Welcome, Guest [Sign In]

June 2007 - Strategy Magazine
Who to watch: The new advertisers

Coty Prestige's Mavis Fraser: CK invites netgen in2 brand conversations

by Pia Musngi
page 22

If you're familiar with Obsession for Men, CK One and Eternity, blame it on Mavis Fraser. A fragrance industry heavy-hitter and director of marketing at Oakville, Ont.-based Coty Prestige, Fraser has been around cosmetics long enough to know what works. "I'm a product junkie," Fraser gushes. "I love the product experience. I'll try anything new."

This desire to try anything new is arguably what makes this 2006 Canadian Fragrance Awards Lifetime Achievement nominee so darn good at her job. Fraser's latest laurel, is the simultaneous launch - the brand's first time ever - of Calvin Klein's two newest fragrances, ck IN2U her and ck IN2U him, concoctions aimed at iPod-toting, tech-savvy 21-year-olds.

To do this, Fraser had to do her homework, first logging on to MySpace to decipher this demo's lingo. "I was trying to understand some of this activity," she recalls. "We used a focus group, asking them questions like what they do [when they're together], what they read, where they go and what turns them off."

Then she brainstormed with OMD's associate director of strategy, Zaheeda Jiwan, to get her and her team equally passionate about the product. One element of those sessions materialized on text-to-screen LED boards (powered by Addictive Mobility) at Toronto's Dundas Square. The boards nudged onlookers with the provocative question: What are you in2? For two teaser weeks in March, folks were prompted to text their answers to a shortcode and watch it appear on the board. Ads on Google and MySpace taunted visitors with the same question.

Fraser also worked with Montreal-HQ'd Speed Promotions on grassroots efforts. Look for garbage cans in Toronto and Montreal all decked out in the creative. Post-its bearing the question and a link to whatareyouin2.com blanketed windshields in the entertainment districts.

Fraser also negotiated with The Bay to be part of their corporate window displays in five flagship stores. "This is not typically made available to fragrance vendors," she says, "but they loved the 'What are you into' theme. For the first week they wrapped the windows in a 'What are you into' teaser, before the window reveal." They had presence with product, images and website branding for a full month. "At the same time we were up on focus inside the fragrance department along with fragrance demonstrators sampling the product in-store."

The Bay created the whole look, complete with funky mannequins, ckin2u logo illumination on the sidewalks and music piped onto the street.

Fraser then worked with Vice magazine to create a mini-mag distributed with the March issue. Flip through it and you'll find nary a brand mention anywhere, just a link to www.whatareyouin2.com and portraits of good-looking people confessing their desires - from animal husbandry to dirty behaviour to even dirtier martinis.

She also gave Vice carte blanche in creating a microsite with a gateway enticing readers to click on whatareyouin2.com. The site borrows from the likes of Facebook, a place for folks to upload their photos, type in what they're into and search for someone with the same appetites.

Quick Search