Bad Reviews
etat-libre-d-orange
How to innovate in the perfume advertising space and challenge traditional narratives.
The Challenge
Please Dear God, Not Another Sexy Perfume Ad. The fragrance brand Etat Libre d'Orange needed to break into the U.S. market. They thrive off their unique approach to perfume in general, so they wanted their ads to reflect that. They begged us: anything but another sexy perfume ad.
The Solution
Let's Get Risky, Not Risqué. We sourced authentic bad reviews of all Etat perfumes. Then we matched the reviews to the fragrances and threw in evocative French paintings for a twist. Are these reviews of paintings or scents? The ambiguity was decadent. The self-deprecation was irresistible.
INCREASE IN SALES
230%
CONVERSIONS
200k+
INCREASE IN ENGAGEMENT
600%
Impressions
7M+
Webby Award Winner
Webby People's Voice Award - Best Digital Campaign
Davey Award Winner
Davey's Best in Show Award - Online Advertising
Davey's Silver Award - Integrated Campaign
Flipping the script
Etat Libre d’Orange is known for its head-turning scent names, including “I Am Trash” and “Fat Electrician.” Spirited and sometimes thrillingly ironic, Etat’s fragrances required smart ads that also spoke to its refined luxury. So we borrowed from online reviews where the buyer wasn’t entirely thrilled. Instead of near-naked models, we let the customers tell the stories for us. In fact, these bad reviews were so good that they temporarily put our copywriter out of a job (and we weren’t too upset about it)! With this idea, we targeted an audience seeking a fragrance that broke from the mold of other luxury brands. Scents are arguably the closest you can get to a physical signature, becoming a part of your body’s chemistry in a way that other fashion pieces and accessories cannot. By taking this approach, we emphasized Etat’s rebellious and satiric identity that sets it apart from the rest of the industry.
The campign
We ran a series of Facebook and Instagram campaigns with the goal of increasing sales and revenue. A secondary goal was to increase traffic to their site with high conversion rates and time spent on site while maintaining a low bounce rate.
There were four unique campaign objective types: a Conversion campaign, a Traffic campaign, a Retargeting campaign, and an Abandon Cart campaign. The conversion and traffic campaign included testing of different creatives, audiences, copy, and call-to-actions to determine the ads that would drive the best results.
We created dynamic landing pages that displayed the same creative assets from the ads to ensure a cohesive user journey from the ad platforms to Etat’s website. To retarget users who had visited Etat’s website after clicking on a conversion or traffic ad, we ran a series of retargeting and abandon cart ads that reengaged audiences with a higher intent to purchase.
Etat goes a step above to let customers know that they are more than just a brand. They are people too. People with a great sense of humor. We created an email and discount opportunity based around a unique Facebook interaction with a customer and the Etat brand.
<h2 style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;">SALES ARE GREAT BUT... we love the comments</h2> <p style="text-align: center;">Here are just a few of our favorites.</p>
