Top model Constance Jablonski and foodie entrepreneur Maggie Frerejean-Tattinger founded French Bloom, the luxury alcohol-free drinks brand in 2020. Their experiences of juggling work, family, and social life inspired them to create a drink that could benefit their ‘social wellness’ as well as safeguard their physical and mental health. Made from organic grapes and carefully mixed in Southwest France, French Bloom is a sparkling alcohol-free drink with an elegant flavour profile. It pairs well with food and elevates special occasions without compromising the values embodied by the growing trend of mindful drinking.
First released in France and celebrated in French Vogue, Forbes, Country & Town House and The Drinks Report, French Bloom is among the first products to meet the growing demand for luxury wellness non-alcoholic drinks. Indeed, the IWSR projected that the NoLo market it has entered into will continue with 22% volume growth in the UK from 2019 to 2024.
When this exciting start up luxury brand wanted to launch in the UK, the brand owners selected Selfridges as their exclusive online and in-store retailer. And it’s no wonder, Time Out reported Selfridges as the most visited destination by Uber in all of Europe. Half a million people used the ride-sharing app to get to London’s luxury shopping mecca in 2021.
The French Bloom UK launch would coincide with Dry January and its continued in-store presence would complement Selfridges’ own launch of the Superself chapter of their creative experiential theme for 2022. To make the most of their brand positioning opportunity, French Bloom needed a creative partner they could trust to design and deliver a successful brand activation for their exclusive Selfridges launch.
The French Bloom UK launch team selected LEAP’s design and production services to bring their brand vision to life as a Selfridges wine shop take over and window display. Under the attentive care of our luxury account directors, LEAP supported French Bloom across their UK brand launch from concept development and creative design through to managed production and installation. Throughout the process, LEAP worked closely with the French Bloom marketing team including brand owner Maggie Frerejean-Tattinger.
As a new brand, we take our marketing efforts seriously and have always maintained high standards to connect with our consumers. We are delighted by the results of the Selfridges launch, and it is refreshing to work with a collaborative agency like LEAP that understood very quickly our market area and brand universe. Together, we launched a product that captured all of the UK’s attention and helped position French Bloom as market leader of the premium alcohol-free sparkling category.
Our LEAP Create designers channelled the brand’s ethos of wellness and balance, as well as the earthy, Bohemian style of French Bloom’s product design and existing marketing materials. Creating the effect of layers within the in-store display cases gives the impression of geodes, sliced opened and polished to reveal unexpected beauty. Described as biomes, the rustic yet elegant wooden cases feature dried flowers and uniquely hewn stones placed amongst the products. This speaks of themes of balance and harmony with nature. Printed text on the display case windows reads, “Revel in togetherness. Let’s Bloom.” This echoes the brand’s celebration of a sometimes overlooked yet important element of self-care and wellness.
In the Selfridges window, a bed of dyed flowers set in a contemporary landscape created a surreal but calming world. It takes inspiration from artists who craft imagined architectural spaces which combine the natural and built environments. The French Bloom bottles themselves are presented on specially sourced stones set atop elegant wooden bar stools. The bottles lean towards each other to echo the brand’s ethos of ‘togetherness’.
Within the first week of launching at Selfridges, French Bloom was the best-selling product in the wine shop. The physical brand activations had an extended life online as well. Selfridges’ photograph of the French Bloom window display enticed their social media fans to click and buy through a shoppable Instagram post. Selfridges further showcased the female-led brand as part of their International Women’s Day communications. LEAP was thrilled that our brand activation for French Bloom was a resounding success. (And we know just the thing to raise a toast.)
Since their brand activation launch in the UK, French Bloom has seeded a further €3million investment and continues to grow.
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