Puig-owned fragrance house Paco Rabanne has exclusively pre-launched Phantom in travel retail, a ground-breaking new masculine fragrance. The scent was created using ‘Augmented Creativity’, a cutting-edge process that leverages A.I. to enhance human inspiration.
Phantom was launched in global travel retail on 1 July, and will be supported by a high visibility omnichannel campaign around key airports this summer. It will be rolled out in domestic markets in August.
Phantom is currently being promoted through a major activation with Dufry at Heathrow Airport Terminal 2. The experiential activation was developed by JCDecaux and will run at Heathrow for six months.
Heathrow Airport Retail Director Fraser Brown said the activation is “a great show of confidence in the future of travel retail and in Terminal 2 and Heathrow.”
He added, “Go and visit the stand to play the dancing robot game and sample the product.”
Phantom has been described as a ‘futuristic aromatic’ scent that combines luxury fragrance craftsmanship with new technologies. It opens with energising lemon top notes, creamy lavender, patchouli and vetiver heart notes and closes with wood vanilla and base notes.
Paco Rabanne has brought together four of International Flavours and Fragrances’ (IFF) top noses: Loc Dong, Juliette Karagueuzoglou, Dominique Ropion and Anne Flipo to create the fragrance. Their aim was to develop a scent that would boost confidence and energy, using Augmented Creativity technology.
Phantom marks the first time that Augmented Creativity — which leverages A.I., neuroscience and algorithmic tools — has ever been applied to perfumery. The tech allowed the quartet to select ingredients that stimulated sensations and fine-tuned their doses. Phantom’s secret ingredient is stryrallyl acetate, a vintage molecule in the lemon accord that boosts energy.
Augmented Creativity was developed as part of IFF’s Science of Wellness Programme which combines artificial intelligence, consumer studies and neuroscientific approaches to quantify the emotional benefits of fragrance ingredients. Phantom was tested on young men, aged 18-35, to determine what emotions the scent inspired in the brain. Paco Rabanne took 45 million brain measurements and discovered that Phantom elicited feelings of sexiness, alertness and energy.
In another fragrance first, Phantom features Paco Rabanne’s first-ever connected fragrance bottle with contactless chip. Users can simply tap their phones on the robot-shaped bottle to take it off. They can also use their mobiles to discover the Phantom universe and explore exclusive Paco Rabanne content, download interactive filters, personalised playlists, augmented reality games and so much more. Phantom is available in 100ml and 150 formats and comes in a 200ml refill bottle.
All the ingredients for Phantom were ethically and sustainably-sourced. To produce Phantom, Paco Rabanne collaborated with IFF-LMR Nationals, a pioneering natural company dedicated to delivering 100% premium natural extracts with total transparency.
The sci-fi-inspired Phantom campaign film was shot by award-winning director Antoine Bardou Jacquet and stars Slovakian model David Trulik and Russian Model Kris Grikaite on a chance alien encounter in another planet. It also features an intergalactic crew, all wearing the latest collection from Paco Rabanne Creative Director Julien Dossena.
