French beauty house Guerlain has introduced a major new digital/social media initiative to travel retail that gives travellers the opportunity to relive memories of their perfume experiences using a podcast format.
The storytelling app – called Olfaplay – has blossomed from the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned house’s decision to invest in an internal internet start-up. This team takes disruptive digital ideas and has the freedom to turn them into real-time fragrance projects.
Olfaplay – described as a 100% audio fragrance community – was the first of these. It launched at the end of 2018 and was introduced into travel retail earlier this month at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. The Moodie Davitt Report was the sole travel retail media to experience the project.
At the pop-up Guerlain Parfumeur store at Société de Distribution Aéroportuaire’s core-category duty free store serving Terminal 2E’s long haul gates, passengers are able to record their memories and stories of perfume – any perfume. They leave them as part of the Olfaplay series of podcasts that is now being expanded.
Harnessing olfactive imprints
Olfactory notes have an emotional power according to Guerlain’s Perfumes Marketing Director Ann-Caroline Prazan. “We all have an olfactory imprint that we build every day since birth,” she said.
That imprint is not lost on Guerlain, which celebrated its 190th anniversary last year. Olfaplay underlines the house’s strength and expertise in fragrance through such icons as the early 20th century scents Shalimar and Mitsouko that still resonate strongly with shoppers today.
Guerlain Digital Innovation Project Manager Lucie Pousson-Ribis said: “With our fragrance history we had to be the ones to also disrupt the business. Through Olfaplay we are building our first perfume community. Everyone has a story and we have already exceeded 1,000 users without any major marketing. After just two months we have more than 100 individual stories. When people start sharing their memories, it triggers others to do the same.”
Fragrance remains relatively untapped in social media, unlike makeup and skincare where influencers can have followers in their millions. The main reason is that scents are hard to work with visually, whereas influencers for the other beauty axes can show application methods and results. Sounds and voices, however, can be seductive which is where Olfaplay can gain advantage.
Telling powerful personal stories about perfume
Pousson-Ribis said: “Perfumes are about feelings, memory and emotions. Olfactive memories are the strongest. Podcasts are also on-trend right now as is the craze for ASMR (sounds that works as a meditative soundscape). We think Olfaplay ties in well as an expressive, personal and more spontaneous and authentic way to communicate.”
Olfaplay can add value to perfume purchasing and create a special bond between shoppers and Guerlain. As an anecdotal aside, The Moodie Davitt Report experienced how powerful Guerlain’s fragrance history is on its visit to Paris. Popping into Starbucks in the same terminal for a quick coffee with Guerlain’s Area Manager Travel Retail Manon Galy, the store assistant on seeing Galy’s Guerlain badge, immediately began to tell her personal story about Shalimar. “That was completely unprompted I can assure you,” Galy said.
The incident suggests that Guerlain – with its celebrated perfume heritage – is onto something with Olfaplay. With more users there are possibilities to draw up geographical maps of of stories – like a scented guide; connecting people who have shared similar content; or even a new Guerlain fragrance inspired by one of the Olfaplay narratives.
Each week Guerlain is producing a podcast – either educational or to entertain – featuring artists, creatives or organisations such as the Moulin Rouge. Guerlain Travel Retail Worldwide Director Elise Vanden Brande said: “We will also include content from the community so everybody – anyone who has an account – can tell their story. By adding the olfactive universe or your mood (from pre-prepared lists on the app) users can also find stories according to their mood or through smells they like.”
To date, the Olfaplay app and website is in French but recorded stories are often told in English, especially at the airport. Translations from Chinese are also available because Guerlain has Chinese advisors on the pop-up who can do this when Chinese flights are coming through. An English version of the website and app is scheduled for launch later this year.
Many travel retail executives believe that story-telling is key to enhancing consumer engagement in the channel. With this compelling, charmingly off-beat initiative, Guerlain is doing just that. Literally.
