QATAR. Chanel has unveiled a world-first immersive, 360-takeover at Hamad International Airport (HIA) in collaboration with Qatar Duty Free.
The hugely ambitious, three-month event (1 November to 31 January), titled Chanel Winter Tale, brings together festive-themed interactive experiences, a wide array of exclusive and limited-edition products, personalised gifting and souvenirs, and family-friendly activities.
To build anticipation, the journey begins with a dedicated Chanel email sent to all Qatar Airways passengers. After boarding their flights, passengers discover the Chanel Holiday campaign film on the inflight TV.
Upon arrival and in transit at HIA, travellers are guided through the terminal by playful, festive signage and white, beige and gold Chanel decorations. These lead towards bespoke sales podiums, product displays and touchpoints, interactive activities, and the Chanel boutiques.
Fairy lights twinkle, stars dance overhead and QR codes, which are positioned throughout, activate snowfall filters, creating a winter wonderland in Doha.
Sales points bookmarking each end of the terminal at the north and south nodes resemble gilded doll’s houses decked out in cosy interiors, including fireplaces as photo-walls.
At the north end, Orchard, HIA’s vast indoor tropical garden, has been transformed into a winter landscape with white-frosted pine trees and a range of activities, including a personalised calligraphy service, craft sessions and a photo booth.
The “unparalleled” shopping experience offers product discovery guided by a team of experts with gift ideas at its heart.
The shopping proposition includes the Holiday 2024 makeup collection, a luminous line of brilliant shades created by Chanel Comètes Collective member Valentina Li designed to capture the celestial, celebratory mood of the season.
A range of fragrances includes the N°5 Eau de Parfum limited-edition frosted bottle, covered in a delicate woven silk mantle resembling dusted snow; the shimmering N°5 beige-gold body oil; and N°5 purse sprays, designed to dangle from the wrist.
Other offers include the renowned N°5 Parfum in its rarest form: a 900ml Baccarat crystal bottle.
Additional exclusive creations include the limited-edition Sublimage L’Extrait de Nuit cream sold in a Maison Lesage tweed-lined black lacquered wooden box, and 31 Le Rouge, the collectable lipstick launched last year at the flagship 31 rue Cambon boutique in Paris.
Every purchase comes with personalised gift wrapping, playful charms, holiday cards, samples and Chanel snowflakes to take home and assemble as a memento. ✈
Comment: This campaign, with its reach across airline, airport, duty free stores and media platforms, shows what is possible when parties across the travel eco-system combine their ambition, expertise and investment to deliver fresh, vibrant consumer experiences, writes Dermot Davitt.
With the Qatar Duty Free team last weekend, we toured the South Node, North Node and Orchard spaces. We also encountered the special Chanel Winter Tale video inflight before arrival and after departure while our walk-through also took in the vast digital media exposure given to the campaign across the airport’s many screens.
The takeover across all areas adds continuity and coherence throughout Hamad International Airport, and is matched by superb detailing in the execution. The exclusivity afforded to the brand is another key element: Chanel Winter Tale is the only beauty brand campaign carried on the airport’s digital screens in this period.
All-important personalised touches come through in the printed gift cards, with (from this month) a calligrapher to further customise the gifting offer with handwritten messages on purchases.
The fully immersive campaign shows great faith in the reach of the Qatar Airways Group eco-system from one of the world’s great brands. And it also represents a new template for impactful, hyper-personalised campaigns across that airline-airport-duty free company network.
