“What if our actress was naked for the ad? ”

I know, that sounds ridiculous. But, there’s a reason why we did that.

Scentbird is a monthly fragrance subscription box for people who feel naked without perfume. Some of us have a “phone, wallet, keys” check before heading out the door - and others have a “phone, wallet, keys, fragrance” check instead.

The challenge: How do we resonate with fragrance aficionados?

The solution: By showing them we understand how naked they feel without a scent on.

My responsibilities as Creative Director:

Research: Scentbird’s product is niche, but simple: an inexpensive monthly subscription box of fragrances. First, I sat down with the CMO to hear who they wanted to target and what issues they were facing. They had already been running short instagram ads, but weren’t seeing the impact they wanted. They knew the market of fragrance lovers was huge, but the ads they had at the time weren’t resonating with those people enough.

Next, I interviewed two dozen random customers to understand why they love fragrances so much. To be honest, I knew nothing about this world. I had never purchased a perfume nor did I care how I smelled as long as I knew it was clean. Interviewing these customers was incredibly eye opening: they saw fragrance as a part of their outfit. It was a way they expressed themselves. It made them feel confident before a business meeting or sexy before an exciting date.

Writing: The goal of this script was to relate to people who absolutely love trying new fragrances. The entire theme of the ad (feeling naked without a fragrance on) is actually a direct quote from one of the user interviews - a woman said fragrance was so important to her, she’d feel naked if she walked out the door without it.

Post-production feedback: I gave detailed feedback to our editor to help ensure the cut reflected what was intended in the script.