Pop-up stores have been a key pillar to engage with consumers, and for a prestige brand like Yves Saint Laurent, delivering an intimate and exclusive experience is a must.

But when consumers have to barrel through a massive crowd and wait in line for an hour, the beauty just fades away – the experience becomes impersonal and exhausting, which equally means losing a long history of valuable brand love built in Hong Kong. Consumers may turn to other luxury brands instead because of this unpleasant experience – the last thing a luxury brand wants to see.

YSL Beauté was determined to turn the current situation around, and drive new brand lovers with the launch of Mon Paris Couture, a customized premium perfume in Hong Kong to meet the expectations of the International young-spirited edgy luxury tribe, with the creation of meaningful, relevant, and relatable experiences.

We collaborated with WeChat and used facial recognition technology to create a bespoke personal ID called the Mon Paris ID. Event registration, product personalization and pick-up were all facilitated by just a picture. This was a market first!

Before they even got to the event, consumers created a facial ID through the YSL Beauté mini-program using facial recognition on the WeChat mobile app.

Consumers then pre-ordered the product and chose to personalize it with a selection of 3 different fragrances, choices of ribbons and an option to engrave their names on the bottle.

And when they entered the pop-up store, just stood in front of an interactive panel for the facial recognition process – triggering the system to create their personalized product order in split seconds.

No more overcrowded queues. Consumers could spend more time enjoying the actual event which included photo sessions under an Eiffel tower replica!