Company:
Maison Margiela REPLICA
Year:
2024
Duration:
2 Weeks
Overview
To amplify engagement and discovery around the Replica fragrance line, we developed a digital scratch-off game that rewarded exploration with deluxe minis. The experience was crafted to feel luxurious and playful, inviting users to “match” fragrances through a tactile interaction that aligned perfectly with Maison Margiela’s sensorial brand language.
Visual Execution
The Replica Scratch-Off Experience was crafted as a serene, immersive space translating the emotional subtlety of scent into a visual and interactive language. Every element was designed to feel slow, tactile, and intentional, aligning with both the Replica line’s storytelling and Maison Margiela’s signature restraint.
A minimal, editorial canvas served as the foundation with soft backgrounds, muted tones, and generous white space invited focus and calm. Typography borrowed from luxury editorial design, creating a sense of elegance and quiet sophistication.
The scratch-to-reveal mechanic was rendered with smooth, tactile animations. As users swiped, scent notes and scene fragments appeared gradually beneath the surface, mimicking the reveal of memory or sensation.
Scene transitions were cinematic yet restrained, using soft motion, dissolves, and ambient build-up to guide users through each step without distraction. The experience opened with a fly-through animation, easing users into the environment and evoking the slow awakening of the senses.
Tiered rewards and scent visuals were illustrated and animated in a way that felt poetic, not promotional. Unlockable elements emerged like discoveries supporting the narrative flow rather than interrupting it.
The Lily Pad variant offered a more whimsical take with watercolor-style textures, fluid motion, and floating fragrance notes added playfulness while remaining on-brand. This version demonstrated the platform’s flexibility without compromising visual cohesion.
Altogether, the visual system worked in harmony with interaction and story, turning a traditionally product-driven moment into a mood-first, memory-led experience. It invited users to not just browse, but to feel, explore, and uncover, aligning every visual touchpoint with the essence of Replica.
Creative Strategy
This experience reimagined fragrance discovery through an unexpected, tactile digital moment. Instead of a traditional scroll or product grid, users were invited into a quiet, editorially paced world where emotion guided interaction.
At its core was a digital scratch-off mechanic inspired by the act of unveiling a memory. As users swiped to reveal scent notes, scenes, and product visuals, they uncovered fragments of sensory storytelling, directly mirroring the Replica line’s concept of bottled moments in time.
Our strategy centered around three key pillars:
Tactile interaction as metaphor
The scratch-to-reveal motion symbolized memory surfacing gradual, layered, and intimate. This slowed user behavior in a way that encouraged curiosity and deeper brand immersion, breaking from the expected rhythms of typical eCommerce flows.Narrative-first discovery
Users explored emotion-first. Scent was introduced through mood, location, and atmosphere, a beach breeze, a rainy afternoon, a familiar sweater while letting story spark interest before specs or price. This reversed the traditional hierarchy of online retail in favor of affective connection.Atmospheric brand immersion
From muted palettes and serif typography to ambient transitions and pacing, the entire space reflected Maison Margiela’s signature restraint and elegance. The Replica identity became the foundation for every motion, interaction, and visual element.
To enhance functionality and replayability, the experience also featured:
Scratch-to-Reveal Gameplay: A gamified mechanic where users matched scent visuals to unlock tiered rewards from minis to candles.
With-Purchase Redemption: Seamless cart integration tied user interaction to conversion and CRM data capture.
Seasonal Reskinning: A flexible platform built to support multiple campaigns, themes, and product drops.
Lily Pad Variant: An alternate version with a whimsical water garden UI where users flipped fragrance notes like petals.
Fly-through Animation: A cinematic introduction eased users into the space, building sensory anticipation through gentle camera movement and layered sound design.
By layering interaction, story, and utility, this experience transformed fragrance exploration into a deliberate, sensorial ritual, one that honored memory, elevated emotion, and made space for joy.
Storyboard
This storyboard outlines the journey of a user entering the Replica scratch-off world - a fragrance experience designed to unfold through emotion, memory, and tactile discovery. The flow opens with a cinematic fly-through animation, gently immersing users in a lush, sensory-driven environment. As they progress, interactive lily pads float across the screen, prompting users to flip scent notes and unlock visual story fragments. With each interaction, the experience evokes mood, memory, and curiosity while culminating in a personalized product reveal and a seamless checkout moment. Every frame was intentionally designed to balance editorial elegance with playful utility, transforming exploration into a ritual that feels both magical and meaningful.
Emotive Experience Flow
The experience was designed to unfold like a sensorial arc. One that echoed the quiet drama of uncovering a memory. Each stage of the flow was mapped to an emotional beat: from the initial Invitation, where a cinematic fly-through animation sparked intrigue, to the tactile Game Start, which introduced a sense of playful enjoyment. As users progressed through the scratch-off mechanic, they were met with encouragement through elegant pairing visuals, leading to a moment of surprise when winning messages were revealed. The final step then receiving a complimentary fragrance delivered a feeling of gratification, bringing the journey full circle. The structure was simple, yet emotionally layered, mirroring the Replica line’s approach to storytelling through scent.
Moodboard
The visual direction drew from Maison Margiela’s signature restraint minimal, intimate, and intentionally unhurried, layered with tactile textures that evoke the Replica fragrance line’s theme of memory. Soft lighting, muted tones, and editorial design references created a sense of quiet elegance, while details like worn surfaces, handwritten type, and linen-inspired backdrops suggested warmth and lived-in intimacy. The inclusion of layered objects and sensorial materials (glass, cotton, skin, earth) reflected the complexity of scent and its ability to transport. This moodboard served as a tonal anchor for the full experience ensuring every motion, interaction, and visual decision carried a sense of subtle reveal, story, and sensory depth.
Results
Won the RFP!
Seamlessly bridged gamification and commerce
Created a flexible experience framework for Maison Margiela to reuse across future campaigns
Supported brand storytelling while encouraging CRM sign-ups and higher AOV
Drove delight and conversion through sensorial digital engagement
