DIOR and 180’s Industry-First WhatsApp Campaign Wins Gold at the Grand Prix Stratégies du Luxe

180 and DIOR have been recognised at the prestigious Grand Prix Stratégies du Luxe awards for their industry-first WhatsApp campaign.

The work has been awarded a Gold in the Digital/Mobile category, an important recognition from the luxury world for a ground-breaking campaign. 

The industry-first campaign, featuring brand ambassador and global icon BLɅϽKPIИK’s Jisoo, gave @diorbeauty’s 10.6million Instagram followers access to four days of exclusive content and conversation over WhatsApp. A customer-experience first at the crossroads of customer service, community management, and brand content.

To mark the release of the new DIOR Addict shine lipstick, DIOR, alongside 180’s specialist luxury unit 180 LUXE, collaborated with global communications platform Infobip to release this innovative omnichannel experience, the first time a brand has used WhatsApp to empower conversations with a brand ambassador. 

Customers were invited to become part of the experience via @diorbeauty’s Instagram story, where Jisoo offered followers the chance to join her ‘exclusive WhatsApp group’. Members chose the type of content they wanted to receive, from themed videos to exclusive behind the scenes footage of Jisoo’s life as a DIOR ambassador. They were also sent exclusive links to purchase the new DIOR Addict shine lipstick and given bespoke access to the brand’s new Instagram filter.

180 developed the bespoke communications strategy for DIOR and Jisoo, delivering both celebrity marketing and management using messenger apps. The Whatsapp group is a unique approach, which both taps into Jisoo’s massively engaged community and delivered a strengthened brand story, offering fans a bespoke experience directly within their messenger app, while allowing them to share various aspects of the campaign, from special videos with Jisoo to the AR experience.

Results were impressive. The Whatsapp group reached its maximum capacity and campaign memes went viral across all social networks, repurposing some of the content released. This behaviour has also created strong expectations as Jisoo only revealed a couple of pieces of content and experiences each day. 

Laurent Francois, managing partner of 180 Social and 180 LUXE said: “This activation, created in partnership with Infobip, proves just how vital a deep understanding of fandom is to building a strong and loyal brand community. Through Whatsapp, we leveraged new ways to build relevant ties between brand, ambassador and audience, all while turning DIOR’s and Jisoo’s communities into active participants along the journey. We couldn’t be more pleased to have been awarded a Gold by the Grand Prix Stratégies du Luxe in Paris. A key recognition of the frontier-shifting work 180 is doing in the luxury space.” 

The campaign was managed through Infobip’s WhatsApp Business solution, enabling DIOR to build a series of automated conversations and journeys with the help of a Jisoo chatbot. This type of channel means communication can include images, videos, files, web links, audio files and buttons to bring messages to life and keep customers engaged.