Dive Brief:
- Diesel’s spring/summer 2016 campaign will place ads on mobile dating apps such as Tinder and Grindr, as well as the pornography site Pornhub.
- Emphasizing freedom in the unified online and offline worlds, the brand will also promote itself using #hashtag campaigns, Instagram, and a set of custom emoji.
- Diesel’s sexed-up ads will reach a lot of consumers outlets such as Pornhub, which is the 64th most popular website worldwide.
Dive Insight:
Diesel is leading where other brands may fear to tread in digital, including advertising outlets such as hookup apps and porn sites. Led by Nicola Formichetti, Diesel’s artistic director since 2013, the campaign behind the brand's spring/summer collection will be advertised in a variety of unexpected ways, including hashtags, custom emoji, Instagram clips, and provocative placements on Tinder, Grindr, and Pornhub.
Under Formichetti, the brand has explored other unusual executions such as an Instagram casting call and an appearance in the multiplayer online game Glitch. But the brand has a long history of advertising innovation, becoming known for surreal brand advertising in the 1980s and issuing digital content including its own video game via CD-ROM in the late 1990s.
The digital strategy offers the global brand a way to reach people irrespective of language and in every setting. And the audiences that Diesel's latest venues offer is not small: About 50 million people use Tinder every month, while 5 million use Grindr. Pornhub is No. 64 in worldwide in web traffic, according to Alexa, and No. 55 in the United States, just behind Macy’s but ahead of Microsoft.
