This 14-minute documentary of Aya Nakamura, the Global Brand Ambassador of Lancôme, reflects the shifting dynamic of luxury brand marketing. Driven by an increasing consumer appetite for deeper emotional resonance and cultural relevance of luxury brands, Lancôme, as the top French luxury cosmetic brand, aims to provide new types of experiences and connection between its audience and pop culture. By offering an intimate look at Nakamura’s life, values, and journey, this documentary allows Lancôme to align the brand with this shifting perception of luxury and to answer the need for a new kind of brand narrative.

Aya Nakamura is the most listened-to French artist worldwide with 6 billion total streams, 950 million YouTube views for her single "Djadja", selling out three shows in Paris within 15 minutes. When it was rumored that President Macron wanted her to sing Edith Piaf at the Paris 2024 Olympics, she received harsh criticism and insults. The far-right leader Marine Le Pen called her presence “not a beautiful symbol,” criticizing her style and the use of slang in her lyrics claiming that President Macron wanted to “humiliate France” through his choice. Furthermore, a far-right group Les Natifs held up a banner on the banks of the Seine, “There’s no way Aya, this is Paris, not the Bamako market,” dismissing her Malian origins while denying her French-ness. In reaction to such hate, others rose to support Nakamura. Most notably, a group of young social activists from SOS Racisme protested in front of the headquarters of the Rassemblement National by organizing a “flash mob”, dancing to Nakamura’s top hits in full blast. In direct response against Marine Le Pen, they shouted “France is not humiliated by Blacks, it is humiliated by racists.” In this manner, the Aya Nakamura Olympics controversy is a microcosm of the political, socio-demographic, and generational divisions that exist in France. For Lancôme, it was important to show unequivocal support for Aya Nakamura, not only as a self-made star but also for the values of resilience, diversity, and solidarity she embodies for the new generation.

When Lancôme signed Aya Nakamura as its Global Brand Ambassador, it was part of a strategy to foster a deeper connection with a specific demographic: the diverse community of Gen Z. Nakamura's immense appeal, evident from her shows at sellouts and its substantial streaming numbers, particularly among Gen Z women, presented an opportunity for Lancôme to reach this demographic. Lancôme's objective was to become part of pop culture and reach this audience by exploring new ways to portray Aya in both narrative and format.

The title of the documentary, “Aya Nakamura: Haut Niveau”, encapsulates the essence of the creative idea: to portray Aya as an individual not just a star, a person that rises above the noise and labels of society. As demonstrated by the Paris 2024 Olympics controversy, throughout her career, Nakamura was often stereotyped and criticized by society. The idea of this documentary stemmed from the desire to paint a fuller, more authentic picture of Nakamura as a person who despite the noise always remains her true self, delving deeper into her personal experiences, creativity, and aspirations as an artist, mother, and woman. By putting the person, Aya, at the center, we wanted to give her the chance to own her story, to reclaim the narrative, reflecting Lancôme's brand message that always empowers women to pave their own path.

Aya Nakamura presented Lancôme with a unique opportunity to intimately connect with her young, diverse community of fans. Lancôme sought to act as a bridge between Nakamura and her fans, fostering new types of encounters and fulfilling their desire to see their admired artist in a more intimate, authentic light. As a leading French luxury brand, Lancôme understood the necessity of becoming more attuned to culture, especially to address a more diverse audience groups that were long overlooked by premium beauty labels. The brand felt compelled to represent and amplify these voices. The strategy centered on portraying Nakamura authentically, deviating from Lancôme’s usual portrayal of its ambassadors through commercial usage, was in line with the brand’s desire to answer the Gen Z’s need for a more personal, genuine narrative from brands, reflecting their own values.

The documentary was shot by following Aya for an entire year capturing never-before-seen, intimate moments of her creative process, life and performances. It was shot as an authentic documentary but also injecting the aesthetic tone consistent to Lancôme. Since her audience is mostly Gen Z women that stream her songs on YouTube, we chose to release the documentary on Nakamura's channel on March 28th, 2024. Furthermore, to announce the documentary, Lancôme and Aya Nakamura published a teaser cross post on Instagram the day before. Lancôme also released 3 additional teasers on Instagram after the release of the documentary. There was no paid media investment, following the desire to drive intimate, authentic connection with fans.

The day of the release, the video was ranked within the top #10 Youtube Trends and in just over three weeks the video garnered 534K views without any media investment. It is projected to reach a viewcount of 1 million by summer 2024. This number is 200% higher than other artist documentaries of the label during the same time frame. The teaser posts on TikTok have accumulated a total of 6.9 million views. 50% of the audience was under the age 34. Of all the comments made, 95% were positive, with some even lauding her as the new “Queen of France”.