Fenty Beauty tied up with make-up e-commerce giant Nykaa to launch in India. They needed a 30-second film and stills to announce the arrival of Rihanna's brand, in two weeks, on a tight budget.
Nykaa was bringing Fenty Beauty into India under the campaign line "The New Generation of Beauty".
The ask: a 30 to 40 second launch film, a teaser, six-second adapts and statics.
The film had to read as Indian without using India as a prop.
A global brand that slips there gets labelled an import, and in a price-sensitive market an import is an easy thing not to buy.
Fenty was matching India in its diversity, not explaining it to India.
The moodboards were built on restraint. Whites, a plain saree drape, jewellery worn as a statement.
From the first call, we pushed for an original soundtrack over a stock cue and stayed on it through the final edit.
I set the concept and the visual direction, and argued for and supervised the original soundtrack. The team and I built the shot deck and worked the film and soundtrack edits in parallel. The Creative Director, stylist, make-up artist and photographer owned the shoot floor, and the final calls were made on the day.
The same problem, solved in sound. The Indian element is a pungi, the snake charmer's reed, about as close to a stereotype as a sound gets. The melody came from Indian highway truck horns.
Sampled, chopped and flipped, so the drop lands against the assumption it sets up.
Right up to launch there was doubt the track was too experimental.
The reel went live in April 2024 on Fenty Beauty's and Nykaa's accounts. 2.9 million views at 0.44% engagement, about three times Fenty's FY24 average.
The soundtrack survived a late push back to stock.
The roll-out was cut short when Fenty moved its India distribution to Sephora. The brand mandate stayed with Yellow.
