Lancôme's gold-winning 'DISCOVER THE IDÔLE IN YOU' campaign at The Drum Awards for Marketing APAC saw Grab effectively engage Thai Gen Zs, boosting awareness and sales through strategic online/offline integration and targeted promotions.
Lancôme wanted to establish itself as a cornerstone of Thailand’s booming beauty sector, especially among Gen Z women who were willing to spend more on beauty and fragrances. In a market that’s increasingly interested in custom scents and homegrown brands, carving out a space in the landscape was not going to be easy.
Lancôme zeroed in on its Idôle fragrance, confident it is the perfect match for today’s modern, empowered Thai woman. To ensure success, they designed a multi-faceted, city-wide online/offline approach that would simultaneously shift the needle at different stages of the customer journey. This included:
Given the sensory and experiential nature of fragrances, Lancôme decided it would reach mass audiences to build awareness of Idôle, and to drive consideration and sales, it would drive people to a physical event, Idôle House, to experience and engage with the brand and product. Hence was born a brilliant campaign that would blanket Bangkok: The ‘DISCOVER THE IDÔLE IN YOU’ campaign.
The beauty brand turned to Grab, a partner they knew could help them engage customers across the stages. To achieve widespread reach, GrabCars were dressed up in Idôle branded wrap-arounds. These vehicles journeyed around Bangkok for 61 days, serving as eye-grabbing mobile billboards (on both sides of the car for double impact!) wherever they went.
On the Grab app, a customized icon also roved around the in-transit map across all Grab services, from GrabCars to GrabFood and GrabMart deliveries. This ensured as wide a reach as possible at a moment when users are keeping a close eye on the arrival of their vehicle or deliveries, translating into 100% share of voice.
Broad targeting on social media also served to attract mass reach and drive awareness for Idôle House, and of course, Idôle itself.
The ‘DISCOVER THE IDÔLE IN YOU’ campaign had three distinct phases during which Lancôme engaged with audiences, each based on the audience’s needs at that moment: pre-event, during the event, and post-event.
Grab’s rich 1st party offered insights on where people go (via GrabTransport), what they buy (via GrabMart), what they eat (via GrabFood), and which audiences were likely to be Gen Zs. GeoLocation capabilities also helped identify which Gen Zs frequently travelled to and from trendy locales and various educational institutions.
Armed with these insights, Lancôme and Grab formulated a highly-targeted media strategy that comprised native in-app ads, notifications, inbox messages, and social media retargeting. To maximize impact, Lancôme and Grab jointly decided to zero in on five key audience segments:
In the pre-event buildup, activities included native visual ads and video ads to tease out what Idôle represented—empowerment, youth, and strength—and what the live event will have to offer. Unskippable, 5-second full-screen in-app takeovers appeared after people placed their car or food orders—at the moment when the order is being processed and just before it’s confirmed, when customers’ attentions are glued to the screen as they await updates on their orders. Pre-event activities also included social media activations on both Lancôme and Grab-owned channels to drum up excitement for the fast-approaching Idôle House event and the prizes, rewards, and contests that were taking place in the lead up to the big day.
During the nine-day long Idôle House event, more brand presence was added. This included promotional ads offering discounts on GrabCar Premium bookings, the distribution of Grab Rewards that would unlock rewards that could be collected at the live event, and the distribution of Lancôme Idôle leaflets with GrabFood orders that were sent out from various GrabFood partner merchants who are popular among Gen Zs (merchants based near the Viphavadi 36, Thonglor, Aree (Vimut), and Sukhumvit 93 areas) and that garner high ratings.
Custom Idôle icons also circulated virtually on Grab maps, offering 100% share of voice to the perfume icons making their way over to pick them up. When the car arrived, a fully wrapped vehicle would be awaiting, serving as an eye-catching mobile billboard as it drove passengers to their destination. This campaign started with a simple opening of the Grab app at home, but every touchpoint along the way cleverly and seamlessly ushered the customer closer to the final purchase.
Throughout the nine-day event, social media and Grab ads continued amplifying the invitation to ‘DISCOVER THE IDÔLE IN YOU’ and to head to Idôle House for activities, contests, and to claim perfume samples.
Post-event, the Grab in-app ads and social media posts continued for another six weeks to maintain affinity and interest in the fragrance, and of course, to drive consumers to the designated e-commerce site so they could purchase it in the aftermath of the live event. The GrabCars remained wrapped on the outside and equipped with the large samples on the inside till the end of the entire campaign.
With branded GrabCars covering 107,100 km of booked journeys, the visibility of the mobile billboards is undeniable. In addition to the recorded kilometers, each car must also travel from one point to another to pick up the passengers, not to mention the car journey home at the end of each day.
With the broad spectrum reach from the wrap-around mobile billboards, paired with high engagement touchpoints via the Grab Rewards Center and at the physical event, Lancôme’s ‘DISCOVER THE IDÔLE IN YOU’ comprised a comprehensive, thoughtful, and full-funnel media strategy that achieved broad reach at one end of the spectrum and drove consideration and finally sales at the other end.
This campaign is yet another proof point that a well-planned, well-executed, multi-layered campaign on retail media like Grab can leverage the best of all worlds and deliver full-funnel results.