LOVE is, according to the muses, a many splendored thing, strange, an open door, for the very young, a simple thing, the answer, the drugand in the air. And according to a new campaign for a beauty marketer seeking to burnish its mainstay brand, love is also on.
The marketer is Revlon Inc. and the brand is Revlon, which will present “Love is on” as its new theme on Tuesday. The campaign, produced by the AR New York agency, includes commercials, print and digital ads, and a social media presence.
There will also be an interactive billboard in Times Square - at 1500 Broadway, at the corner of West 43rd Street - where passers-by can share messages of love.
Revlon has been struggling to regain its momentum in the intensely competitive global beauty-products industry, which is increasingly dominated by giants like Estée Lauder and L’Oréal. Recently, Revlon Inc. decided to concentrate on fewer, larger brands, among them Revlon, which began with nail enamel and expanded into products like lipstick, mascara, skin creams and hair color.
By adopting “Love is on” as its brand platform, Revlon is “hoping for a little consumer love,” said Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys in New York, a brand and customer-loyalty consulting firm. “And they need it.”
Revlon “has been moving down the list for years,” he added, referring to the annual Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index. Revlon was ranked 10th out of 12 cosmetics brands on the 2014 list, ahead of only Almay, another Revlon Inc. brand, and Coty. (L’Oréal was No. 1.)
“It doesn’t matter if you have ubiquitous distribution, if people know your brand name, celebrities using the makeup, beautiful photography,” Mr. Passikoff said. “Consumers are looking harder for a reason to believe and a reason to bond with - and buy - one brand versus myriad, ‘me-too’ products.”
Lorenzo Delpani, chief executive of Revlon Inc., described “Love is on” as such a reason to believe in the Revlon brand.
“In this category, I see a sea of sameness,” Mr. Delpani said in a phone interview. “Campaigns are not using emotion in an intense way.”
One night, Mr. Delpani recalled, after a series of internal brainstorming sessions, he was “in the office and began toying with the brand name.”
“I broke up ‘Revlon’ and found, inside ‘Revlon,’ is scrambled the word ‘love,’ ” Mr. Delpani said, adding: “Inside the heart of Revlon is ‘love.’ The brand talked to me; the brand said, ‘Look, love.’ ”
“From now on, we intend to be on a mission,” Mr. Delpani said, “inspiring all the shades of love.”
The “on” in the theme is derived from the last two letters in Revlon, he added, and suggests how “you turn on something.”
The “on” also echoes the final two letters of amorous words like “attraction, flirtation, seduction, passion, adoration, infatuation,” Mr. Delpani said, and the “R” left over after separating “love” from “Revlon” stands for “romance.” (He did not, however, offer a use for the leftover “n.”)
An initial commercial, which Mr. Delpani called a brand manifesto, features a version of the song “Addicted to Love” as women demonstrate emotions like devotion, desire and passion. The 60-second commercial begins with the words “Love starts here” on screen and continues with phrases like “Romance is on,” “Sexy is on” and “Desire is on” before concluding with “Revlon. Love is on.”
The print ads, which use phrases like “Temptation is on,” offer quotes about love, including “Is not a kiss the very autograph of love?” and “I knew if I started touching you I wouldn’t be able to stop.” There will also be a public relations effort for the campaign, handled by Lippe Taylor in New York.
“We’ve been looking to find a stronger way to connect with women” beyond “product-specific initiatives,” said David Israel, an executive creative director at AR New York, which has “been working with Revlon for the past couple seasons as lead creative agency of record,” he said.
The campaign represents an opportunity to “relaunch the Revlon brand to the world,” he added, by telling “a more emotional story that allows Revlon to have a larger voice in everything from print and social media to digital, TV and in stores.”
The campaign also offers “a more positive message” that “invites women to step into this world of love,” Mr. Israel said, which will come during continuing debate about the negativity of some marketing efforts in beauty and fashion.
According to Kantar Media, a unit of WPP, Revlon Inc. spent $65.3 million on advertising for the Revlon brand in the first six months of this year, slightly more than the $63.5 million spent in the same period a year ago.
Ad spending for all of 2013 totaled $123.3 million, Kantar Media reported, compared with $129.8 million in 2012, $128.4 million in 2011 and $132 million in 2010.
Ad spending to date this year is about $25 million more than the corresponding period of 2013, Mr. Delpani said, and “everything we do next year - advertising, merchandising, display, packaging, public relations - will be focused on ‘Love is on.’ ”
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/
