The Flowers Chain

How to Promote Our Floral Businesses to the End-consumers?

The health crisis has revived this question like a ping-pong ball: how to promote our floral businesses to end-consumers? There are quite a few businesses and organizations that communicate using promotional campaigns. But the advertising campaigns that we found weren't satisfactory: who are they talking to? Where is the small business drowned in beautiful images? How did we touch the hearts of the General Public? What was the story being told? And above all what emotion did she give off? None of the videos we watched met our search criteria. This is how this beautiful challenge was born. Accompanied by the dynamism of the students of the SVA (Studio Venu d'Ailleurs, an association of audiovisual and film students) of which my daughter, Mathilde Desmoulin-Forcellini, is a part, we took more than 6 months to create this short film.    

The Idea

The idea for this short film was born between two cups of coffee, one morning when we were talking to my daughter, who is studying film and audiovisual studies. The observation was quite simple: with the health crisis that we are going through on a global scale, and the periods of restriction or confinement, many florists are wondering how to communicate with their customers. And if we had to put it another way, there are many florists, business leaders, and even horticulturalists worried about the survival of their activity and who wish to mobilize customers so that they do not forget them.

There's a First Time for Everything

It was the first time that these students could lead alone, from start to finish, a short film of which they had to invent the story, find the actors, the scenery, plan the slightest image, etc. They led everything from start to finish, with the adventures of horticulturalists who withdrew because they did not want to appear with "so and so" or "such and such another person", with an actor who is no longer free and who 'you have to replace 48 hours before filming...    

Sharing moments of happiness

But what worried us the most was finding a story that speaks to the general public, that touches their hearts. What could be more meaningful than what we experience on a daily basis? Sharing moments of happiness with the family seemed like an obvious scenario for this first short film.    

Communicating All Different Parts in the Flowers Chain

Producing plants and cut flowers, and then distributing them to different markets places, selling them, and then procuring everything that will sublimate the bouquets and arrangements in the shops and in the showrooms. These are all different jobs. Different parts in the flowers-chain. All of this requires a lot of coordination. But more than anything, in my opinion, to add the value it deserves, it requires that all the different chains are being known by consumers. And therefore it is important we communicate all these different parts of the flower chain with the end-consumers.    

Mass Communication

And, then the question arises, how to communicate it on a large scale to this enormous audience? To reach consumers, you need something; a promotional film requires substantial means of production and above all, a lot of exposure. A lot of means of mass-communication.

Mikafolia

At Mikafolia, we are fortunate to have in our young team, an audiovisual and cinema student, Mathilde Desmoulin-Forcellini, who is my daughter, supported by Thomas Walter, Gaelann Gindre, Jules Godignon, and other students united in association (Studio Venu d'Ailleurs), they imagined their first screenplay in total autonomy, and with the advice of a professional screenwriter, Jérôme Grenier. Thanks to my network, I immediately found partners who supported us, either to finance this short film or to help us distribute it: The C2F (French Florist Suppliers Committee), Oasis Smithers, Evoluflor, Polypap, Secondflor, and Fleuristes & Fleurs immediately placed their trust in me after reading the project. I cannot thank them enough.    

A Film Imagined and Produced for Our Customers

The objective of this film is clear: to attract the attention of the general public to the entire value chain that works every day to support them and provide them with moments of happiness. It is, therefore, a film imagined and produced for our consumers.     We made this short film with a bet that floral professionals would use it in their communication with their clients and consumers. So, together, we invite you to share this video on the different social networks, to reach all the actors in the flower industry. So they will share it as well, and we reach as many consumers as possible. Now, the film has already been shared more than 200 times by various networks, and especially by professionals, but we will soon be launching a campaign to communicate directly to the general public. So that all the actors in the flower chain are brought to light and that as many of us as possible survive this unique period. A little light in moments of darkness, that's what we wanted to bring with the short film "The Chain of the Flower". Of course, not all the players are visible. We have made the choice of an effective scenario that immediately touches the hearts of the general public. And given the success of this first project, a second short film is already in the making! Enjoy!