L’Oréal’s YSL Black Opium Delivers Consecutive Quarter Full Funnel Gains on Snapchat

L’Oréal’s YSL Black Opium is known for its sensual and chic femininity. Black Opium came to Snapchat in Holiday 2020 with a mission to increase reach with a younger audience by testing and learning. This case study highlights the result of a two wave test, one during Holiday 2020 seeking to understand the role of adding Extended Play (EP) Commercials and the other during Valentine’s Day seeking to understand the relative contribution of adding an AR Lens to the existing ad product mix.  

Wave 1 Holiday 2020 Objective: To drive awareness and intent through storytelling, while testing and learning the role of adding Extended Play (EP) Commercials.

Wave 2 Valentine’s Day 2021 Objective: To drive even stronger awareness and intent lifts beyond what was already observed for Snap Ads + Extended Play (EP) Commercials.

Strategic Approach: Snap Ads + EP Commercials + AR Lens

Wave 1 Holiday 2020 

During Holiday 2020, YSL Black Opium leveraged Extended Play (EP) Commercials in conjunction with Snap Ads to tell the story of Black Opium Fragrance. YSL partnered with Snapchat to reach an audience of women aged 18-35. The multi ad product approach contributed above-norm performance for all metrics, with a 2x lift in Product Awareness and 5x lift in Purchase Intent.¹ Snapchatters who saw Commercials drove 3x the norm for lift in Product Awareness. This also translated to a halo effect on YSL Beauté conversion media running concurrently, where the brand observed a lift in Purchases 3x the norm.²

Wave 2 Valentine’s Day 2021 

The Holiday 2020 campaign had already proven the efficacy of a Snap Ads + Extended Play (EP) Commercials execution. It had driven lifts throughout the funnel, from awareness to conversion. For Valentine’s Day, AR Lenses were added to the mix to determine if the power of three ad products was greater than the power of two. Adding the AR Lens contributed to even stronger performance against norms, driving Lifts 3x the norm for Product Awareness, and 5.4x the norm for Purchase Intent, indicating the AR Lens was able to drive further success against YSL’s business outcomes.³

The first key learning was to make sure the commercial included a prominent logo and creative that notably showcased the product. As a result, the prominent logo drove +81% stronger ROAS and +9ppt increase from New Buyers. ⁴ A creative with identifiable product generated +10% stronger ROAS.⁴ The second key learning was to consider including a celebrity endorsement within the ad creative. With the celebrity presence/endorsement, the campaign drove +20ppt more via New Buyers.⁴

The first key learning was the importance of capitalizing on moments. With the help of AR Lenses, Snapchat and L’Oréal were able to do just that. The Valentine's Day tentpole alignment generated +120% stronger ROAS, +11ppt more via New Buyers.⁴ The tentpole was able to create resonance with Snapchatters, who are accustomed to seeing holiday themes celebrated through AR experiences. The second key learning was the significance of branding big, especially for New Buyers. 95% of the AR Lenses used prominent branding and a prominent logo, which drove +14ppt more N/B contribution.⁴ YSL Black Opium served as a catalyst to the action, with users tapping to propel the action forward.