The perfume brands targeting digital natives

By

Sarah Ahssen

Published
Mar 16, 2018

From March 19 to 25, 2018, Chloé is taking over Parisian mall Les 4 Temps to promote its new fragrance, Chloé Nomade, launched on February 26. The brand, whose fragrance licence is held by Coty, is going to offer visitors an immersive experience that plunges them into its publicity campaign. In the Place du Dôme, at the center of the mall, a 120 square-meter space is being transformed into a studio decked out with digital screens which immerse visitors in the Chloé Nomade commercial, shot as a 360-degree video. This visual experience is complemented by an olfactory one which allows participants to discover the fragrance, and – most importantly – visitors are encouraged to share their videos on social media. 

With this hands-on marketing operation, Coty rounds out its classic TV media campaign by directly targeting consumers on the ground. The move aims to attract the attention of one market in particular: millennials, a group specifically targeted by Chloé Nomade with its message of freedom and wanderlust. Indeed, these younger consumers are increasingly turning away from fragrance purchases, more eager to spend money on makeup products. 

This phenomenon has pushed fragrance brands to change tactics and explore inventive new strategies in order to communicate with these digital natives. LVMH-owned Kenzo Parfums, for example, partnered with KR Media and Webedia to promote the latest version of its Kenzo World fragrance, Kenzo World Eau de Toilette, online. The result: Yourkenzoworld.com, a platform available in six languages which allows users to generate and personalize memes based around gifs taken from the Kenzo World commercial, and (once again) share them on social media through a dedicated hashtag. 

Adopting a different approach in the hopes of reaching a slightly more mature audience, Guerlain has recently begun sponsoring podcasts. To promote the launch of Mon Guerlain, a floral fragrance fronted by Angelina Jolie, the brand is sponsoring La Poudre, the French feminist podcast presented by former Elle editor Lauren Bastide, for three months. (For more information on Bastide's podcast activities, check out FashionNetwork.com's "Are podcasts the new blogs?" report.)

Attracting younger consumers is not, however, the only challenge currently facing fragrance brands. According to research from Kantar, selective perfumery has lost two million customers in the last five years, and both fragrance and cosmetics labels are having to redouble their retail initiatives, leading to events such as L'Oréal's pop-up dedicated to Lancôme's La Vie est Belle which opened in Paris last January.