Phantom Ingredient Quest
View the case- Brand
- Paco Rabanne
- Year
- 2021
- Objective
- Product Launch
- Industry
- Fashion & Beauty
- Mechanic
- Adventure & Quest
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Flaq Digital
Objective
Paco Rabanne needed a new flagship men's fragrance to pull the category out of its pandemic slump, launching Phantom across Europe in 2021. The campaign had to land two ideas at once: a futuristic 'connected' robot-bottle unlike anything else on shelf, and the lavender-vanilla-lemon formula inside it. Puig was counting on Phantom to become one of the year's most successful men's fragrance launches and a new pillar for revenue growth.
Solution
Phantom is a free browser and mobile game — no download required — that puts the player inside the scent's TV campaign: rather than watching the Phantom bottle-robot on screen, you drive it yourself through a futuristic world built for the launch. Moving forward through the level, the goal is to pick up the three ingredients behind the fragrance — lavender, vanilla and lemon — scattered along the route. Collect enough of each and Phantom unlocks its 'Feel-good power,' a boost that carries it past the obstacles in its path. The game plugs into the wider launch ecosystem: it lives at phantom-game.pacorabanne.com and was one of the interactive games inside the NFC-triggered Phantom Universe hub, unlocked by tapping a phone against the bottle's cap.
Results
Puig closed 2021 with net revenue of €2,585M, up 68% on 2020 and 27% on 2019, and singled out the Phantom launch as one of the year's highlights across travel retail. The rollout around the game included over 100 Phantom pop-up activations at EMEA, Asia-Pacific and Americas airports from July 2021, a two-week Westfield Les 4 Temps activation that sold 1,000 units on-site across 350 sqm, and an influencer push planned to reach 6 million travelers on TikTok and Instagram between July and September 2021.
- 1
Players reach the game either by tapping a smartphone against the NFC chip in the cap of a Phantom bottle, which opens the Phantom Universe hub and its games, or by going directly to phantom-game.pacorabanne.com, a browser build that loads behind a percentage-based progress bar.
- 2
The player controls Phantom itself: a robotic perfume-bottle character moving through a futuristic world built around the fragrance's identity.
- 3
The core loop is collection: the player moves through the level picking up units of the fragrance's three ingredients — lavender, vanilla, and lemon — building up a running total of each.
- 4
Gathering enough ingredients unlocks "Feel-good power," a special ability tied to the fragrance's tagline.
- 5
With the power active, the player uses it to get past the obstacles that follow, since the ability exists specifically to keep the character alive through them.
- 6
The game ties into a real-world sampling push for the fragrance's launch, connecting the playable experience to trying the actual product.
