Marc Jacobs’ Rachel Sennott Collab Kicks Off Pivot to Social Entertainment

Marc Jacobs is entering a new era of entertainment marketing with the help of actress, producer, and screenwriter Rachel Sennott.

For its pre-Fall 2026 campaign, the luxury fashion brand collaborated with Sennott, creator and star of HBO series I Love LA, on a new microdrama — a show with bite-sized episodes designed for smartphone viewing. Sennott wrote and stars in “The Scene,” in which she embarks on a chaotic mission through Manhattan to reach a Marc Jacobs gala.

The film marks a creative shift in the brand’s marketing toward entertaining, social-first content, according to Kristin Patrick, chief marketing and digital officer at Marc Jacobs.

“This campaign marks a deliberate shift in how we’re showing up in culture. It really is critical that we flip the script on just traditional campaigns,” Patrick told ADWEEK. “This is a new creative system for the brand, designed to operate like modern content and storytelling.”

Marc Jacobs joins a growing wave of brands creating microdramas, a format recently embraced by Maybelline, P&G, and Crocs. 

It’s also the latest brand to venture into creating original content that resembles Hollywood movies and TV series, as it becomes more difficult to break through with traditional advertising. Marc Jacobs owner LVMH is among those that have set up their own entertainment studios, launching 22 Montaigne in 2024. 

“The Scene” spotlights a new accessory, The Scene Bag, but unfolds as a scripted, cinematic narrative over three minutes. It also features cameos from stars and influencers like Francesca Scorsese, Morgan Maher, True Whitaker, and Sandra Bernhard.

The film is the first release from Marc Jacobs’ new social-first storytelling platform, Question Marc, which will expand with additional episodes featuring different stories and talent. 

Alongside the new platform, the brand has refreshed its visual identity, with imagery that is “more refined, tailored, and elevated,” reflecting the direction of its recent runway shows, Patrick said.

Question Marc is a departure from how Marc Jacobs and much of the luxury world has traditionally approached marketing. In the past, the brand focused more on still fashion photography, while social content would be “adopted after the fact,” Patrick explained. 

The new platform is “built for the social environment from the start in a completely connected way,” she added.

The shift stems from observing “the way consumers are spending their time and habits, which is much more around storytelling,” Patrick said. That social-first environment demands that brands produce more content at a faster pace, which led Marc Jacobs’ marketing team to rethink both its content formats and talent choices. 

Sennott “represents everything the Marc Jacob brand stands for: witty, intelligent, a little eclectic, with a great sense of humor,” Patrick said. 

“[Sennott] has a very current cultural voice,” she continued. “She understood characters and timing in a way that makes the story feel real, not staged or overly polished.”

In addition to giving Sennott significant creative freedom, the brand also assembled a production team from the entertainment industry, including the director of photography, Patrick said.

An entertainment-driven mindset is also influencing how Marc Jacobs builds its marketing department. For example, Patrick said the brand’s social media professionals now have to be “editorial, multi-hyphenate people” who can both run a newsroom and create long-form content. She plans to hire more people with expertise in content creation, she said.

“We’re doubling down on this new campaign direction, and you’ll see a lot more storytelling from us,” Patrick said.

Credits:

The Scene film and campaign creative: Said Differently
Pre-Fall campaign creative: Lina Kutsovskaya of @beg00dstudios