Ad of the month - Prada
Fragrance advertising has a formula. A famous face. A slow pour of light across a glass bottle. A hushed voiceover. A Brand end-card to close.
It can feel like these ads are only differentiated by which celebrity they slot into the formula. That is not what we found when we tested 11 fragrance creatives with Turkish consumers this month. What mattered was not the size of the name. It was whether the ad was about the product or about the person holding it.
One of our two celebrity-led ads spends its runtime letting the talent describe her own aesthetic, with the bottle arriving at the end. The other barely lets her speak. The first was the better-liked ad. The second was the one that moved the brand needle. And the ad that beat both of them used no celebrity at all.
At Human Made Machine, we help you understand whether your creative will be effective with your target audience. This is crucial, since creatives contribute up to 70% of a campaign's success. We test thousands of ads each month in realistic, simulated media environments. Our tests use the gold standard of control and exposed experiments to predict real-world impact.
The Winner: Prada Spring Market
The ad drove lift in all five brand metrics that we measured (Aided Awareness, Unaided Awareness, Purchase Intent, Favorability, Purchase Consideration).
The idea is small and specific. Prada's spring products are laid out on an open-air market stall in wooden crates, like fruit. A hand works down a shopping list, ticking items off. The palette is pastel, the soundtrack is whistled, and there is no celebrity. In fact, no face ever enters the frame.
The ad has earned attention with craft instead of casting. It scored high above the norm on Distinctiveness and Memorability, and achieved the highest Brand Difference score among the ads we looked at.
People talked about the idea rather than about a person, reaching for the market stall device unprompted. Several said the everyday framing of a shopping list made a luxury product feel closer to normal life.
What people are saying
“I liked the idea of selling perfume in crates like fruit, it's a different concept.”
“The use of pastel colors is nice, and the fact that the model's face isn't visible makes it different from other advertisements.”
Honorable mentions:
Prada Paradox with Emma Watson: the celebrity as the vehicle
Emma Watson is in this ad, but she is not the main subject. Her voiceover is minimal, and focused on the product “Paradoxe, the new refillable perfume from Prada.” The frame belongs to the fragrance.
It delivered a lift in Consideration, but came in under norm on Distinctiveness, Relevance and Ad Enjoyment.
“It's a very classic advertisement, no different from its competitors. Its memorability will come not from the advertisement itself, but from the brand image.”
Armani with Kendall Jenner: the celebrity as the subject
This was the most well-liked ad we looked at, but also did the least for the brand. Casting was not the problem: Kendall Jenner scored the highest in Talent Recognition, Favorability, and Fit of any talent tested.
The comments were warm. They were also almost entirely about her.
“I liked the celebrity's compatibility with the brand, her politeness, refined demeanor, and simplicity. I appreciated how she made me feel the need to smell and use the perfume. There was nothing I disliked about her.”
The ad is built around Kendall Jenner describing her own effortless chic aesthetic, and the product arrives at the end as a signature rather than a subject. Audiences named exactly that as the weakness while praising everything around it.
“The atmosphere and colors of the video are very appealing, and the actress is beautiful, but the focus is more on the actress than on the perfume itself.”
There is a lesson in that beyond casting. If we had judged this ad on how people responded to it once they had sat and watched it, we would have called it the winner of the month. Being likable is not the same as having a positive brand impact.
The main takeaway
What’s important is what the ad is about. Kendall Jenner's ad is about Kendall Jenner, and it is excellent at that. It bought attention and affection, and stopped there.
Want to learn more about how to maximize the return on your ad spend with effective creative? Connect with us and request a demo.