Maison Louis Marie is a luxury fragrance brand with real heritage. Founder Marie du Petit Thouars traces her family's botanical legacy to revolutionary era Madagascar, where an ancestor cataloged plant discoveries. The products reflect that history. Clean formulas. Nature forward scents. Candles and perfume oils with genuine followings. When I came on through agency partner 1r, the email program had solid technical foundations. Flows, segmentation, and retargeting all performed well. But the creative felt disconnected from the visual world the brand was building on their website and social channels. Modules looked generic. Typography wandered. Email worked fine as a channel. It just wasn't showing up as a brand surface.
The opportunity was to treat email as a primary expression of the brand rather than a downstream marketing task. After a comprehensive brand audit, we built a Figma design system that adapted the website's creative standards for email. New typographic hierarchy. A modular component library with multiple variations for product grids, category features, and educational callouts. Designers could remix while keeping everything recognizably Maison Louis Marie. I crafted an extended tone of voice that let copy feel editorial. We redesigned every existing flow, connected email and social teams so assets could move between channels, and restructured the review process so our team could collaborate with the client directly.
That work earned us an expanded scope. The client brought me on to concept and direct seasonal campaigns. Holiday centered on Luminous Warmth. Gradients, halos, softened edges. The intimate flicker of candlelight translated into visual language. Black Friday became The Premiere. Teaser silhouettes and invitation motifs reframed the sale as an opening night reveal. I developed moodboards, execution mockups, and copywriting samples for each concept, then worked closely with the client's photography team through production. The relationship continues to grow into ongoing creative direction for paid media, product launches, and evergreen shoots.
The client's response to the first email told me we landed it. They saw their brand the way they'd always pictured it. Within three months, email revenue rose 39.9% year over year. Conversion nearly doubled. Open rates climbed 35.8%. What started as an email engagement became a genuine creative partnership. The kind where the client calls you first when something new is on the horizon.
credits
Agency Partner1r
AgencyAct Second
RoleCreative Director
DesignDani Herrera
Email DevelopmentJoey Cupelli
Project ManagementPhil Smith
PhotographerAileen Son
Prop StylistShelby Kay Reed
LightingSteven Hickey
Hair & MakeupJen Flamengo
ProductionLauryn Gerstle
