Paco Rabanne x Bidstack

Bidstack x Paco Rabanne Invictus

Paco Rabanne partnered with Bidstack and Starcom Worldwide to promote their iconic men’s fragrances, Invictus and Phantom with two innovative campaigns.

Invictus is a flagship brand for Paco Rabanne which embodies power, heroism and a drive to win – the brand appeals to a male audience and aligns well with interests such as sports and fitness. In this campaign, Paco Rabanne was aiming to engage consumers during the holiday season through new media including gaming.

The Campaign

The campaign delivered branded experiences in the metaverse around audience passion points through seamless in-game ads and a highly original VR experiential activation. The VR ‘reaction wall’ challenge invited players to showcase their speed, agility and skill in VR training platform Rezzil’s popular Player 22 game as they took on a legendary Champion of the United States men’s national soccer team (USMNT), goalkeeper Tim Howard.

Half A Million Gamers Reached

Whilst players pushed themselves to the limit, Invictus became a unique part of the experience with branding delivered across natural spaces such as trackside banners, pitchside hoardings, cityscape billboards and even a custom VR training facility in-game.

The campaign reached almost half a million gamers, increasing purchase intent and making Invictus the first fragrance in the world to create a sporting challenge in a VR environment. A resounding success, this campaign was later shortlisted for a 2022 Campaign Media US Award for Best Media Strategy.

Bidstack x Paco Rabanne Phantom

Paco Rabanne’s second campaign with Bidstack promoted Phantom, their groundbreaking men’s fragrance with a distinctive silver robot shaped bottle.

In collaboration with Maximum Games’ Curved Space the iconic bottle was brought to life in the game as a free to download controllable companion working alongside players as they travel through the deepest reaches of space.

An Industry First

This was the first time a fragrance has featured in a game as a playable character and the campaign acts as a fine example of Paco Rabanne’s innovative approach to engaging their target audience in a way that respects and enhances the end-user experience.

The playable character launched on November 1st and allowed the brand to connect gamers with the futuristic fragrance in the run-up to the holiday season.