Disrupting the Fragrance Category: Maesa’s Use of AI in Marketing and Content Creation

Since its launch in 1997, beauty incubator Maesa has been at the forefront of innovation. Last year, Maesa leveraged the latest developments in generative artificial intelligence to revolutionize its marketing and content creation strategies for its leading fragrance brand, Fine’ry.

Rooted in the craft of fine perfumery, Fine’ry has been disrupting the mass fragrance industry since its exclusive launch in Target in 2023. The brand saw unprecedented success on social media, going viral and selling out multiple times in its first year. By integrating AI into its digital marketing and content creation strategies in 2024, Fine’ry secured a competitive advantage in the rapidly evolving beauty industry.

Why Fine’ry Turned to Generative AI

Fine’ry has leveraged AI to rapidly produce high-quality visual content at scale, reinvest savings into product development and high-impact marketing tactics, and enhance the customer experience through immersive, multisensory activations like its New York City pop-up and a Roblox launch.

• Efficiency and Scalability: Since its viral launch in February 2023, Fine’ry needed a solution to produce high-quality visual content quickly and at scale. By leveraging AI, the brand can rapidly generate assets with consistent messaging and aesthetics, creating more flexibility for the marketing team to focus on strategy and creative direction.
• Cost Effectiveness: By harnessing AI, Fine’ry has been able to allocate more of its budget towards more comprehensive marketing strategies, resulting in higher reach and engagement across social platforms. After achieving 2.2 million engagements and 32 million online impressions in the first year, the brand has amassed almost 3x this figure in engagements year to date. Additionally, AI’s speed in content production has enabled the brand to enhance its marketing capabilities.
• Experience: Fine’ry has leveraged AI to enhance its unique user experience across multiple platforms, including the in-person Fine’ry-verse pop-up in New York City. This multisensory exhibit engaged all five senses, taking guests through distinct fragrance worlds with immersive visuals and interactive elements of touch, taste and smell, allowing them to discover their favorite scents. The result speaks for itself — the "phygital" experience attracted more than 2,000 fragrance enthusiasts in just two days, growing the brand’s social media following by 10 percent over the launch weekend. Fine’ry also used AI to create an immersive visual experience for its launch on Roblox, capturing the essence of the brand's fragrances in a virtual environment, appealing to Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers.

Maesa is among the first fragrance brands to integrate AI in this way. Through every aspect of our marketing, we’re using AI to bring the unique Fine’ry experience to life for our customers.

The Benefits of AI

By leveraging AI for faster content production, creative innovation, and scalability, Fine’ry is able to quickly respond to market trends, focus on strategic campaigns, and maintain high-quality, consistent visuals across all platforms and activations:

• Faster Content Production: AI streamlines content creation, allowing Fine’ry to produce high-quality assets rapidly and respond more effectively to market trends and consumer demands.
• Creative Innovation: AI enables Fine’ry’s teams to focus on strategy and innovative campaigns, resulting in fresh ideas that distinguish the brand in the marketplace.
• Scalability: AI allows Fine’ry to scale its marketing efforts while ensuring consistent quality, delivering a unified and elevated visual presence across all platforms and activations.

AI isn’t here to replace creativity; it’s here to enhance it. By embracing AI, Fine’ry can work more efficiently and effectively to build a bank of assets that rival the top players in the fragrance industry.

Looking Ahead

Fine’ry’s use of generative AI is continuously evolving as the brand explores new ways to integrate it across its operations. With AI technology advancing, Fine’ry sees unlimited potential for innovation in personalized marketing, customer experiences, and content creation.

Fine'ry is just scratching the surface of what AI can do for it. As the technology evolves, we’re excited to unlock even more potential for innovation, deeper experiences, and more effective customer engagement.

By embracing generative AI, Fine’ry is positioning itself as a forward-thinking, digital-first fragrance brand that can exceed the expectations of today’s tech-savvy consumers. Through AI, Fine’ry is not just staying competitive, it's shaping the future of beauty marketing.

Nadia Khan is a senior vice president at Maesa, the world's leading beauty incubator, creating, developing, and operating quality brands in haircare, color cosmetics, fragrance and skincare.