...: Gwen Stefani Harajuku perfume runs mobile campaign

Tuesday 30 November 2010

Gwen Stefani Harajuku perfume runs mobile campaign

To promote Gwen Stefani's new Harajuku Lovers perfumes, fragrance company Coty launched a marketing campaign that includes a mobile Web site.

The fragrance giant teamed up with integrated advertising agency Syrup to create a new online and mobile concept designed to cut through the highly saturated and celebrity-driven fragrance market. Rather than focus on Stefani's image and celebrity for an online campaign, Syrup instead created an interactive Web site accessible via PC or mobile phone.

"Because Harajuku Lovers' young audience is tech-savvy and cell-phone ready, we knew that mobile was going to be a major part of that campaign," said Rob Holzer, CEO of Syrup, LBi Group, New York.

"We asked ourselves what we could do to enhance the experience and take the Web experience to the mobile platform, which is actually a fairly straightforward process to implement, and it proved really successful," he said.

The target demographic of the campaign was teen/young-adult females ages 12-24.

The soft launch was in August, but the campaign hit its full stride at the beginning of September. There was some TV advertising.

Laird+Partners worked on the traditional print-ad campaign, where there was a call to action pushing consumers to the Web site.

SnapNow by evryx technology was another partner in the mobile campaign.

In the print ads there was a description of the SnapNow mobile elements, pushing people to take a picture of a Harajuku Lovers ad via their camera phone and email it in to get a link to the specialized mobile site.

The mobile site lets consumers download ringtones, take a quiz, download wallpapers and request a free sample of the Harajuku Lovers Fragrance.

The mobile site is optimized for Apple's iPhone, WebKit-based browsers including Nokia and Opera, Symbian, T-Mobile's Sidekick, Treo and Research In Motion's BlackBerry.

Anyone with a handset that has a camera and a HTML Web browser can participate.

In September the partners received 800 snaps a day, and received more than 5,200 snaps by Sept. 10.

As of Oct. 16, consumers had downloaded more than 24,000 ringtones and sent in more than 60,000 requests for a free sample of the fragrance.

"Everyone was really happy with the results of the campaign, as far as traffic and time spent on the Web site and the use of the mobile apps," Mr. Holzer said. "The mobile initiatives were more than just an afterthought.

"We wanted to make mobile a featured part of the campaign and it's proven to be really successful, especially with this audience," he said.

The site is designed to showcase the Harajuku girl's attitude of individualism by inspiring those visiting the site to express themselves creatively and individually.

A Harajuku is a young Japanese girl known for creating extremely unique and individualized fashion styles.

Ms. Stefani, intrigued by this distinct culture and style, made it the focal point of her clothing and fragrance line.

In keeping with the spirit of Ms. Stefani's vision, the Web site features an animated "G" and her Harajuku Girl posse who encourage fans to record, upload and share videos of themselves singing Karaoke to the Stefani hit "Harajuku Girls."

The videos are then instantly shared and made visible to everyone visiting the Web site, creating a viral movement that has helped spread news of the new fragrance online.

Syrup created the idea of Karaoke, letting consumers tap into their own Harajuku style and show it off to their friends.

Coty is a $3 billion fragrance company based in France.

Its fragrance brands include Calvin Klein, Chloé, Jennifer Lopez, Joop, Kenneth Cole, Marc Jacobs, Nautica, Sarah Jessica Parker, Vera Wang, Vivienne Westwood, Shania Twain, Miss Sixty, mary-kateandashley, Kylie Minogue, Esprit, Isabella Rosellini, Esprit, Desperate Housewives, David and Victoria Beckham, Celine Dion, Astor and Aspen, as well as Adidas' line of fragrances.

The Web site also lets users rate and comment on the videos, download wallpapers and display the videos on social networking pages.

At the intersection of the digital world, advertising and brand entertainment, Syrup is an international communications agency.

Syrup is a part of the LBi Group, a full-service digital marketing agency network.

The company's mission is to create momentum and cultural relevance for brands through advertising, branding, digital marketing, experience design, integrated communications, strategy and viral storytelling.

Its clients include GE, Hearst Media, L'Oréal, Issey Miyake, Coty Fragrances, DOW and Viacom.

"Mobile is a part of young people's lives, it's the way they socialize, and we wanted to reach the place where kids are used to interacting," Mr. Holzer said. "Young people are much more comfortable with mobile applications, and since they use mobile as a device in their everyday life, we wanted to integrate it where it makes sense.

"We wanted them to see the interactive element and make print ads more than visiting a URL," he said. "We wanted them to be able to interact and go deeper through the mobile experience."

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Why Media Studies IS an academic subject.

Every now and then, Media Studies gets what is ironically called “a bad press”.

Even after a general election in which the media played a pivotal role (television debates, the 24-hour news feeding off the corpse of Gordon Brown after his accidental on-mic comment, the on-screen worm during the debates etc.), even after all that, Media Studies gets described as a “Mickey Mouse subject”.

It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so serious. We live in a mediated world, a reality constructed around us and constantly filtered through the media. Although you might experience some of reality directly (in an unmediated way), your response to that reality is inevitably informed by your exposure to the modern media. When you see yourself in the mirror, do you not judge yourself by the standards of beauty and style laid down by the fashion and beauty industries?

When someone is innocently taking pictures of kids playing in the park, are we suspicious that they’re up to no good? In our relationships with each other, do we take people at face value, or do we make judgements based on the way we think they should be? When we desire consumer goods, why is that exactly? Why do we want things? How does that happen?

We get soundbite politics – because of the media. We get personality politics – because of the media. We learn to act the way we do – because of the media. We learn to talk the way we do – because of the media. We get turned on, we get excited, we get angry, we laugh and we cry – because of the media. We became convinced that Gordon Brown wasn’t up to the job – because of the media. We panic about vaccines, medicines, food, drink, sunshine – because of the media.

To understand how things happen, why they happen, and why they keep happening is, for me, a fit subject of study.

None of this is to mention the skills you develop in Media Studies – skills in writing, editing, analysis, research, design, publishing, video and audio editing/mixing, project management, people skills etc. – which are incredibly useful and incredibly transferrable. One of the things you often hear from the media who give Media Studies a bad press is that, “Anyway, there are no jobs, there are too many people coming through and they won’t get jobs in the media.”

Well. Either it’s a Mickey Mouse subject, or it’s “too hard”, a demanding and impossible industry to get into. Which is it? It’s like saying you shouldn’t study Physics because you won’t get a job at CERN; or that you shouldn’t study law because you won’t get to be a “top barrister”. If you study English and you don’t do so at Oxford or Cambridge, what are your chances of getting a “top job”?

The transferrable skills you learn in Media Studies will equip you for working life, whatever you end up doing. And most of you will end up doing several jobs.

So. Next time someone scoffs at Media Studies, ask them this: when did you last go a day without being exposed to the media, in print and on screen? When did you last have an opinion of your own making?

Next time someone calls it a Mickey Mouse subject, ask them this: who owns the Mouse? What other companies do they own? What was the turnover of this company last year? Which member of the board of this company is also a member of the board of another huge company? How does one business relate to the other? How influential are they? Who are their competitors? How does this competition benefit or harm consumers? What ideology does the company who owns the mouse try to impose upon the world? Why do they do this?

Mickey Mouse subject?

View more presentations from Rob McMinn.

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Tuesday 30 November 2010