The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2024
Floward's 'The Mobster' turns movie villains into softies — Cannes Silver 2024
IMPACT BBDO sells Floward's flower and gift delivery with a gangster noir in which a hitman calls off the kill when his target hands him a bouquet.
Floward
What it had to solve
Floward, the Middle East's online flowers and gifts delivery app, was expanding across MENA and Europe and needed a first global campaign. The work had to be agnostic to any region or culture, so it could travel across markets without translation.
How it works
Floward, a Middle Eastern online flower and gifts delivery app, was taking its brand beyond its home markets into Europe. The task was to create a campaign that could run anywhere without regional references, while still making the service itself the memorable part of the story.
IMPACT BBDO Cairo's answer was 'Works Like Magic', built around iconic cinema villains revealed as softies. In the flagship spot 'The Mobster', a homicidal gangster is about to settle a score when his victim surprises him with a bouquet and a gift, and the hit is quietly called off. Sister spots replayed the trick with an angry queen and hell-bent cowboys, each spot mimicking a classic genre — gangster noir, medieval drama, western — with production by Good People Films and director Ali Ali.
Published in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UK from March 2024, the campaign became Floward's first global launch platform across the Middle East and Europe. 'The Mobster' went on to win a Silver Lion in the Film category at Cannes Lions 2024, giving a young delivery brand a proof point that its own service could carry a cinematic, exportable idea.
Why it lands
- The campaign solved a real expansion problem: it had to work in every market Floward entered, so the comedy was built from universally known movie tropes rather than local references.
- Putting the gift in the villain's hands made the service the plot device — the delivery literally changes the outcome of each scene.
- Three genres (noir, medieval, western) gave the platform range and repeatability instead of a single one-off film.
- The Cannes Silver Lion showed that a challenger e-commerce brand could compete on craft and humour against far bigger advertisers.
What it did
The campaign launched Floward simultaneously across Middle Eastern and European markets, and 'The Mobster' won a Silver Lion in Film at Cannes 2024 — the campaign's Cannes prize as recorded on The Work archive.
What you can take
When a brand must travel across cultures, build the joke out of cinema itself: movie villains are understood everywhere, so the gag needs no translation and the gift stays the hero.
Since then
'The Mobster' became the flagship film of the 'Works Like Magic' platform, which carried Floward's launch across Middle Eastern and European markets in 2024. The campaign recorded one Cannes Lions award — a Silver Lion in Film — on The Work archive, and the trio of villain films remained the centrepiece of the brand's global launch, demonstrating that a regionally grown delivery app could build an international campaign around a single, translatable idea.
Sources
- Floward deliveries save the day
- Floward: Works Like Magic
- Works Like Magic | Campaign
- Cannes Lions 2024 Film winners
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