For 15 years, Prada struggled to succeed in the female perfume category led by French houses like Dior and Chanel. When L’Oréal bought its perfume license, it set the objective to enter the TOP 10 with a new launch, Paradoxe.

Today, the leading players of the category use celebrities as pretty faces and turn them into idealized, one-dimensional models of femininity.

But to break through, we needed to win over the new generation of women aged 18-35 y.o., who are driving purchase.

Our global research showed that the new generation of women see femininity as a multi-faceted expression of the self, and their relationship with celebrities has changed.

Today, influencers are it. 87% of young people follow at least one influencer and are almost twice more likely than older generations to base their purchase decisions on influencers’ recommendations (KANTAR). We could not win by simply signing another star. We needed to get an influencer onboard.

We have invited Emma Watson, the icon of the new generation with huge social media power, to both direct and star in the film representing the multi-faceted nature of modern women under “Never the same, always myself” tagline.

As opposed to the idealized vision of women, she created a liberating portrait of femininity: a multi-faceted, authentic, assuming her doubts, sourcing strength from self-exploration.

First in perfume, the campaign allowed a woman to dress her own portrait.

We hacked the celebrity model in perfume by bringing onboard a personality who combined celebrity status with a perfect influencer profile: Emma Watson.

Thanks to her personality, her feminist and environmental commitments, she became a generational powerhouse, totaling 123M followers, including 70M on Instagram, 67% of which are between 21-34 y.o., our core target (Traackr).

Beyond the new vision of femininity they share, this generation is alike in its desire to express all sides of their personality. Emma Watson is not only the perfect embodiment of this, but her platforms’ editorial lines fit perfectly with the campaign’s message.

So, we turned the campaign into a personal project she would want to share and asked her to be both the director and its star. This was a way to promote everything she stood for and every reason why she had such a huge fan base.

Emma Watson began promoting the project as a personal endeavor and a translation of her commitment to female empowerment and sustainability.

She even turned her Instagram account into her main media to reveal the advancement of the campaign. Like for a film, she shared exclusive content to drive maximum attention to her directorial debut.

The backstage film gave insight into her ways of working, generating enormous organic engagement. She managed to make excitement last: for over 7 months now, since August 2022, her entire grid is dedicated to Paradoxe project.

Her personal motivation turned her into a genuine advocate, creating a frenzy both around the film and the perfume.

Shifting the power over the narrative from the brand to an influencer celebrity created a new kind of collaboration. By enabling her to act on her convictions, we liberated her creative potential and allowed us to unleash her social influence potential.

She created strong emotions, generating engagement from 4 to 10 times higher than that of the top competition (SocialIQ).

Her every Instagram post about the campaign became a sensation: to name a few, backstage video post reach 67,4M; post in front of the mirror, revealing her vulnerability, 68M; average reach for her campaign content 67,8M.

Since her first post about Paradoxe on August,18th 2022, her campaign content reached over 4,6 billion impressions on Instagram.

The effect spread cross-platforms: the film gathered 8 224 934 organic views on YouTube in first two weeks.

Paradoxe became the most successful perfume launch ever for both Prada and L’Oréal, outperforming every set objective and outpacing the category. Not only it entered top sales in key markets, it sold out altogether. But most importantly, Paradoxe touched a chord with new generation of women, showing they are not just a pretty face.

Source: Traackr.