Fashion Notebook

Lessons in Branding: How Diesel Fuel For Life Rocketed the Brand to the Top of the Fragrance Market, With Just One Launch

So no doubt you've all seen the ads for Diesel's first foray into
the fragrance category, Fuel For Life, right? (If not, check out these trés sexy photos, at right and below, left). Well, what you probably didn't know is that this one fragrance has shot the Diesel name up to the top of the men's cologne business.

According to figures from NPD Group, the fragrance was the No. 3 overall launch (across men's and women's fragrances) for 2007, despite the fact that Diesel had no history in the category. What's more, through February 2008, the fragrance is solidly within the Top 10 Men's Colognes, ranked by sales.

So how'd they do it? With an ad campaign that didn't only win over consumers, but also won awards, picking up the Fragrance Advertising of the Year via the Fragrance Foundation, in both the men's and women's category. So when we're drooling over the eye candy in both of these shots, it's for a reason. This stuff really IS solid gold.

Wanna hear more? Well, you can ready all about it in our article "Filling It Up With Premium." If you're link-a-phobic, here's a taste:

It's no secret that most every fashion brand wants to break into the fragrance business. And with good reason. While the market is fickle, materials can be found on the cheap, the bottles have a long shelf life and their contents are less prone to the more dramatic trend overhauls that characterize luxury apparel. Because customers will actually pay up to $80 for a little bottle of the stuff, the profit margins smell loveliest of all. But Diesel knew it was facing an uphill battle as an unknown in the space, which was presumably behind its decision to partner with L'Oréal, Paris, for its first foray into the category.

It's also why the introductory support broke many of the traditional rules L'Oréal applies to marketing and launching its ever-expanding portfolio of fragrances. First there was the aforementioned antimarketing viral campaign in the weeks leading up to the August 2007 launch. (Some subsequent print ads announced that the fragrance was "finally legalised.")

Next, when it came to traditional brand advertising (chiefly print and TV), the campaign took a more-is-more approach. Rather than one TV spot, the company created six, via agency FFL Paris. Instead of two, static print ads, one for men and one for women, that feature either a celebrity or single model, FFL created four executions, each of them utilizing a new model to express the individuality of the fragrance. The tag read simply: "Are You Alive?"

"For us, this was an ambitious project," said Ulli Lindauer, vp-marketing of L'Oréal European designer fragrances. "There is a moment captured in the photography that is a universal moment of feeling alive. It was about the brand giving each of us the opportunity to be an individual."

Adiesel "Successful Wastes of Time" Contest Results!

So the submissions have been sifted through, and here are our favorite responses to the question: “What’s the most successful way to waste your time?”

We’ll have to see if any of these make it into Adiesel’s “83 Ways to Successfully Waste Your Time” campaign due out next February in support of their new collaboration collection with Diesel.

Until then, here are your top 5 “successful” wastes of time:

1. Train a pigeon to deliver all of your inter-office mail (see carrier pigeon, right, sadly extinct). Hey, anything’s faster than the mailroom.

2. Googling ex-boyfriends/girlfriends/partners in order to silently triumph in your decision to drop them, or to breathe a sigh of relief at the bullet you dodged when they dropped you.

3. Surfing Fresh Direct for wines and new recipes. Because, you know, we still have another food-filled holiday to look forward to.

4. Facebook (for game-play, stalking and “social networking,” whatever that is).

5. Lifetime movie marathons. Because it’s good to know when Delta Burke’s biological clock is ticking, AND when it’s exploded. For more on that, check out the greatest film of the Lifetime genre. Ever.

Honorable Mention: “Listening to an aging baby boomer trapped in the 1960s.”

Adiesel: Upcoming Campaign Update

This just in! 

The campaign supporting the launch of the Adidas Originals Denim by Diesel collection will be titled "83 Original Ways to Successfully Waste Your Time."

Since the campaign is launching in tandem with the product—which hits Adidas Originals stores worldwide Feb. 1—there aren't anymore details coming from Adi HQ  in Herzogenaurach, Germany, and we won't be able to check out any of the creative until next year, I'm more than intrigued to know how this one will go off.

Seems like the perfect fodder for a write-in contest, especially since I know you guys are "successfully" wasting your time this rainy (at least in NYC) Cyber Monday doing your holiday shopping!

Either leave me a comment, or drop me a line here with your suggestions for the best "ways to successfully waste your time." The top 5 will be posted later today, so get yours in ASAP!

(FYI: Submissions won't won't be attributed to the sender. That way, no one has to know how you, in particular, "successfully" waste your time.)

Adiesel: Where Adidas meets Diesel

The latest in the now near-ubiquitous world of fashion-athletic design collaborations, Adidas announced today  that it's inked a four-year deal with Italian denim lifestyle company Diesel to create "Adidas Originals  Denim by Diesel."

That's quite a mouthful (why not just "Adiesel"?) for four pairs of jeans, two styles each for guys and gals, examples of which appear at left. You'll start seeing them at Adidas Originals stores worldwide Feb. 1, and if you're so inclined you'll throw down 160 to 210 euros, or about $240 to $320 in our currency. Not cheap, but not out of the realm of outrageously priced denim currently out there on retail shelves at Atrium, A Bathing Ape, A.P.C., or any of the more upscale department stores.

While the product looks pretty much de rigeur for premium denim, more importantly, the deal gives Adidas one more link in its lifestyle chain (which has included the Y-3 line, designed by Yohji Yamamoto, since 2002), according to a statement by Hermann Deininger, CMO of Adi's sport style division.

"Now when a consumer walks into one of our stores, we can offer them a complete look, from a track top to jeans to a pair of sneakers," he said.

The line will be designed by both the Adidas Originals teams and Diesel's own creative department, and stitched with both Diesel and Adidas logo details.

Not many details on the marketing front yet, though head corp PR honcho Anne Putz told me that there will be a "below the line campaign"  that will include an online initiative, in addition to pr efforts and in-store promotions.