The Campaign

CHALLENGE Lux believes that fragrances are an invisible, but essential, part of a woman’s beauty. However, fragrance is not well understood by our target audience of 20+ year old women in India. We needed our audience to understand the essential role our fine fragrances play in a woman’s beauty routine. Scent is a challenging sensory experience to deliver online, and in a world geared towards appearances, we needed cut-through delivered fast in a competitive category where celebrity endorsement is the norm. SOLUTION To surprise consumers, we subverted a tried and tested PR recipe. With Katrina Kaif as the face of our campaign, we disrupted the celebrity endorsement norm by collaborating with someone who would not be distracted by the very thing Katrina is known for - her beauty. Bhavesh, a visually impaired photographer was tasked to capture the essence of Katrina's beauty for the product campaign, with Lux’s new fragranced bodywash as the sole inspiration. RESULT The photoshoot was filmed, and the result was Perfume Portraits. Working with influencers to seed the film before launch, our short film proved very successful: 15+ million YouTube views; achieving the highest brand recall and shareability scores in India, taking Best In Class in Google's Brand Lift survey, and helping to deliver 30% uplift in sales. Bhavesh and Perfume Portraits were also featured in a recent TedX, showing how it inspired their new fragrance photography programme.

The Brief

Our primary objective was to make our audience view fragrance as an essential part of beauty. An inspirational approach to beauty with a different point of view would excite them. We focused on three goals to achieve this: 1. Change perceptions of beauty, ultimately landing our brand’s fragrance proposition through emotive storytelling 2. Drive awareness: Surprise and inspire influencers to share the film showcasing the unexpected power of perfume 3. Create talkability: Utilise Perfume Portraits to spark online conversations about redefining beauty beyond the physical

Results

Output/Awareness: • 15+million views across platforms (94% women) • Best in Class Google’s Brand Lift Survey: +33% amongst 25-34 year old females • Highest brand recall scores in India (Unruly) • 78 media stories reaching over 11million consumers • Doubled Lux’s online share of voice • +14% in Brand Preference; +9% believe Lux has better fragrances than other brands – Metrixlab Knowledge/Consideration: • 89% Favorability Sentiment (Sysomos) • Top purchase intent scores in India (UnRuly) Action/Business Impact: • Social contest saw 450+ entries • Contributed to +30% sales, reached 11,000+ employees • Inspired the See as No Other Penguin Book, photographs of the Visually Impaired, featuring Perfume Portraits • Donations from the book will fund a new Fragrance & Photography workshop for the Blind with a Camera Charity • Unprecedented interest in Perfume Portraits led to Bhavesh appearing on a TedX talk • The photographer Bhavesh has become an inspiring role model and local celebrity in his own right

Execution

The campaign ran from 12 January – 14 February 2015. It was vital to have paid and earned media working together in the first week to drive the viral peak to its highest. 3 phases: 1. Tease: Outreach to journalists and beauty influencers with an embargoed copy of the film and selected stills 2. Trend: Launch-day saw mass outreach to bloggers and media outlets, while launching the film across brand-owned channels: YouTube, Facebook and HouseofLux.com. Katrina’s fans, and Bhavesh’s newfound supporters spread the film widely and quickly 3. Optimise: Driving organic reach first enabled us to track the film views using Sysomos and Unruly’s tracking tools across all platforms, and invest paid spend in best-performing channels. On social, we adapted content, based on audience responses, to sustain the conversation. We also ran a social contest where fans submitted their best “Power of Fragrances” selfie to win photos autographed by Katrina

The Situation

Lux believes that fragrances are an invisible, but essential, part of a woman’s beauty. But how do we convince women, especially when the world around them is obsessed with appearances? The campaign was designed to land our fragrance proposition with our target audience –20+ year old women in India, who often do not understand fragrances due to unfamiliarity. The challenge was to inspire and convince them to see fragrance as an essential, yet often overlooked, part of beauty.

The Strategy

Lux Perfume Portraits used Bollywood celebrity Katrina Kaif to raise awareness of Lux’s credentials as a fine fragrance brand amongst 20+ year old females in India. The PR angle juxtaposed India’s Most Desirable Woman (by Times of India) and her stunning beauty against a photographer unable to see her. This meant Lux’s fragrance story could be told in a compelling, emotive and touching way to the target audience, and demonstrates that beauty goes beyond physical appearance. Our strategy included inspiring the people who influence our target audience’s purchasing decisions – beauty key opinion formers with the power to amplify and endorse Katrina’s message. We also built a story around Bhavesh, as he became and aspirational role model and a local celebrity in his own right, following the launch of Perfume Portraits.