On January 2, French luxury fashion house Chanel quietly posted a new campaign on YouTube that has also been making its rounds via TV ad spots.
Appropriately titled “The new Chance campaign,” the 30-second video is a colorful and playful ad for one of Chanel’s most iconic fragrance collections: Chance. The short film shot by French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who was also behind the 2009 Chanel No. 5 film “Train de Nuit” featuring actress Audrey Tautou, is a new iteration of the classic campaign and seems to target Gen Z. Chanel tapped models Amiah Miller, Zuza Bryk, Mathilda Gvarliani and Maty Fall to represent the four Chanel Chance fragrances and musical duo Ibeyi to perform the original song for the 2024 campaign.
“One night, 4 young women, brought together by a lighthearted love for the game and bound by friendship, try their luck. Joyful and carefree. Each scent has its own personality: energizing Chance Eau Fraîche, delicate Chance Eau Tendre, bold Chance and optimistic Chance Eau Vive,” the brand captions in the YouTube video that now sits at 813,000 views. The campaign is also running on Chanel’s Instagram.
As promoted in a customer email on January 22, Chanel has also released an accompanying mobile app game, “Chance The Game,” which is available to download on the Apple Store and Google Play. The game, available for users 4 years old and older, is an immersive and customizable experience that challenges players to “get as far as possible along the course of Chance and collect drops and camellias” along the way to boost their overall score.
Luxury beauty brands attempting to attract younger consumers is nothing new, and Chanel is no exception. In January 2022, Chanel launched a clean beauty line called No. 1 de Chanel on its DTC e-commerce site and at Ulta Beauty. Similar to the Chance rollout, Chanel tapped into the idea of ushering in a “new generation” of beauty via a handful of YouTube ads marketing the eco-friendly product line. In May 2023, Chanel reported 17% annual revenue growth for 2022, crediting robust sales and new product developments in its beauty and fragrance categories. Chance was not available for comment for this story.
“A lot of luxury brands tend to emphasize escapism and going to a brand new world; that’s what the metaverse is all about,” Milton Pedraza, CEO of research and consulting company Luxury Institute, told Glossy. ‘[This Chanel ad] is playful, fun and aspirational, in the sense that you want to be in this happy world. You see [the models] interacting with the products, but you see that the products they are interacting with are affordable.” Pedraza said affordable, aspirational products are a growing trend. Gen Z consumers are still willing to spend on small luxuries, especially fragrances. Chanel’s Chance fragrances range in price from $100-$165, depending on the size, while the starting price for Chanel’s classic chain handbag is around $3,500.
As younger generations have been introduced to luxury, their appetite has grown. NielsenIQ data reveals that 61% of Gen-Z consumers are buying luxury beauty products, and they’re outspending millennials on luxury skin-care and hair-care products. According to Pedraza, heritage brands that win over Gen Z should continue to prioritize authenticity in their brand messaging while also engaging young luxury consumers and their appetite for aspirational products.
He said meeting younger consumers where they are is key. YouTube has become its most trusted and popular social platform among Gen Z, based on data from a December YouGov survey.
According to Precise TV and Giraffe Insights research, Gen Z has continued to use YouTube, and they’re engaging more with YouTube ads than ever. YouTube reported a 4.4% increase in ad revenue for the second quarter of 2023 after an August 2023 study revealed that six in 10 teens will watch a YouTube ad rather than skip it.
“It’s never been so easy to target someone on YouTube and television, and it’s very effective because it’s so interactive,” Pedraza said. “Some people will find [an ad] intrusive, but most of us find it OK because we’re not going to have to pay as much [for streaming platforms] for viewing it.”
He added, “We’ll continue to see highly targeted, highly personalized [ads]. And luxury brands will use them more to get to the right consumer.”
