Where is Le Male?

Insight

Jean Paul Gaultier's Le Male fragrance is well-known in Latin America, yet it struggled to secure high penetration among its 18-44-year-old male target (TGI Latina). This circumstance was exacerbated by the mounting saturation in the fragrance market. The improving economic conditions and burgeoning middle class in Latin America provoked many of the brand's big name competitors to try and seize this growing customer base by spending heavily in traditional media. In 2011, main competitors outspent Jean Paul Gaultier by up to four times in major markets Argentina and Mexico (Ibope).

Fortunately Le Male maintained differentiated communication: In its TV spot, Le Male is personified as a handsome sailor, whose classic uniform and brave persona embodies the type of character that women fantasise about, and men wish to emulate. The male target was 18% more inclined to consider themselves adventurous and 17% more likely to enjoy travelling and visiting exotic places (TGI Latina).

click to enlarge

However, the brand needed a more compelling and cost-efficient way of leveraging the sailor's mystique, which uncovered another challenge. Le Male's social media properties failed to offer Spanish language content- a missed opportunity considering 70% of their target used social networks, and spent an average of 32.5 minutes logged into Facebook, daily (TGI Latina, comScore).

The resulting campaign would attempt to move beyond awareness, and provoke deeper engagement between the brand and its target, in the hopes of improving product consideration and trial. Media was subsequently challenged to recruit 28,000 Le Male Facebook fans from the region.

Strategy

In the brand's TV spot, Le Male wakes up after a romantic night with Classique (the brand's female fragrance, personified), puts his uniform back on, and makes a swift exit.

Shortly thereafter, she clutches his pillow, and is reminded of his scent. Upon doing so, she finds herself lamenting his departure and saddened by the fact that she is uncertain of when he would next return.

Though the brand message more overtly attempts to link the scent with romantic desire, which men undoubtedly want women to feel for them (and often for this reason wear fragrances), consumer findings yielded something less obvious... Classique's disappointment would likely be echoed by most women in Latin America - in fact, 72% believe it is important to have a lasting relationship with one partner (TGI Latina).

With this insight in mind, the team recognised that through a non-traditional campaign, they could bring an end to Classique's, and emblematically, many Latin American women's uncertainty. While doing so, they could also convey to the male audience how much women enjoyed the fragrance, by generating a strong following and inviting dialogue through social media.

click to enlarge

The communication strategy was focused: Instead of simply bombarding the target with TV spots and billboards during Q4, the team opted to invite Latin American consumers to find Le Male through digital and experiential means. With that, the 'Where is Le Male?' campaign was born, offering the target a unique opportunity to uncover Le Male's whereabouts, share their opinions of the fragrance on the platform and potentially win a romantic adventure at sea for themselves, by means of a contest.

Execution

For the first time, Le Male's Facebook editorial line would speak directly to Latin American consumers in Spanish, introducing the "Where is Le Male?" concept and contest.

Posts called for users to break their routines, join the community, and escape with Le Male, while the contest was grounded in a Facebook app.

The campaign was divided into three phases:

1. Seeding: Facebook ads invited users to get to know Le Male by becoming a fan, setting the stage for amplified virality of the upcoming contest.

2. Contest: Calls to action took place on Facebook and the high affinity earning Grooveshark, to drive traffic to the application (comScore). Once registered for the contest, participants would have to answer trivia questions correctly about where Le Male had been in Latin America, to earn points. Facebook posts also provided clues about various Latin American port cities, which tied in with the campaign's experiential portion: Brand ambassadors, outfitted as Le Male sailors, were placed in the cities alluded to by the posts, where they distributed fliers and samples. The fliers contained passwords that could be used to earn bonus points, along with QR codes to generate mobile participation.

3. Winner Announcement: The top 10 scoring participants from the contest were gifted with Le Male fragrances, however the top scorer won a week-long cruise vacation for two. Facebook ads amplified the reveal, reminding the audience that Le Male delivered on its promise, providing a devoted fan an exhilarating and romantic Le Male inspired adventure.

Results

The campaign delivered 1.891 billion ad impressions (+80% versus the projected volume) with a resulting 866,050 clicks (+36% beyond projections). The Grooveshark takeover delivered a CTR of 3.84%, 32% higher than the format average for the site (Orange Advertising Network Analytics).

Moreover, the Latin American Le Male Facebook fan base thrived, adding 98,498 new fans from across the region (+147% over objectives). People talking about this climbed to 44%, surpassing rates of massive brands like Coca-cola, Chanel, and Calvin Klein (Facebook Page Insights).

In terms of the contest, 29,125 unique users visited the application and 5,630 participated in the contest, yielding a 19% conversion rate and surpassing regional averages (Media Agency Analytics). 1,000 samples were distributed through the local activation as planned, and 235 recipients redeemed the codes provided for use on the application. On average, site visitors spent 2:41 in the app, 93% above the market average (Media Agency Analytics).

Lastly, brand results were promising. Reported usage of Jean Paul Gaultier fragrances among the target in Colombia climbed by 65% in the second quarter of 2012 (Media Agency Analytics).