Thanks to a friend with ample airline miles and a niece with an apartment in New York City, I went to the FiFi Finalists award breakfast on Friday. So, instead of the usual Monday perfume review, I’ll give you an inside peek at all the important aspects of the breakfast: what it is about, who was there, and what was in the goody bag.
The Fragrance Foundation bills the FiFis as the fragrance industry’s Oscars. At the finalists breakfast, the top five entries for each of the awards categories are announced along with the winners of the awards for editorial excellence and for technological breakthrough. Although both the Oscars and the FiFis incorporate celebrities and prizes for excellence, the FiFis are less about art and more about sales. After all, the Oscars don’t offer prizes for Best Packaging and Best National Media Campaign. As an executive for Cosmpolitan magazine said in her opening remarks at the breakfast, “The creative marketing talent in this room can create the sweetest smell of all: the smell of success.”
That said, for the perfume industry to survive, it needs to be strong. Plus, the FiFis do include prizes for best fragrances in several categories and for editorial excellence. I submitted work to be considered for an award, and that’s how I ended up receiving an invitation to attend the breakfast. It cost me $100 to attend the breakfast (industry people paid $170 each) and they waived the requirement to be a member of the Fragrance Foundation. Since my airfare and lodging were essentially free, I forked over the money to attend. After all, who knew who I would meet? Perfumers, maybe, and people who wanted to talk about fragrance.
Wrong. The breakfast was loaded with marketing and public relations staff from the cosmetics industry, and I’m willing to bet few of them shared our over-the-top love of scent. Most of the attendees I encountered looked my way and moved along, savvy to the fact that I wasn’t worth networking with. I was listed in registration under “No Smell This”, and my vintage clothes and messy hair stood out, not in a good way. I’d say about 80 percent of the attendees were women, most of them with chunky highlights and in teetering heels, and many of them dressed for cocktails. It was eight thirty in the morning.
The breakfast was at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the new Times Warner building at Columbus Circle. The conference room, a floor above their famous lobby on the 35th floor, had a staggering view of Central Park and midtown. It was the first clear, warm day of spring, and the trees in Central Park were dotted with the chartreuse hints of leaves. Round tables set for breakfast splayed in semi-circles facing the windows, in front of which was a dais. I’d guess the room held 35 tables with about ten people at each table.
The mistress of ceremonies was from a local news station. She was tiny, blond, and blow-dried and had a melodious announcing voice; French words presented a serious challenge. She was a natural for Juicy Couture, but I’m guessing she opted for something more expensive, like Frédéric Malle Carnal Flower. Victoria from Bois de Jasmin won Editorial Excellence for Blogs for her marvelous “Scent of Cities: Kiev“. I’ve read her religiously for at least three years and was excited to see her in person as she went to the stage for her award. She’s small, gamine-beautiful, and brunette, and she stood out like a wild violet in a pile of supermarket gardenias.
When the breakfast was over, throngs of ladies choked the lobby for the few available elevators. I found a side table to root through my goody bag while I waited. The idea behind the bag was that it would include samples of all the fragrance nominees so that Fragrance Foundation members could test them before casting their votes. I was excited, seeing that Chanel Beige, Acqua di Parma Profumo and Guerlain Les Elixirs Charnels Gourmand Coquin were nominees. Unfortunately, they weren’t in the goody bag. I did find samples of Amouage Jubilation 25, an Etat Libre d’Orange, and the three Karl Lagerfeld Kapsules, but most of the rest were mass market brands. I gave the nearby security guards a few samples to take home. Still, I left with over five pounds of loot. You can look forward to a review of Avon Bond Girl 007.
Was it worth $100? Would I do it again? I don’t think so. I’m more interested in perfume itself than in marketing perfume. Still, I’m glad I went. I feel like I was granted a look behind the curtain. With RuPaul as emcee and a few more tables filled with bloggers, this event could be a lot of fun.
Note: you can watch the 2008 FiFi breakfast at the FiFi Awards channel at YouTube; presumably they’ll eventually post videos of this year’s ceremony as well.
42 Comments
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Fascinating industry insight – thanks for documenting the event, Angela! Boisdejasmin sounds exactly as I picture her from her scent tastes, while most of the delegates sound like extras straight out of “Lipstick Jungle”…My unmanicured British nails would have been my undoing, had I attended… : – )
I wish you were there! We could have sat next to each other and estimated the net value of all the hair care in the room. And don’t even get me started on my own nails.
Angela, how fantastic that you had a chance to go. The atrium was so packed with people that it was impossible to communicate with anyone (I do not have vocal cords that are strong enough.) I wish I knew you were coming. It would have been very nice to meet you in person.
I loved the article you submitted, by the way. It is one of my favorites from you, in general.
Your characterization of the event is really spot on. In general, I find it very hard to meet other perfumers at the industry events, because they are designed for the sales and marketing people to interact with customers (or at least, they end up this way.) Perfumers tend to attend the FiFi awards and the American Society of Perfumers events (they can really be interesting, esp. if the topic for a talk is well-chosen.)
Despite my snarky comments, I did enjoy the event. It would have been terrific to meet you, but, yes, the room was packed! I’d hate to see what might have happened if there was a fire. The number of people, limited access to elevators, and gallons of combustible perfume samples would have made it a regular Towering Inferno.
Anyway, congratulations! I’m glad you’re posting again, and I look forward to reading you for years to come.
It was nice to meet you on Friday, Victoria. And congratulations on that gorgeous FiFi Award!
Fantastic peek behind the scenes, Angela, and exactly what I would have expected. I say it was worth it just to get that review of Bond Girl out of you.
And — hey — will you quit being so modest, please, and link to the article you submitted? I’m sure I will not be the only one who is curious, or who would like to read it again.
A, thanks! I wasn’t sure anyone would care much about the FiFi breakfast, but I thought it was interesting. And I probably would never own a mini of a Celine Dion or Tim McGraw fragrance without it. I submitted a L’Heure Attendue/Orgueil review: http://tinyurl.com/ctuqax
P.S. No Smell This! LOL!
Isn’t that funny? When people asked why I was there, I told them I wrote for Now Smell This and they looked at me blankly. Most people said they were vaguely familiar with it, but I suspect they were just being polite. I don’t think the perfume blogs get big traffic in this crowd.
That’s a shame! But I’m pretty sure that they will soon start paying more attention — ‘social media’ and all. Especially with NST’s organic search rankings.
Maybe it’s better if they don’t pay attention! (Although it hurts my ego, of course.)
RuPaul as emcee!? Where’s the petition I can sign?
Great report Angela. The first peek inside the FiFi I’ve ever read. Neat.
I know! RuPaul would be genius! Plus, he did all that great work for MAC cosmetics and Viva Glam, so you think they’d be open to it.
Wow – thanks for sharing your experience. Conferences are always exciting and disappointing at the same time. Your description of the marketing people make me laugh though – it reminds me of the Absolutely Fabulous episode (Jealous) with the “PR PR Awards”. The winning campaign is the “Stop Dumping” PR where the world smells sweeter because we’ve stopped dumping…and then the opening of Claudia Bing’s new fragrance called “Ozone”…”Plug your hole with ozone…”
(I don’t want more choice, I just want nicer things. –Eddie)
That’s so funny! I want to run out and rent that episode right away. Absolutely Fabulous always cracks me up. (“Plug your hole with Ozone”–hilarious!)
It is beyond hysterical, and you’ll have to rewind a lot to catch all the amazing PR insults and dialog! Hope it brings you a few laughs…
I’m sure it will, thanks!
“most of them with chunky highlights and in teetering heels”, ” like a wild violet in a pile of supermarket gardenias” – love it!
one can really vision all this.
Thank you, Angela, for a beautiful review.
Thank you!
Lenika and Angela, this is almost word for word what I was going to post. The “wild violet” line was my favorite! Angela, I hope you will submit your writing again some day. You’re very good!
Thank you! I don’t know if I will submit anything next year, mostly because I don’t want to be thinking about it as I write posts, you know what I mean?
I can only imagine, as writing is not my strength.
Angela, you’re so cheery about what sounds to me like a horrible event!
Also, I registered on Facebook so I could vote for the Fifi’s and I find the choice of fragrances rather insulting, considering the wealth of gorgeous and well-crafted fragrances that are available.
But I’m not a professional fragrance blogger, so I can afford to be less cheery about all of this!
Thanks for the peek into the industry!
Well, I figure I just saw one side of the fragrance industry–the side that wants to make sure it makes money. The creative side of the fragrance industry is probably where all the fun is. (I can tell you, though, that the breakfast they served was delicious.)
The view of Manhattan was also stupendous!
Especially the view of my extra-nice seat mate, Lulu! (Note to readers, this is the friend who accompanied me.)
What a hilarious write-up of the FiFi event. It sounds like it was a lot of fun — taken with a healthy dose of irony.
I absolutely love your writing, Angela — it must have been difficult to choose just one article to submit. Anyway, thanks for being so informative and entertaining, as always!
You are so nice! Thank you.
Along with Jemi, I’m a fan of your writing, Angela. I may have missed it – but would you mind sharing which one of your pieces you submitted?
You are so nice to say so! I pasted a link in my response to Sweetlife’s comment above.
I think this is the article you should submit for next time – lol.
I will be awaiting your review of Bond Girl – I sort of liked it, in an EL Senusous knock-off kind of way. Weird that not all the right frags were in there! You’d think that even companies not into doing samples would do some for the FiFis!
It was weird the fragrances that were included. Who knows why?
I tried a little Bond Girl tonight, and it’s loaded with with amber and musk and woods. I’m looking forward to writing it up, mostly to look into the whole Avon thing these days.
Well, I know Bond Girl was one of the finalists for mass marketed frags, believe it or not. I’d bet you got at least one sample of all the nominees, plus whoever else decided to throw in…
And that *would* weigh about five pounds!
We received samples or minis–or in a few cases, bottles–of most of the nominees, but not the ones I wanted the most! Still, I did want to try Bond Girl 007. How can you resist that name?
Great peek behind the Oz-like perfumed curtain. I’ve often wondered how important it is to be blond in broadcasting or marketing. Lovely description.
Answer: very important to be blond in broadcasting. Able to pronounce foreign words? Who cares? Good hair? Vitally important.
Thank you for sharing this Angela, it was nice to experience it through your post. I don’t feel so bad for not being there…especially since I don’t own any teetering heels.
I’d left my teetering heels at home, too, so we could have stood together in the corner, short but stably planted.
Nice recap, Angela. It was great to see the breakfast through your eyes. Karen D and I were there too (we had a few entries up for the blogger awards through Sniffapalooza Magazine) and we would have loved to have met you! The FiFi Finalist breakfast is an interesting experience. Everyone is dressed to impress, but still look appropriate at the offices they are headed to afterwards. Each table is like a little cheering section for their company’s nominated fragrance. Fun to watch, great networking opportunities, and the giftbags are a treat.
As Victoria mentioned, if you want to meet perfumers, the FiFi Awards are the place to be. Last year, we met many perfumers there, including Sophia Grosjman, Maurice Roucel, Jean-Claude Delville, and David Apel (I even got to hold his FiFi Award!) Now that was an incredible evening! And perfumers love to speak about their craft, so that’s the place to be. I think tickets are available for this event too.
Oh darn, it would have been great to meet you!
I wish I could go to the big FiFi awards, but I don’t see that happening, given that I live so far away. I hear that Queen Latifah will be there.
Lovely recap for me whom I couldn’t possibly attend (despite making the Finalists list, I am too far away to get on a plane on such a short notice!) So it was good to find that everything I had been thinking has been more or less corroborated through your eyes and clever writing. It would be fun to meet up in person too!
Congratulations, and it would be fun to meet! Some day we’ll have to do it.