Two executives turned an NYC storefront into an ad agency

Don’t let the name fool you: New York’s newest agency is selling ideas, not roses. Flower Shop’s co-founders Al Merry, who is also the agency’s chief creative officer, and CEO Mary Lou Bunn looked at just one physical location before deciding it was the space they wanted for their agency. It wasn’t a traditional high-rise in midtown Manhattan, it was former a plant shop on the Lower East Side, just blocks away from Supreme’s New York flagship. See our Year in Review stories here Merry most recently was an executive creative director at TBWA\Chiat\Day New York and previously a creative director at Wieden+Kennedy. During his career, he’s worked on brands such as Nike and The Atlantic. Bunn worked at TBWA as executive director of growth for a year until 2020, when she left to work at startup online marketplace Sibs. Prior to her time at TBWA, she worked at Big Spaceship as a senior VP of marketing and she also worked as director of business development at Huge. Merry and Bunn met while at TBWA, where the two worked on multiple pitches together. So when Merry was freelancing and had the opportunity to pitch for work on Almave, the non-alcoholic blue agave spirit brand launched by Formula One star Lewis Hamilton, he knew who he wanted to call. “Mary Lou was my first call and I was lucky that she could make it happen. And ever since then, it has just organically grown,” Merry said. After that, the two decided to launch an agency, and found the former Green Fingers Market plant shop space. It had been owned by a Japanese shopkeeper, Satoshi Kawamoto, who still owns a plant shop in Milan. It was the contrast to their earlier offices that the pair found appealing. “We were both at really big agencies that were really corporate with big conference rooms, and we wanted it to feel like a place where you want to be,” Bunn said. More news: 7 agencies launched in 2023 Located on the ground floor, the first thing you notice while entering the small Flower Shop space are its large storefront windows. Beyond a set of tables where work is being done, the narrow shop then leads to a lounge space with couches and a backyard. “We just tried to take the best versions of the things that we’d had in our previous agency lives and made it a place where there’s no offices, there’s no walls, there’s no desks, there’s no departments,” Merry added. Flower Shop’s website pays homage to the neighborhood with a first-person-style video of a walk through the area until you reach the agency itself. The agency’s logo, which was designed by independent creative Ricard Valero, is a minimalist design. Flower Shop currently has five employees, including former Johannes Leonardo Chief Financial Officer Bill Afonso. Inaugural clients include Almave and Fanatics Collectibles. Its work for Almave launched in October and focused on telling the story behind how the drink is made and what inspired it. Flower Shop’s work for Fanatics launched last week. The campaign explores an alternate universe in which retired NFL star Tom Brady pursues baseball instead of football. This effort is to promote the release of Fanatics’ Bowman Draft baseball card set which includes the first official Tom Brady baseball card. The industry has seen quite a few new agencies pop up this year. Notable ones include Bandits & Friends, Murder Hornet and Nice&Frank. “Our industry, particularly from a creative point of view, is still spilling over with talent,” Merry said. “I see brilliant work every single day. I think there are also clients out there who want that kind of [creative] work … Maybe there’s not as many, or it’s harder to buy great creative work at the moment. It feels riskier [for clients] but I do believe there are clients who want to do that.” Become an All Access subscriber Get access to exclusive resources including Leading National Advertisers, World’s Largest Advertisers, Agency Report, Agency Review Tracker and TV Pricing Report. Click here Ultimately, the agency looks to lean into the idea of being a “shop” with a focus on good creative work. “We make ideas and we sell them and we’re not ashamed about that and not ashamed to be an ad agency,” Merry said. “We’re not trying to dress it up, we’re not creating a Flower Shop brand of merchandise that we’re going to try and make as big as any consumer product. We’re selling work and ideas for brands and that’s pretty much it. I like that about the shop.”

Two executives turned an NYC storefront into an ad agency

Featured Stories