Montblanc EXPLORER Campaign

This weekend I had the amazing opportunity to work with Editor Joseph DeAcetis, and have the chance to be the Creative Director and design a campaign for Montblanc’s newest cologne, Explorer. For those of you who do not know, Montblanc’s fragrances come from a brand known as Interparfums, which is based in France. The brand was founded in 1906 and they create fragrances for men and women. Their top brands are Jimmy Choo, Oscar De La Renta, Montblanc and Coach.

Explorer is known to be a luxurious object with leather, mechanical and gunmetal details to highlight the luxury of the cologne. The white six-star logo on the bottle signifies the six values of the Montblanc brand. The scents of the fragrance come from Haiti, Indonesia and Italy. Explorers know that adventure has no limits and once you begin your adventure you are already thinking about the next challenge to come. The woody aromatic leather reveals a fresh, clean green Italian bergamot, colliding with an extraordinary vetiver from Haiti and contrasted with an exclusive patchouli from Indonesia. The strength of this fragrance shows a timeless strength of the exploring man.

During my time on set with Photographer Andrew Werner we discussed a few questions to ask yourself when creating the perfect campaign…..

Who is my target audience?

The obvious answer here is to say that men are the target audience, but if you think about the details a bit more you will realize women are actually the ones who are buying the cologne for their man. That being said, yes we want to show this is a product for men and that means showing a man that other men want to be like, but we are also showing a man that women want their men to be like as well!

What is the product I am advertising?

I am advertising the cologne Explorer by Montblanc. (Yes, I know this is obvious, but sometimes you get carried away when taking pictures and you need to remind yourself what is the priority in this image. )

What is the story behind the product?

The story behind my campaign was a man who travels, explores, camps, and doesn’t care if it is raining, if they need to light a fire, or if smoke arises. They are sophisticated explorers who are prepared for anything fierce to come in their adventuring pathway.

What are they using to show the product?

For my flat lay images, I wanted to show the exploring, traveling man, so I used rocks, mechanical pieces, maps, greenery, fire, a passport, and glass. On the models, I used apparel that was sexy, fierce, and trendy to show how this is a new unique product with a sex appeal to its parfum. I also had one of the models use rope so I could bring fire into the image.

What words would you use to describe the campaign?

Trendy Travel

Sophisticated

Bold Striking

Musky Sexual

Masculine

After designing the inspiration of the campaign, it was finally time to shoot! There were so many amazing images from this collaboration with Montblanc, Interparfum, Joseph DeAcetis, Andrew Werner, Tommy Maksanty, Lee Bienstock and myself, but here it is, the final campaign below!