Given the recent high-profile celebrity spats brought to you in real time courtesy of Twitter, one would be forgiven for writing off the medium as just another technological toy for teenagers and starlets with anger management issues (not to mention poor spelling skills). While many uses of Twitter are indeed inane, the medium is proving a boon to marketeers eager to get the masses chattering productively about their products. Jean Paul Gaultier and his marketing team could probably give the luxury industry a lesson or two on how to make the most of the medium.
The world of luxury fragrances is a highly competitive one with brands pouring considerable resources in the development, marketing and distribution of their offerings. Anything that can raise a fragrance's profile in an already very crowded field will most likely translate into increased sales hence the extraordinary effort directed at everything from bottle design to packaging to publicity campaigns. In fact, quite frequently, the scents themselves seem to take a back seat to the promotional aspects of the business. This is as true for existing fragrances fighting to keep their market share as for newly launched fragrances.
So, what is a brand to do when they need to keep an existing fragrance's top sales ranking? Two new TV ads for Classique (launched in 1993) and Le Male (launched in 1995) fragrances by Jean-Baptiste Mondino under the artistic direction of Jean-Paul Gaultier will be unveiled on October 21 on the Jean Paul Gaultier site featuring the quintessential French femme fatale and a hot sailor. But why not lay the terrain first with a steamy exchange between the story's protagonists? Until the unveiling of the new television ads, the couple personified in the new campaign by models Michelle Buswell and Robert Perovich, will be engaging in a passionate dialogue via Twitter.
This is Jean Paul Gaultier's second foray onto Twitter for the purposes of fragrance promotion which suggests that the first must have worked reasonably well. While his first Twitter campaign for the MaDame Rose-n-Roll fragrance was perhaps more interactive (it was designed to get bloggers and their readers exchanging and discussing various clues relating to the identity of a mystery guest), I find this one more stylishly entertaining as it cleverly plays on the fragrances' sultry image. All in all, another nicely integrated marketing campaign for Jean Paul Gaultier based on the art of the tease. Eat your heart out Dita!
Sincerely,
The Luxe Chronicles
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