Perfume advertisements don’t just sell an aroma. They also sell a feeling, an experience, and a fantasy. Crafting memorable perfume ads entails integrating these elements and more.
To make perfume ads stand out, brands need to understand the key components that go into creating them.
In this article, we will cover some of the best practices we’ve seen lately from popular fragrance brands.
These ad marketing tactics are worth putting at the top of your list:
1. Let the founders talk
Every business starts with a founder (or founders) and their story, whether it’s unique or familiar, will always be a vital part of their brand’s existence and journey.
If there’s one person who has known the company since day one, it’s the founder. Founders are the best source of knowledge and the story behind the brand creation, the mission of the brand, and the vision it strives toward.
Aside from your products' benefits, these behind-the-scene pieces of information will resonate with your audience.
So how do you leverage the founder’s voice in perfume ads?
Let’s take great inspiration from Snif. They creatively use paid advertisements to share what people need to know about their brand.
Snif employs a Q&A format to share the founders’ journey and the driving force behind the creation of their brand.
In this video, the co-founders Bryan and Phil start by introducing themselves as the co-founders. They talk about the brand, its mission, and their personal love for fragrance.
Founders are the best source of knowledge and the story behind the brand creation, the mission of the brand, and the vision it strives toward.
They share the story behind the creation of Snif on a light note as seen in their friendly smiles, but they still make sure that things are taken seriously as they itemize pain points Phil experienced as a customer in a common shopping scenario.
In this interview, they were able to highlight the benefits of their products and their modern approach toward addressing the mentioned pain points.
2. Compare your product against competitors
We have mentioned in our previous blog that comparison is a must if you want to boost your marketing efforts.
In order to compare your products against your competitors, you need to have a good understanding of where your brand stands compared to them. That means you need to identify your position — your strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities that you can use to fill a gap within your niche.
One way to implement this is by showing the price difference between your products and those of your rivals.
Dossier in this video ad adapts a comparative approach to emphasize its value proposition: offering affordable alternatives to luxury fragrances.
What makes this video effective?
They managed to put together different elements in a single video to prove that they can offer cheaper versions of luxury fragrances but with similar quality.
First, it shows a customer’s purchasing behavior toward spending on luxurious items and how their brand is able to break in.
Second, it expresses customer satisfaction and regular use of their product by showing consumed bottles.
Third, it communicates the affordability and quality of their products. The comparison of the price is clearly stated in the texts written above and is shown throughout the video.
3. Have influencers share their experiences with your brand
Influencers have undeniably changed the game for marketing as they have an engaged following.
Their fame is usually due to the influencer’s transparency, relatability, and expertise in a specific field.
So when successful social media influencers endorse a brand and its products, their audience trusts their recommendation.
In essence, this is called influencer marketing and it’s becoming more and more popular with the advent of social media.
In order to compare your products against your competitors, you need to have a good understanding of where your brand stands compared to them. That means you need to identify your position — your strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities that you can use to fill a gap within your niche.
Let’s take a look at this video ad from Snif where we see influencer marketing at play.
Snif collaborated with the TikTok star Amelia, also known as Professor Perfume, to create a scent for her wedding.
Amelia shares her experiences, providing insights into the fragrance profile and highlighting its benefits when worn.
With this advertisement, Snif is able to connect its brand to a trusted individual within a niche community.
The large and engaged follower base of Amelia magnifies the brand’s exposure and increases its credibility, therefore affecting the buying habits and decision-making of potential customers.
4. Target specific personas
A buyer persona is essential for any business as it represents a key segment of your target market.
Identifying your target persona helps you create a reliable and realistic representation of your audience for reference as to what type of products and services will most likely work for them.
Directing your marketing efforts toward these groups of people is important to increase the likelihood of conversion.
You can take inspiration from the targeted approach employed by Henry Rose in this video ad.
Here, Henry Rose puts the spotlight on a pregnant woman as their target persona.
They’re able to validate the safety of their perfumes for pregnant women.
It also gives a simple reminder to consumers to be careful when choosing a scent considering their current health condition, one angle perfume lovers tend to forget.
Identifying your target persona helps you create a reliable and realistic representation of your audience for reference as to what type of products and services will most likely work for them.
5. Share social proof using customer feedback
Companies that listen to their customers tend to grow faster. You can’t ignore your customers and their feedback, can you?
Customer feedback is the information, insights, input, and issues shared by customers about their firsthand experience with your products and services.
If the feedback is negative, it can guide your brand to improve. If the feedback is positive, why not flaunt it to improve your brand image?
That’s exactly what Dossier does in this video ad where they interview two customers about a perfume presented to them.
At the start of the video, they establish rapport with the two ladies by letting them introduce themselves.
They’re also able to showcase authenticity by asking first what their favorite scent is in the collection, proving the subjects are real customers.
To further show authenticity, customers are asked to give feedback right after spraying the product.
Their instantaneous answers reflect their immediate experience. So obviously, it’s not just a review based on memory, making the ad more powerful in persuading the audience.
6. Bonus: Hooks you could use
We’ve spotted some of the best ads published by perfume brands. They commonly bring into play great ad hooks to grab the audience's attention and stop them from scrolling down.
Here are three examples of hooks you could utilize and why they’re effective.
More ad hooks and templates can be found here.
How to Use
Snif tackles the issue of headaches caused by perfumes with their hook. This captures attention by offering a solution to a common perfume problem, making their products more appealing.
This hook is effective in depicting sought-after knowledge as people are naturally hungry for knowledgeable information about relevant topics.
#1 Mistake When
Scentbird uses the “#1 Mistake” hook, addressing the common error of paying full price for luxury perfumes. They provide a solution by showcasing their products, which are affordable versions of high-end fragrances.
This hook is productive as it implies a warning, a red flag, a lesson to be learned, or anything negative that requires one’s urgent attention to correct or improve something. People are compelled to see more information so they can act on it.
I Can’t Leave the House Without
Henry Rose incorporates this hook to create a sense of necessity and fear of missing out. They also emphasize the importance of taking the quiz to find the scent “you can't live without”.
This hook is powerful in increasing the perceived value of a product. It is also relatable since most people have particular things they can’t leave (or live) without.
If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve just read, we invite you to view the complete inspiration page for more examples.
Until our next review!
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How can a brand effectively use its founder’s story in perfume advertisements?
A founder’s story can add authenticity and a personal touch to perfume ads. Sharing the journey, mission, and unique vision of the founders resonates with audiences and creates an emotional connection. Brands like Snif showcase this by letting their founders narrate their stories through engaging video formats.
2. Why is comparing your product to competitors important in perfume advertising?
Comparisons highlight your product's unique value and competitive advantages. By showcasing differences in price, quality, or features, you help potential customers understand why your product is the better choice. For instance, Dossier’s ads effectively emphasize affordability and luxury quality by directly comparing their perfumes to high-end brands.
3. How does influencer marketing boost the effectiveness of perfume ads?
Influencers have loyal audiences who trust their recommendations. Partnering with influencers like Snif did with TikTok’s Professor Perfume adds credibility and expands brand reach. By sharing personal experiences, influencers make the product relatable and increase its appeal to niche communities.
