Remember that sex sells
Delivering a sense of a fashion brand or the scent of a perfume both offline and online is challenging. In magazines, advertisers use powerful images that convey the essence of the perfume, such as freshness, a seaside breeze, or love and passion. Magazine advertisers have another advantage since they can append a sample of the scent to get users to try it on the spot.
Italian fashion house Diesel took these powerful magazine images and transformed them online. In one of the most sensual ads seen online, Diesel uses a homepage takeover to convey the essence of its new perfume: "Fuel for Life."
At the beginning, a wallpaper ad covers the homepage, and a mid-page unit (MPU) appears in the middle. But once you click on the banner, a full-page homepage takeover opens up, showing a 15-second clip. The clip features a beautiful man and woman playing around with a bottle of perfume. The entire clip is full of sex appeal and suggestive poses that leave little room for imagination.
Diesel has taken some risk due to the highly seductive nature of this ad. Nevertheless, this ad is targeted at the Diesel audience and caters to an image that its young audience looks for and expects from the brand. Young and fashion conscious, the intended audience already likes the Diesel brand, and it can appreciate this ad and image that the brand is trying to sell.
