Millennials see sexuality very differently. They don’t conform to gender norms and are not ashamed of their indulgences. They are not guilty.

But this change is not overtly displayed.

The seduction game has moved into dark social, a place they feel free to indulge without feeling guilty.

Dark social is one-to-one or one-to-few conversations that mainly happen on messaging apps such as Whatsapp, Snapchat, and Tinder. 69% of content shared worldwide is now on dark social (Radium One).

To bring our audience back to Gucci, we had to embrace this new playing field and give them a reason to talk about us on both “dark” and “light” channels.

IDEA: “Dark to Light” – We brought the separate worlds of “dark” and “light” social media together for the first time and created two different pieces of content that lived on both sides of the Guilty/Not Guilty spectrum.

We would go DARK first. We premiered our full uncensored advertisement on SnapChat a full hour before the censored version aired on mainstream media with Gucci Guilty ambassador, Jared Leto, directly sending the ad link and exclusive content to his most influential followers.

The “dark” content depicted Jared surrounded by two young models engaging with each other sensually, authentically, unapologetically, and fluidly - not limited to male/female rules. While the “light” content featured the three in a less controversial manner.

Fans then shared this content with their followers, creating a tidal wave of content sharing.

An hour later, we premiered our “light” content across Facebook, Instagram and other mainstream channels with a teaser of the dark advert, leading people to search #GuiltyNotGuilty which directed them to our site.

PR triggered the broader media with news sites picking up the story of Jared releasing the ad on Snapchat.

“Dark to Light” set the benchmark for fragrance advertising, growing Gucci Guilty’s market share by 110%, accumulating over 1 billion impressions across social media. The campaign allowed for outstanding share growth across key markets, both in the male segment (+50% in US, +40% in UK, +30% in Italy) and female (UK +30%, +50% in Italy).

Sales results were undeniable with 60% increase over September to December period versus year ago.

Its impact was demonstrated by phenomenal completion rates of our dark advertisements with 84% completing the video in Australia and even in conservative markets like Malaysia, where 77% watched the whole ad. Compared to Facebook benchmarks at less than 25%, its impact was outstanding.

Engagement with Gucci’s social pages grew by 4000%.

And Gucci went on to win Luxury Marketer of 2016, with the strategy pulled out as one of the key factors for the win.