After the first student in my class presented, I quickly realized I somehow managed to interpret this assignment differently than all of my classmates. The majority of my peers chose to select certain influencer collaborations for brands, revamp a company's Instagram feed, etc. For me, the part of branding that I enjoy the most is easily the storytelling aspect, which is a component Jacquemus utilizes extremely well in their marketing strategy (See One of My Fav Examples Here). Given this, I instantly began brainstorming as if I was put in charge of creative direction for a new collection campaign (this just happens to be my dream job... how ironic!).
I landed on this "Americana" concept after studying past campaigns from them and pulling inspiration from my recent editorial Pinterest saves. Given that one of Jacquemus's primary brand pillars is his French European heritage that he's crafted his brand to reflect and curated a lifestyle out of, I can see how this could come across as off-brand at first glance, however, there a plenty of reasons as why this is not case. According to Influencer Intelligence, Jacquemus's #1 customer lives in France, so based off of my own personal interactions with French people their ego and somewhat laughable perception of America would allow this campaign to be perceived as mockable/playful, intriguing, and definitely attention grabbing. Moreover, geographical demographics aside, American socialites tend to frequently be positioned as faces of the company: Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner, Emrata, and Ruby Lynn are often spotted in campaigns, at company events, sitting front row or walking at shows, and posting on social media in the brand, so the concept isn't all that out of left field when you look at it deeper.
Additionally, I wanted to play into the idea of glamorizing mundane Suburban America. The star in the campaign is an outcast. She's brave, different, cool. She shamelessly fab regardless of where she is. To briefly recap the mood board I threw together above, the story goes as follows: her car breaks down, she gets down and dirty trying to fix it, discovers she locked herself out the car, so she proceeds to break the window with her purse (because she always has it on her), then grabs her backup option and confidently skates to the nearest fast food restaurant in heels, eventually patching up her nice car with cardboard with nothing other than a Jacquemus shoe box for the time being.
It's the perfect blend of recognizable design elements with a twist. I was lacking to the level of skill and knowledge to replicate Jacquemus's well-known AI video advertisements, but if you've seen them before, you get the vision and how this technology could seamlessly be implemented here. As far as roll out strategy goes, each step along the way could have its own post and the series could string together across different platforms in a scavenger hunt style. This method would encourage the development of the brand's omnichannel presence while keeping consumers engaged by having different elements in real life on the streets of New York and France (poster bills) and others on Instagram or TikTok.
This is unlike any campaign Jacquemus has done before, but I'm convinced it would be received very well if executed properly. To those unfamiliar with the brand, it would would appear as a generally admirable high fashion editorial shoot. To those familiar with the brand and its identity, the juxtaposition of the storyline in combination with previously-used stylitic choices would allow it to land with consumer in a sweet-spot area that's between "out there" and recognizable. I can already envision the comments online that I already often see in Jacquemus's. comments: "Whoever is in charge of their marketing needs a raise" or "Jacquemus does it again"...
xoxo,
ZZ
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