BRAND PROFILE
From booking
to arrival
Shiseido is pioneering new methods for reaching established and new customers throughout the travel journey. Shiseido Travel Retail Vice President of Marketing & Innovation Elisabeth Jouguelet talks to Liam Coleman about how the beauty company partners with stakeholders to deliver its brand message across multiple platforms at multiple stages.
Airport advertising is changing for Shiseido. It has always been a critical platform for increasing brand awareness and driving in-airport sales, but the beauty giant is now becoming more ambitious in the way it reaches travelling consumers.
“We used to do only in-airport advertising for years and then we shifted to digital to try to create a seamless journey,” Shiseido Travel Retail Vice President of Marketing & Innovation Elisabeth Jouguelet explains.
“Interestingly we had this discussion at a strategy level. We were discussing investment and how important out-of-home is for the visibility of our brands. We improved in recent years in the path to purchase and in the consumer journey in general.
“A campaign needs to be fully integrated. We know how highly consumers plan their purchase, so we now know exactly where we need to be with the right messaging. If we were to just use airport advertising, we would lose this entire opportunity to connect with the traveller earlier.”
This approach, Jouguelet argues, involves engaging with stakeholders at all parts of the traveller journey. A recent example she gives was the relaunch for the Shiseido Ultimune range in 2018.
Making consumers aware of this campaign started long before they travelled as Shiseido partnered with Chinese travel services powerhouse Ctrip to offer destination messaging to those travelling. “From the insights we get from Ctrip, we start communicating messages two months before, which is the average length before the trip when they book their flight,” says Jouguelet.
Ultimune campaign awareness: While the airport still represents the critical purchase opportunity, Shiseido aimed to reach consumers with promotional messages for the skincare line two months before they travelled
Ultimune campaign awareness: While the airport still represents the critical purchase opportunity, Shiseido aimed to reach consumers with promotional messages for the skincare line two months before they travelled
The beauty company then uses KOLs and influencers to further increase brand and product awareness through both their own and the retailer’s social media platforms before customers travel.
A more connected world has made it easier for Shiseido and other brands to reach tourists before they travel, but the airport itself is still “a key touchpoint” – both for out-of-home advertising and in-store activation – according to Jouguelet. Indeed, for the Ultimune launch campaign, in-airport pop-ups were accompanied by out-of-home advertising in airports including Singapore Changi.
Jouguelet says the airport is “a key touchpoint” both for out-of-home advertising. Pictured is Changi Airport.
“The real challenge is how we work with our retailers to track KPIs. We would like to identify what are the touchpoints that are driving the traffic and what the ROI is. The magic of digital is that we can identify how to optimise, which is the direction we are working towards.”
Much like the pre-trip social media strategy, engaging with passengers at the airport requires close collaboration with the retailer and landlord. A more recent campaign for the Ultimune Eye Power Infusing Eye Concentrate saw Shiseido work with China Duty Free Group (CDFG) to have eye-catching pop-ups in-store at the key purchase opportunities in Shanghai Pudong and Beijing Capital airports. The partnership with CDFG was extended to a pop-up at CDFG’s downtown duty free retail complex in Hainan Island’s Haitang Bay, further increasing the purchase opportunity.
In-store activation is a key component of the multi-dimensional communications mix
What made these campaigns so successful? “The synchronisation with the retailer,” Jouguelet replies. “We are not only amplifying the campaign on our side, but we are also giving them all the assets required to relay the communications.”
Jouguelet says Shiseido is open to data sharing with partners in order to maximise the positives for all the stakeholders. “Our approach is to come transparently to the retailer saying we want to collaborate further and we are ready to share,” she adds.
On a similar note, when asked how Shiseido can make its campaigns more effective, Jouguelet says: “The real challenge is how we work with our retailers to track KPIs. We would like to identify what are the touchpoints that are driving the traffic and what the ROI is. The magic of digital is that we can identify how to optimise, which is the direction we are working towards.
The purchase opportunity is now extended thanks to downtown stores such as CDFG’s downtown duty free retail complex in Hainan Island’s Haitang Bay
The purchase opportunity is now extended thanks to downtown stores such as CDFG’s downtown duty free retail complex in Hainan Island’s Haitang Bay
“In many ways, we should localise our messaging better and have stronger calls to action. In all the categories, I have seen very inspiring campaigns. We are working on how to use Changi, where we have a great relationship with the airport group and Shilla, as an innovation lab.”
A Changi campaign that recently inspired Jouguelet was run by Pernod Ricard for Martell, where tailored nationality and flight information appeared in adverts for the Cognac brand.
Says Jouguelet: “I was amazed by how that blasted messages tailored to specific flights and distance to the gate, and the conversion was quite high.”
She adds that rapidly advancing technology is allowing Shiseido to make its campaigns more sophisticated.
“Iconic and innovative”: The Sense pop-up at Changi
“Iconic and innovative”: The Sense pop-up at Changi
“We hope to pioneer this trend by integrating technology into our animation programmes. The most advanced ones this year were the Sense activity at Changi Airport, which was related to the Shiseido Forest Valley. This was entirely digitally empowered and the discovery was fully immersive thanks to technology.
“We are working with JCDecaux to invest in their most iconic and innovative programmes. They are really working on something that can push different messages to different demographics,” Jouguelet says.
The sense pop-up was an audio, as well as visual, delight
Adding a message of caution, Jouguelet says: “I wouldn’t say we are there yet.” Nonetheless, we can expect Shiseido to keep embracing the available technology and maximse its campaign potential in the airport and beyond.
Sight Lines
Issue 5 | December 2019
Sight Lines is published by The Moodie Davitt Report (Moodie International Ltd) five times a year.
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