vending machines. On the Entertainment Lab podcast, this serial entrepreneur looks back on an unusual path, from insurance to brand content, from design to flowers. And on his new venture, FLWR, which sets out to refresh a traditional market without sacrificing emotion or craftsmanship.

Behind this story of bouquets, there are a few lessons worth picking for brands, media and content creators.

A good idea can bloom in any season

One Sunday, Franck visits his father in a care home. He wants to bring him flowers. Problem: the florists are closed and the only roses available, wrapped in cellophane in a supermarket, look rather sorry for themselves.

On the train home, he wonders: how can you get a sofa delivered within a few hours, yet not find a nice bouquet when you need one?

FLWR was born from that frustration: offering contemporary bouquets, available at any hour, in about twenty seconds, through vending machines.

Franck is not trying to revolutionise a market, nor to compete with florists. He simply applies his credo as an entrepreneur: innovation does not always need to be spectacular. First of all, it has to be useful.

Technology to make it easy. Branding to create preference

Franck insists on one essential distinction: “We are not a network of vending machines. We are a bouquet brand.”

FLWR’s value is built in the choice of flowers, the art direction, the contemporary arrangements, the packaging and the buying experience. Right down to the cardboard vase, specially designed to go with bouquets sold at 19 or 29 euros.

An app, a platform or a machine does not make a brand. What matters is the world you build around it, the promise you keep and the emotion you create.

In other words, customers should not only remember how they bought their bouquet. They should want to come back for the next one.

More machines, no less human

FLWR automates distribution, but lays claim to genuine artisan know-how.

Behind the machines there are florists, arrangements designed through an art direction and mostly French flowers. To grow in the regions, FLWR also wants to work with local craftspeople.

The goal is not to make the neighbourhood florist disappear, but to meet another need: the spur of the moment bouquet, bought in a few seconds after a day at work.

And Franck adds a conviction that reaches beyond his own sector: the more brands automate their services, the more they have to gain by telling the stories of the people and the skills behind them. In the age of AI and dematerialised experiences, the human touch may well become the most precious differentiator of all.

Content, a real challenge for brands as media

Before going into flowers, Franck Mallez founded Peter Franklin, a production company that became a content agency for brands. As early as 2008, he championed an intuition that was less common than it is today: companies can become media, as long as they take a genuinely editorial approach.

Today, Franck applies that thinking to his own brand.

He believes in podcasts, when they bring something to the listener. In premium video, which takes the time to tell a story rather than simply feeding channel hopping. And in editorial, especially on LinkedIn, to convince those who might want to host the FLWR brand, “if I talk to them about it the right way”. So the real challenge is not to produce ever more, but to have something interesting to say. A flower brand can talk about design, retail, craftsmanship, new uses or innovation. It can become interesting well beyond its products.

A good story also has to find its audience

FLWR has an ambition: to go from 11 to 1,000 machines in France within five to six years.

Convinced that an excellent concept is not enough, Franck intends to rely on storytelling and entertainment, so that creativity grabs attention while distribution and execution seal the deal.

Chasing your dreams, not necessarily unicorns

Vietnam, insurance, audiovisual production, design, flowers… Franck Mallez’s career looks more like a series full of twists than a perfectly linear business plan.

With successes, failures and one constant: the urge to build companies.

His advice to young entrepreneurs? Chase your dreams and really make them happen, without trying at all costs to build a unicorn.

A refreshing philosophy in a world where success is sometimes measured more by a company’s valuation than by what it actually brings.

After all, you can want to change the world. Or simply give it flowers.

In short

With FLWR, Franck Mallez is a reminder that an innovation does not make a brand. The machine brings convenience, but design, emotion and craftsmanship are what create desire. And brand content follows the same logic: better to have something to say than to multiply formats just to exist. Podcast, premium video or LinkedIn, substance must always come before form. In the end, whether you sell flowers or produce content, the goal remains the same: turning an idea into an experience that leaves a mark.

The moral of the story? A brand can sell flowers in 20 seconds and build a relationship that lasts much longer.

Does your brand have more to say than its products? MyJiminy brings together creative talents to go from the idea to the content that counts. Let’s talk.

*Listen to Franck Mallez on the Entertainment Lab, the New Tone Studio podcast hosted by Alexis Ferrebeuf, here (in French).