LA MER CASE STUDY

Spec Ad: Crème de la Mer

The Challenge

When I began this project, my goal wasn’t just to model and animate Crème de La Mer, it was to translate the emotional world of their website into a modern visual campaign.

La Mer’s global site is rich in storytelling. Everything from their product copy to the beautifully shot/rendered photos & videos immerses the viewer into the brand story; beautifully depicting their heritage and their ocean alchemy.

But early into development, I realized that to fully capture that level of visual narrative (the elegance, the metaphor, the symbolism) would take far more volume, repetition, and mastery than I currently had. So I made a deliberate creative decision:

To bridge where I am now with where I’m aiming to be.

I pushed myself outside my comfort zone, experimenting with volumetric lighting, underwater particles, caustics, water droplets, all while still anchoring the final piece around La Mer’s core themes: sea, renewal, origin, luxury. The goal became to craft visuals that felt emotionally elevated, even if not yet as richly storied as the source.

This project became both a tribute and a training ground. A love letter to La Mer’s visual world, expressed through my current creative language; with every frame pushing me one step closer to that standard I first saw when I visited their website.

The Opportunity

La Mer’s content strategy spans multiple formats (from studio photography and UGC to seasonal CGI), but the visual and emotional tone varies greatly by platform.

Instagram (1.2M followers) is their most versatile space, hosting everything from influencer reels to branded CGI content, including their visually stunning holiday campaign in late 2024. TikTok (59K followers) leans heavily on relatable UGC content. Meanwhile, Facebook (1.5M+) and Pinterest (13.7K) see lower engagement, offering less refined content approaches.

But the deeper opportunity didn’t lie in their social numbers, it lay in the creative contrast between La Mer’s social channels and their official website.

While their socials emphasize formats and trends, La Mer’s global site evokes something more timeless: cinematic storytelling, heritage-rich product origins, and a distinct emotional presence. That contrast sparked a question, “what would it look like to bring that website magic into a social media format, using CGI?”

My Creative Process

1. Brand Research & Analysis

My process began with an audit of La Mer’s digital presence, focusing first on their official global website before studying their Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Pinterest profiles.

The site stood out instantly. Its immersive art direction, narrative copy, and emphasis on origin (The Miracle Broth™, sea kelp, healing rituals) created a sensory world far richer than anything on their social feeds. That tension, between emotion and execution, became the creative entry point for this spec.

I logged platform-specific insights, saved visual references, and analyzed how La Mer adapted their voice across different audience touchpoints. This gave me a clear sense of how my spec ad could serve as a bridge between their heritage storytelling and their faster-moving digital content.

2. Creative Concept Development

From the beginning, I knew this wouldn’t be just a product showcase, it needed to feel like it belonged to La Mer’s world. I wanted to evoke the sensation of transformation; ocean particles, light diffusion, buoyancy, and a sense of emergence.

I brainstormed concepts that hinted at the product’s mythos: underwater particles symbolizing Miracle Broth™ formation, soft caustics and fog volumes mimicking light breaking through ocean depths, and water droplets to reflect renewal and fluidity.

The core narrative? A modern retelling of La Mer’s origin, seen not through literal replication, but through symbolic visual poetry.

3. Moodboarding & Shot Planning

I curated a multi-phase moodboard to guide everything from lighting to materials to product framing. Key influences came from La Mer’s own campaigns, underwater macro photography, cinematic caustics, and luxury ad references pulled from Pinterest and real La Mer visuals.

My shot list was intentionally minimal, designed around high visual impact within very short runtimes:

• Main Hero Ad (5 seconds): Atmospheric reveal through soft volumetric light and sand-particle vortex

• Product Reveal (4 seconds): Playful but refined; echoing La Mer’s 2024 holiday social content

• Still Renders: Sunset-toned reflections, abstract liquids, and elegant framing reminiscent of high-end editorial beauty campaigns
  

I balanced cinematic ambition with time constraint, planning shots I could execute with technical depth, but still polish within a 3.5-week sprint.

4. 3D Execution

All visuals were created in Blender, rendered in Cycles, and optimized for both visual fidelity and hardware limits (Intel i5-12400F, GTX 1660 Super).

Key techniques included:

• Custom ocean particles via Geometry Nodes

• Volumetric lighting for underwater ambiance

• Caustics & dispersion setup for light realism

• Water & ocean shading experimentation to evoke depth & elegance

• HDRI-reflected water droplets for liquid & sky interactions

• Label recreation & placement via manual Pen Tracing in Photoshop, then using shaders & precise UV mapping
  

Render optimization was critical. Every frame was tuned for balance between sample noise, volume density, and bounce count to meet performance goals while retaining clarity.

5. Finalization & Polish

Post-production included subtle compositing adjustments (glare, contrast, vignette) and sound design to match tone. Music was selected to reflect both personal creative takes as well as La Mer’s festive Instagram tone from late 2024; light, elegant, and dreamlike.

I created deliverables across formats:

• 4:5 portrait stills (Instagram & Facebook Feed)

• 9:16 + 16:9 portrait & landscape (Instagram & Facebook Reels + Story | TikTok, LinkedIn, Threads, and X)

• Ultra-wide landscape stills (for portfolio/case study use)
  
  

Finally, I built out this case study to not just show the work, but contextualize it. Giving creative directors and clients a clear view into how I think, adapt, and evolve with each project.