Lacoste, Orange, Le chocolat des Français, Fight for Dignity
Four unique French brand activations in Q1 2021.
I haven’t lived in France for a few years now but I like keep up to date with the latest French marketing trends and especially brand activations.
In my mind, a brand is the company’s first intangible asset as a well-managed brand generates identification, differentiation and therefore value. Brand equity is essential for a business in any type of competitive market in order to attract and retain customers.
Many French companies, institutions and associations, often supported by advertising agencies, set themselves apart through their original brand activations.
Let’s rewind and have a quick look at 4 made in France brand activations that I found riveting during the first quarter of 2021.
Lacoste x Polaroid: “Let the color in” 🌈
Founded in 1933 by tennis player René Lacoste and engineer André Gillier, Lacoste is a French clothing company. The company is recognized worldwide thanks to its green crocodile logo appearing on its clothes, footwear, sportswear, leather goods, perfume and accessories.
Lacoste multiplies collaborations and limited editions with personalities and other brands that share similar values, and since March 17th, the brand is in full color by collaborating with Polaroid, the well-known American company for its instant film and cameras.
The collection named “Faites entrer le couleur” / “Let the color in” is inspired by Polaroid’s rainbow logo from its first instant color film developed in 1963. BETC, Lacoste’s partner agency since 2004 took care of the photoshoot in Marseille with photographer Simon Schmitt. Their objective? “May each image celebrate the joy of living through rhythm and freedom”.
By collaborating with Polaroid, Lacoste tries to appropriate Polaroid values such as joy, boldness, and freedom. This perfectly matches with the Lacoste brand image which is timeless, transgenerational and universal and conveys here its own vision of elegance with a touch of optimism.
Orange: “The most innovative thing about 5G is what we’ll do with it” 🖼
Deploying 5G is a big business for telecom companies around the world. In France, Orange, a multinational telecommunications operator, is positioning itself as the leader to bring 5G to consumers, with a lot of publicity around the functional and technical aspects of the technology.
This next generation network is currently dividing the French population and giving rise to various debates whether they are economic, health or ecological.
So, on February 7, Orange released a new brand awareness advertising spot with the aim of highlighting the countless uses made possible by 5G. With this activation, a new step occurs as they go beyond the tech aspect to show the positive progress of 5G for our society and how it will be useful on our daily life.
In this commercial led by Publicis Conseil, 5G allows students to visit a museum and interact with its most iconic masterpieces like never before. In other words, it shows that the user experience provided by the quality of Orange’s 5G network offers a new turn towards virtual reality and augmented reality.
For the company: “Every sector will benefit from the positive contributions of 5G: healthcare, entertainment, industry, transport, etc.” With this feel-good movie, Orange shows how the brand is working towards a better and more interactive world. Something particularly useful for the education of children and perfectly illustrates how the company with its 5G can have a relevant and positive place in everyone’s future.
Le chocolat des Français: “Keep only the best of France” 🍫
Le Chocolat des Français is a brand of artisanal chocolate bars with products made in several workshops in France. They are sold online and in 500 points of sale. Their competitive advantage? Their chocolate bars are illustrated by hundreds of artists. As a result, each packaging looks like a real work of art. Colorful, authentic and gourmet, the brand teleports customers into a very lively illustrated universe.
In March, the brand partnered with TBWA\Paris to promote its new limited-edition packaging of chocolate bars paying homage to a typical French everyday life that seems a bit distant since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The interesting part of this activation is that these typical French clichés like eating out, the Arc de Triomphe, a game of pétanque or the Moulin Rouge are depicted on the packaging while much less positive clichés appear in the background as a larger illustration surrounding the scenes of the chocolate bars.
In this way, the brand humorously invites customers to keep only the best of France, which is in this case, their chocolate bar.
Fight for Dignity: “Together, fighting the silence” ✊
Created in 2017 by Laurence Fischer, three-time world karate champion, Fight for Dignity helps women victims of violence to rebuild themselves through sport. They offer karate sessions adapted to women victims of violence to support them on the path to resilience by reconnecting body and mind.
End of January, the association in collaboration with the advertising agency Sweet Spot launched “Ensemble, combattons le silence” / “Together, fighting the silence”, a brand campaign to raise awareness and fight against violence in sport.
18 French athletes who won a world, European or Olympic medal, posed in kimono in a photoshoot directed by the photographer Geraldine Aresteanu, to show their support.
This activation took the form of a guide to help witnesses or victims of violence. In this guide, they were able to find advice, emergency telephone numbers, associations to support them, etc. Several copies of posters and guides were distributed to the athletes and coaches of sports associations throughout France.
Looking forward to discovering more interesting brand activations for the second quarter of 2021. À bientôt ! 👋
