What does it take to successfully launch a new SKU into the heavily saturated fragrance market?
To launch its newest scent on Monday, September 14, Dedcool is betting on a New York City OOH campaign that includes a $1 million pop-up on Mott Street, a partnership with The Elk cafe, subway ads, wheatpastings across the city and a dynamic eventing schedule with Sephora, all timed to Fashion Week.
“You can definitely call it a blitz,” Carina Chaz, CEO and founder of Dedcool, told Glossy. “There’s a lot happening right now in New York with all things Fashion Week, [so this campaign will be] executed in a really fun and unique way that kind of plays on our Mocha Magic [fragrance launch], but also our full brand expression.”
As previously reported by Glossy, Dedcool is a 10-year-old functional fragrance brand sold DTC and through Sephora. The brand sells most fragrances for $90, as well as a selection of body-care and home products like body wash and lotion, dryer sheets, detergent, incense, and hand soap. Chaz founded the line in her college dorm room back in 2016 and, over the past decade, has shown a penchant for clever OOH marketing, from billboards to Erewhon’s first fragrance-inspired smoothie last year.
The Mocha Magic campaign started in Los Angeles in August with an $11 Mocha Magic Smoothie at Erewhon, the brand’s second smoothie with the grocery and cafe chain, to kick off the broader awareness play. “Erewhon is so important to the L.A. culture,” Chaz said, “And the smoothie piece is so fun to activate around while giving a new experience for the consumer.”
Then, starting on September 8, Dedcool launched a multi-week, limited-edition partnership with The Elk, a trendy cafe with locations in Nolita and the West Village of NYC. It includes an $8.75 Mocha Magic Latte with a custom drink sleeve and fragrance samples. “The Elk is, essentially, our version of [the Erewhon smoothie for NYC], built to create buzz and [enable broad] sampling,” Chaz said. “Getting our product onto skin is super important.”
Dedcool also invested in subway ads in 2,000 cars and wheatpastings across the city.
But the hero event of the week kicks off on September 18 with a three-day pop-up within a custom-built “Dedcool Café” concept at 262 Mott Street, between Houston and Prince, which will sell the new scent and full range of Dedcool products while serving free coffee and snacks. “We’ve had a few little activations in the past, but this is the first time one will be open to the public for retail,” Chaz said. “It is fully shoppable with lots of special gifts and merchandise exclusive to the pop-up.”
Chaz told Glossy the budget for the Mott Street pop-up, including location, design and staffing, is $1 million, and the team is stocking around $500,000 in total merchandise.
“There is this concept of ‘selling out’, which has been equated to success, but there’s nothing worse than having a moment where the consumer can’t experience or try the product,” Chaz said. “When it comes to the pop-up, we want to sell out; we don’t want to bring any inventory back to our 3PL — but that’s a different conversation from selling out on DTC and Sephora. We don’t want to sell out at Sephora; we definitely want to continuously stay in stock and ensure we have enough inventory to support the consumer and their demand.”
As previously reported by Glossy, Lower Manhattan has become a hotspot for in-person perfume shopping, with several brands opening permanent locations in the past two years. This includes ELC-owned Jo Malone, Frédéric Malle and Tom Ford, as well as Amouage, Nonfiction and Matiere Premiere, the Omani perfumer, K-beauty breakout star and Kering-backed fragrance company, respectively. Mott Street is also a popular pop-up destination used by brands like MCo, for its 2025 pop-up.
Sephora is not associated with the Mott Street pop-up. Instead, Dedcool will begin another leg of the tour on September 19 with four days of in-store eventing, including branded trucks to distribute samples outside busy locations in NYC and other markets as shoppers enter the stores.
Dedcool is inviting its full email list and top East Coast customers, and running several paid partnerships with influencers to amplify the pop-up moment and smaller moments.
“All are welcome [at the pop-up], and we definitely would love a queue,” Chaz said. “There’s always hype around queues, and speaking for myself, a brand founder always loves to see people lining up to experience their products.”
