Coty and Calvin Klein have unveiled a new pillar feminine fragrance called Reveal. The global roll-out will begin in selected markets later this month.
The fragrance ad campaign features British actor Charlie Hunnam, who stars in FX’s hit television series, Sons of Anarchy, and Dutch supermodel Doutzen Kroes. The global campaign breaks this month.
“Reveal Calvin Klein is a classic Calvin Klein fragrance that is globally appealing, because it speaks to women who want to feel sexy, confident and provocative,” noted Coty Chief Marketing Officer Fragrances Steve Mormoris. “Doutzen perfectly embodies that woman.”
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Calvin Klein Chief Executive Officer Steve Shiffman described Reveal as “an exciting new addition to the Calvin Klein Fragrance portfolio” |
Calvin Klein CEO Steve Shiffman commented: “Reveal Calvin Klein is an exciting new addition to the Calvin Klein Fragrance portfolio. This latest offering is a unique scent, and will continue to strengthen the innovation that drives the brand.”
The campaign was shot by photographers Mert Alas + Marcus Piggott, who collaborated with Creative Director Doug Lloyd of Lloyd&Co. The print creative features Kroes and Hunnam in a heated embrace, viewed through the window of a modern high-rise apartment. As the sun sets behind a dusky skyline, the city is reflected in the window, suggesting a voyeuristic glimpse of a sexy game of seduction and desire.
Director Jonas Akerlund, working with Lloyd as Consulting Creative Director, created the Reveal Calvin Klein TV campaign, which expands upon the story begun in print, to depict a fantasy about the erotic possibility of a seduction game and what will be revealed. The TV spot features the track ‘Bright Lights’ by Grammy Award winning artist Gary Clark Jr.
In addition, the Reveal Calvin Klein campaign incorporates a significant digital presence, in the form of exclusive content that will reveal more of the story, the talent, and how their passion was ignited via the hashtag #REVEALMORE.
“Sex and seduction is an eternal theme in fragrances. Reveal is capturing it in a new way with this idea of voyeurism and exhibitionism in the digital age.“ |
Steve Mormoris Chief Marketing Officer Fragrances Coty |
The programme aims to establish and build the Reveal Calvin Klein brand with sophisticated and aspirational digital-only content to be activated via Calvin Klein’s social media channels and in partnership with social influencers in August, and continuing through October.
Sexy and solar
The Reveal Calvin Klein juice is said to represent a new fragrance category – the solar oriental – which is characterised by “intriguing duality, unexpected freshness and enveloping warmth”, according to the brand. The sensorial salt signature is said to capture traces of the erotic scent of skin. Other key ingredients include pink, white and black pepper, orris, ambergris, sandalwood, cashmeran and vetiver.
The fragrance was created by IFF perfumers Jean-Marc Chaillan and Bruno Jovanovic, in conjunction with fragrance consultant Ann Gottlieb.
The scent is housed in a minimalist yet feminine flacon, square in shape with smooth, rounded edges and topped with a metal cap. The semi-sheer outer carton reflects the unusual symmetry of the bottle’s design. The packaging has a bare blush background with a metallic triangle at the top corner.
Reveal is available as a 30ml, 50ml and 100ml edp spray, a 200ml body lotion, a 200ml shower gel and a 10ml rollerball.
Trailblazing in travel retail
At the launch event in New York City earlier this summer, Mormoris told The Moodie Report that travel retail would play a significant role in the fragrance roll-out. “Travel retail [for Coty] is in the vanguard of bringing to the consumer very important fragrances,” he underlined.
“Travel retail consumers are more engaged, as well as more fashion- and brand-aware. They’re probably shoppers who are more experimental and ones who like giving gifts. As a distribution channel, it’s very important to us and very often proceeds when we launch something. We get a better feel for a project when we launch it in travel retail, which has a high frequency of purchase compared to traditional retail.”
Mormoris acknowledged the raunchy roots of the Calvin Klein brand, and its previous steamy campaigns for scents such as Obsession and ck one. “Sex and seduction is an eternal theme in fragrances,” he explained. “Reveal is capturing it in a new way with this idea of voyeurism and exhibitionism in the digital age.”
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Doutzen Kroes and Charlie Hunnam smoulder in the Reveal ad campaign |
The fragrance, earmarked as a new flagship for the Calvin Klein brand, also represents a shift-change in Coty’s overall business philosophy following its IPO in June last year. Gottlieb, one of Coty’s main fragrance consultants, said the launch of Reveal is representative of a philosophical change in Coty’s fragrance strategy.
“Up until a year ago, there was very definitely a ‘stay with the pack’ fragrance philosophy [at Coty],” she confirmed. “It was especially challenging for me, because having done so many brands that stand out, to do fragrances that don’t was a frustration and very much antithetical to the whole Calvin Klein fragrance philosophy.”
She added: “With the new management coming in a year and a half ago, there was truly the philosophy to return to the roots of the brand, which are much more challenging and interesting to consumers – and also result in much better products for the market. Reveal is really the first fragrance that represents that.”
At the NYC press launch Gottlieb took part in an interactive discussion with the fragrance face Kroes. The event also included an intimate roundtable discussion featuring bloggers Emily Weiss and Nick Axelrod of Into the Gloss, Leandra Medine of Man Repeller and Karley Sciortino of Slutever.
Digital drive
Inviting social media gurus such as Medine – who has over half a million followers on Instagram – on stage to discuss their most ‘revealing’ intimate moments served as a precursor to Coty’s digital campaign, which is launching ahead of traditional print and television ads. The digital campaign also involves an online contest that will ask people to ‘reveal’ themselves in a similar way to the bloggers.
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Mormoris explained: “We’re going to do progressive feeds of different aspects of the launch to different media. We’re going to definitely involve the bloggers and we’re in a way going to build awareness of Reveal first through digital, and then afterwards through television and print, which is a reverse of what we’ve done in the past.”
Mormoris added that Coty will employ a community of bloggers to build the Reveal brand “like missionaries of Reveal”. He said: “This is all a very Calvin Klein idea where we’re tapping into a prevalent social behaviour of the time.”
Accordingly, before consumers even got a whiff of the unique accords that define the Reveal scent, Coty fed them snippets of information via social media in the lead up to the global launch. And in April, Coty leaked the name of the female face for Reveal on Instagram. Dutch model Kroes posted a picture of herself during the advertising shoot for Reveal complete with the hashtag #REVEALMORE.
That hashtag will appear on all Reveal packaging, advertising, social media and Calvin Klein websites. Followers of Calvin Klein Fragrances on social media sites also got a sneak preview of the sexually-charged TV and print campaign.
But the digital campaign isn’t targeted solely at the Millennials, Mormoris emphasised. “I think the ‘Reveal’ concept is broader; I don’t think it’s just [for the] young,” he insisted.
“We are looking at people aged 25 to 49. The fragrance has a certain classicism about it. It’s a timeless fragrance. We actually see that the digital mechanisms to reach people are being embraced more and more by older people over 25.”
Mormoris added: “We’re tapping into a growing trend, particularly on mobile phones. People have migrated from laptops to mobile phones in a big way. It’s where they’re experiencing brands, fragrances, intimacy”¦everything.”
