With Comme un air de Marseille, the tourist office has acquired an olfactory signature – C. Delabroy / 20 Minutes
- The home fragrance “Comme un air de Marseille” was born from a partnership between the Marseille metropolitan tourist office and the start-up Stimulation Deja Vu, based in Montreal.
- The idea is to equip the city with an olfactory signature, in order to create an additional link with travelers.
- After a trip to Marseille, the Montreal team conducted biometric tests to measure the emotions of different formulas.
At a time when the Calanques National Park is hunting down beautiful photos on Instagram, in a demarketing strategy, “Comme un air de Marseille” intends to play on another meaning to promote the destination. That of olfactory memory. “When we travel, we see, we taste, we smell, and our job is to amplify this essential sense of smell, because it brings to another emotional dimension”, states Audrey Bernard, at the origin of this home fragrance launched by the Marseille metropolitan tourist and convention office, which will sell it from the start of the school year.
“We are not in olfactory marketing, she defends herself, the idea is to tell a story, to immerse oneself in places, in a place, to arouse an emotion and a memory. We are at the crossroads of tourism and culture ”.
To make the elixir, the start-up she founded in Montreal, Stimulation Deja Vu, is based on biometrics, or the measurement of emotions. “We founded a small laboratory to do odor and sound biometric tests, and that’s where we met with the Marseille tourist office, then visiting Montreal. “
“Leave a cool, light signal”
“We were immediately hooked, it is above all the innovative side of giving an olfactory memory to a destination that interested us”, continues its director, Maxime Tissot, who gave carte blanche to the Montreal start-up. This is how Audrey Bernard made the trip to Marseille, to capture the city before bottling it. “I arrived in the city center by metro, when I left the Old Port, I was dazzled by the heat, the sun, she rewinds. Marseille is wonder, this is what we wanted to convey in this creation ”.
Back in Montreal, she told her team about her impressions. Then tested the emotions of different blends, before submitting three proposals to the Marseille tourist office. “Comme un air de Marseille” is ultimately intended to be a “mixture of marine and anise notes, reminiscent of urban heat and the hills”. On our side, we are looking a little for what the perfume has of Marseille character. “The objective is to leave a mark, a fresh signal, which you will find each time you return to Marseille, that reassures, gives confidence”, advances Maxime Tissot.
Discussions with the airport
“It is also an international promotional tool, a support to attract clients to a salon,” he adds. The large metropolises all have train stations, airports and convention centers. What makes the difference is the human contact ”. The pandemic delayed the project, and discussions are underway with the airport, the train station, and soon perhaps the Mucem and certain hotels, to disseminate this olfactory identity of Marseille.
With this Marseille launch, the Stimulation Deja Vu start-up has in any case seen the opening of the French market. Since the beginning of April, it has installed in Carpentras, in the Vaucluse, a replica of its Montreal laboratory, and initiated projects in the south of France, but also in Cambrai. On the Quebec side, the partnership is continuing with Montreal, which already has a range of five room fragrances, including a “Mount Royal after the rain”. Another city, another atmosphere.