Chanel No. 5

	Chanel No. 5 perfect perfume? Symbols of innocence, virginity and virtue, the early 20th century perfumes were inspired and composed around single flower themes. Before the First World War, women felt no need to compete with men; softness, tenderness and femininity were their signature, and “flowery” fragrances were natural extensions of their personality.

The war changed everything. Women were forced to wear the trousers while their men were away. The experience challenged and toughened them. After the war, women embodied a more forceful character in every way they expressed themselves, including their fragrances. But then couturier Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel broke the rules by revolutionizing and democratizing fashion in its various forms—from clothing to accessories, including perfume. The Chanel No. 5 Juice “I want to give women…a scent that smells like a woman, not like a flower,” Chanel said. In 1921, Coco commissioned Russian perfumer Ernest Beaux to create what would become the ultimate Chanel masterpiece and greatest classic perfume of all time—an abstract floral overdosed and overpowered with sparkling yet heavy synthetic chemicals called aldehydes. Chanel No. 5 was ahead of its time as a composition. It was impactful, long lasting, unique and libertarian in its essence. The juice’s signature hasn’t changed since its creation, yet its attributes have evolved to become aspirational in a more classic and feminine way as opposed to being the edgy, abstract rule breaker it was in its early years. For decades, Chanel No. 5 has remained a bestseller around the globe. Interestingly, the juice doesn’t test well blind, but when women experience it within the context of the Chanel brand, a certain je ne sais quoi happens just like magic, and women just embrace it. The Chanel No. 5 Experience Its flacon is a simple square bottle with a rectangular top. It has been altered only minimally since first designed by Coco Chanel. Black and white colors and straight lines convey simplicity and purity. The black is not just black; it is the blackest possibly attainable. The famous double-C logo created in the early 1920s embodies all elements Chanel and remains strategically unchanged. The glass feels heavy, conveying quality. The simple style of the overall package holds classic stylistic codes that have become intrinsic to the brand’s DNA over the years. The Chanel No. 5 experience is highly regarded, and the brand pays a great deal of attention to detail, juice quality and components durability. The label, colors and coatings must be durable so the consumer can keep the flacon impeccably intact for years, even when it is empty. Branding the experience is quite important for Chanel. Repeated consumer interactions with the product are meant to result in an accumulation of pleasant multi-sensorial moments that ultimately reaffirm Chanel’s quality and render awareness, recognition and loyalty to the brand. Consistency, Consistency, Consistency Perhaps consistency is the main reason Chanel No. 5 remains successful, aside from being true to its heritage. From Marilyn Monroe accidentally endorsing Chanel No. 5 in the 1950s to Audrey Tautou and all her “Frenchness” as the new face of the fragrance, the brand has been consistently linking popular cinematic figures to appeal to a younger generation with every passing decade. Catherine Deneuve, Ali MacGraw, Carole Bouquet and Nicole Kidman—to mention a few—all embodied qualities the brand wanted to portray to characterize the quintessential No. 5 woman. Aggressive advertising campaigns over the years have been critical for the brand to stay current and keep its image young and fresh. Many attributes of Coco’s unconventional personality are incorporated into her brand, as is evidenced in an upcoming biopic film, Coco avant Chanel, featuring Audrey Tautou as Mlle Chanel. In 2008 brand Chanel decided—for the first time, after decades of careful brand strategy—to take a bold step by launching Chanel No. 5 Eau Première—a lighter, more modern version of the original No. 5 with a quieter sillage. Chanel in-house perfumer Jacques Polge stated: “Eau Première is for all those women who came to me and said, ‘No. 5 is fantastic but it’s not for me.’ Eau Première is lighter, more transparent, but, in essence, it is still No. 5.” According to the NPD Group, a research firm, Chanel revenues increased by 14.5 percent after Eau Première was introduced. Chanel No. 5 stays young by embracing a classy, ladylike attitude that could go just about anywhere, day or night. Chanel’s quality is uncompromised, distinctive and has an engaging history—from its avant-garde and socially progressive beginnings, to the traditional, luxurious and classic status that it has perpetuated throughout the decades.

Use AXE responsibly

Axe:::Double pits to chesty

To promote its deodorant spray in an innovative, fresh way. Axe has created a downloadable iphone game, Pogo Xtreme. Players must perfect that mainstay of the morning grooming routine, the deodorant spraying motion – a move Axe dubs the ‘double pits to chesty’.

Axe’s target demographic for the campaign is 16-24 year old males, which just so happens to be the prime gaming demographic too. Pogo Xtreme plays upon young males’ interest in X-game sports like Skateboarding and BMXing, which contain bizarrely named moves such as ‘nosegrind’ and ‘fakey flipside olly’.

In its iphone game players pogo about collecting Axe deodorant cans. Once a certain number of cans have been collected, players are prompted to perform a ‘double pits to chesty’ move on the pogo stick. Sexy girl ‘affirmations’ encourage them to keep playing. Users can log scores on social networking sites such as facebook.

Pogo Xtreme is one of the first full length multi-level branded iphone games. In

conjunction with the free, downloadable game, Axe has paid for advertisements across the whole range of downloadable iphone apps.

BRAND: Axe

BRAND OWNER: Unilever

CATEGORY: Toiletries/ Cosmetics

REGION:Global

DATE: Jul 2009

AGENCY: Wild Tangent/Greystripe

MEDIA CHANNEL

AXE 2009 TV Commercials

Axe| Periodic table

Advertising Agency: Lowe/SSP3-Bogotá, Colombia
Executive Creative Director: Jose Miguel Sokoloff
Creative Directors: Margarita Olivar, Juan Carlos González
Art Director: Margarita Olivar
Copywriter: Juan Carlos González
Photographer: Esteban Sosnitsky, Zumo
Agency Producer: Sonia Llanos
Other Additional Credits: Juanita Delgado, Natalia Franco

Axe Instinct – The Power of Leather Curves

Axe Instinct, a scent introduced in 2009, is being promoted with a 3D animated television commercial featuring a woman in leather. The new Instinct has combined the fragances of cardamom, amber, and atlas cedar to produce a spicy scent of leather.

The Swedish team, Againstallodds, worked with Blacklist to produce the new commercial, beginning with the inspiration of a piece of leather and a set of print advertisements. What they came up with was the concept of a woman whose sensual movements are revealed in the rippling curves of dark leather.

Click on the image below to play the video in YouTube (HD)

Credits

The Power of Leather ad was developed at The Brooklyn Brothers, New York, and Againt All Odds, Stockholm, .

Filming was produced at Blacklist by executive producer Adina Sales,

Special effects and visual effects were produced at Milford Film, Stockholm, and Animation AB. Audio finishing was done at Audio Engine.

Music, “Moodswing”, was composed by Pedro Margues and Jean-Paul Wall and sung by Saphir Cristal Stoffels Fernandes Tavares. Sound was mixed by Carl Mandelbaum.

Behind the Scenes with Againstallodds

Q: This spot is a bit of a creative departure for you. Can you tell me about attracted you to the job?

againstallodds: To create this spot we were given a piece of leather and a print campaign and were told bring it to life. This spot is like nothing else on our reel and we were excited to create something we had not tried before. We really wanted to build on the dimensionality of the forms in the leather so that everything really moved naturally but had a enough definition and abstraction to draw people in. We were really attracted to the mixture of darkness and nakedness. It really seemed like something we wanted to see move.

Q: The texture of the leather is very detailed. Tell me a bit about how you created this look, what tools you used and if there were any challenges.

againstallodds: We began this project with a photo shoot with real actors and the leather laid out on a flat bed. We took moving references with naked models to show how the body moves and the leather reacts to different light setups. Then we edited everything together to make a rough timing. Animation and simulation followed and was a mixture of Maya nCloth and Houdini to make everything come together. The simulation was a great start and gave dimension to the leather but we really wanted to have control over some of the smaller details such as muscle and bone and they were getting lost in the simulation, so Milford lighting developed a special shader that took information from a more detailed mesh of the body and applied it to the leather simulated cloth.

Q: It’s a very sexy spot too. Can you tell me a bit about that?

againstallodds: That was something we really worked hard to keep. Doing sexy in 3d can be a tricky thing. Since everybody knows how humans move and are very sensitive to what’s not right even the most subtle movement can prove to be hard to recreate. We were very lucky to have a great photo model strip off and go through the timings and poses to block everything out so that we had great reference in the animation phase. On top of that we worked a lot with the shadows and lighting to reveal and cover sections of the body so that the silhouette and feminine curves really stood out and that the rest of the body became abstract.

Gillette launches first global brand campaign in five years

LONDON - Procter & Gamble is introducing a new core brand message to Gillette following the recent addition of hair styling and personal care products to its shaving care range.

Gillette's first global branding campaign in five years is designed to expand the brand beyond shaving and strengthen the brand's emotional bond among men.

Following extensive global research among thousands of men, which found that even confident males have doubts at many moments throughout their lives, Gillette is progressing its "The Best A Man Can Get" message by with a new campaign called "The Moment." The FMCG giant says men are looking for products that give them the confidence they want and need to look, perform and feel their best.

The campaign features everyday guys, as well as the Gillette brand ambassadors -- Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Derek Jeter -- experiencing moments of doubt and how they overcome them to succeed. The ad was created by BBDO New York.

Neutrogena:Hot wake-up call for cooling gel

Men and morning beauty routines aren’t natural bedfellows. This was the problem Neutrogena faced when marketing its new Cooling Cleansing Gel to Hong Kong’s male population.

It wanted to interact with men at a time when they would be most likely to use the product – in the morning, but felt the usual outlets of breakfast and radio TV were too passive. Neutrogena wanted to speak to men in a way they would remember.

Enter Elanne Kwong, Hong Kong’s hottest celebrity. A dedicated mini-site set up by Neutrogena encouraged men to enter their phone number and receive a wake-up call from Elanne herself. In the call Elanne tells the men to get up and use the new Neutrogena gel.
To drive traffic to the mini-site, Neutrogena set up a profile for Elanne Kwong on Facebook. The profile was managed internally and once word got out the superstar was online, her number of friends quickly spread virally.

So far, 1,300 men have signed up for an Elanne Kwong wake-up call. The fact that Neutrogena now has telephone numbers for its target audience offers a great opportunity for building a lasting relationship in the coming years.

BRAND:Neutrogena

BRAND OWNER:Johnson & Johnson

CATEGORY:Toiletries/ Cosmetics

REGION:Hong Kong

DATE:May 2009 - Jun 2009

MEDIA AGENCY:OMD

MEDIA CHANNEL

Gillette::: 360 "Body Shaving" launch

Gillette has launched an online advertising campaign encouraging men to use their products in body shaving. Animated videos provide men with shaving tips on how to best shave their head, chest, back, shoulders, armpits and the most popular spot of all, the groin. Each video addresses the whys and hows of body shaving. The campaign is online at the Gillette YouTube channel and and Gillette’s Body Shaving site.

Reasons for Body Shaving

The Gillette Body Grooming site provides a range of scenes demonstrating that body shaving is an activity suitable for the heterosexual male population.

How to Shave Your Groin

You might say when there’s no underbrush, the tree looks taller…

How to Shave your Head

If your grass is patchy, bald or long, there are better places to spend your cash than the barber.

How to Shave Your Back

Wall to wall carpeting? Or whatever you’re carrying around with you, you’ve decided it’s got to go.

How to Shave Your Chest

Sweaters should be bought, not grown. Guys with perfectly groomed chests, probably not born that way.

How to Shave Your Armpits

An empty stable smells better than a full one.

Credits

The animated videos were created by Proximity Canada in conjunction with BBDO New York.

Natura eco-beauty

Vanity may be one of the seven deadly sins, but makeup is important to mankind. Primitive cultures painted themselves with plant extracts in rituals such as weddings, funerals, wars and religious festivals. So did the American Indians and African tribes. But it wasn’t until ancient Egypt that cosmetics gained prominence and the applying of colorful plant substances on human beings became synonymous with beauty.


The market for cosmetics has experienced exponential growth rates and is an important sector in many countries—particularly Brazil, where the cosmetics sector rose 8.6 percent in 2008 despite the global financial crisis.
Accordingly, Brazil rose in consumer market rankings, becoming the world's second-largest consumer of beauty products—surpassing the Japanese market, which shrank during the same period. Until 2007, Brazil lagged behind both the Japanese and American markets.
According to the Brazilian Association of the Industry of Personal Hygiene, Fragrances and Cosmetics (Abihpec), Brazilian exports in the sector were US$ 650 million against US$ 450 million in imports, reaching a surplus of US$ 200 million in 2008.
In Brazil, the industry of personal hygiene, fragrances and cosmetics is the only chemical complex—which includes cleaning products, pharmaceuticals, paints and fertilizers, among others—to produce a surplus.
www.natura.net
The cosmetics industry in Brazil is extremely competitive and involves big global players, but one Brazilian brand stands out from the rest: Natura. Born in Brazil, this cosmetics brand is now available in seven Latin American countries and France.
Founded in 1969, Natura is the industry leader in the cosmetics, fragrances and personal hygiene market in Brazil. It is also the industry leader in direct sales, surpassing even the giant American company Avon.
Natura offers a full range of products with solutions for consumers’ various needs, regardless of age, including products for the face and body, hair care and treatment products, make-up, fragrances, bath products, sun protection products, oral hygiene products and product lines for children.
Neighborhood success
In 1982, Natura started its internationalization process when it arrived in Chile. Six years later, it added the Bolivian market. It did not take long to infiltrate Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico.
In 2002, Natura’s products were being sold in duty-free Brazilian airports. But it was in 2005 that the brand took a major leap in the international market to open a shop in Paris, the world capital of cosmetic products.
Latin America accepted the Natura brand with incredible enthusiasm. A recent annual report indicates that the company's direct sales in the region will reach a turnover in the order of US$ 500 million in 2012.
In Europe, Natura continues with the important work of building the brand in a sophisticated market, generating the experience required to implement a business model in developed markets. But the international expansion will not be limited to Latin America and Europe. Natura is currently planning expansion into the United States.
Before coming to the US, Natura sent a group of senior executives to develop a plan to penetrate the world’s largest market for cosmetics and direct sales.
What makes Natura so special?
Concerns over global warming continue to increase, especially in politics. In December 2008, during a meeting with Al Gore, then-US-president-elect Barack Obama said: “We all believe what the scientists have been telling us for years now, that this is a matter of urgency and national security, and it has to be dealt with in a serious way. That is what I intend to do in my administration."
This discussion also included the role companies play in protecting the environment.
Natura, founded in the late 1960s, is credited for having a business model that embraces sustainability and commits to using natural ingredients in its formulas. Natura’s eco-friendly, socially responsible business strategy was in place long before current advertising trends made it popular. Under the slogan "Well-Being-Well," Natura has always focused on social responsibility, the environment and economics. These long-held beliefs have become the main advantage in differentiating Natura from its competitors—demonstrating that the brand and its values were ahead of their time.
Today many opportunistic companies use sustainability as a way to promote their products, but Natura’s green marketing is more than a strategy, it is a philosophy. Natura’s concern for the environment is directly translated into its products. During the production of product mixes, Natura does not test on animals and respects all international security standards. In 1983, Natura began to produce and sell refills, whose average mass is almost 54 percent less than the mass of regular packaging. This revolutionary project resulted in a significant decrease in the disposal of solid waste in the environment. In 2007, the company put into practice the Carbon Neutral Program, designed to reduce and offset all emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG).
In 2005, Natura was cited in a UN report, “Talk the Walk,” as one of the pioneers in green marketing. The report also cited American Apparel and Stonyfield Farm—both American brands—and highlighted the work of Natura’s Ekos line for communicating brand values that foster a culture of conscious consumption.
Natura’s Ekos line features fragrances, personal care and ambience products that draw from the wealth of Brazil's biodiversity and are inspired by traditional plant ingredients—elevating awareness around Brazil’s environmental heritage and promoting quality of life in the communities that cultivate or extract those ingredients. Additionally, Natura’s Ekos products are biodegradable and use bottles and packaging that contain recycled material across the brand’s market segments, including soaps, shampoos, conditioners, moisturizers and perfumes.
Brands, according to American economist Edward Chamberlin, must differentiate products and services to survive. It is not surprising that Natura is flourishing by embracing the history and diversity of Brazil’s people and natural environment.

Dove::: Sleepover for self esteem

BRAND OWNER:Unilever
CATEGORY:Toiletries/ Cosmetics
REGION:Canada
DATE:Mar 2008 - Jun 2008

Too many girls develop low self-esteem from hang-ups about their looks and it stops them reaching their full potential.

The Dove Self- Esteem Fund wanted to fight this and deliver a positive experience for mothers and daughters.
While mums have positive memories about their own childhood sleepovers, they know they can turn negative and hit self esteem.

The Dove solution was to get both mums and daughters excited about doing something positive together, encouraging mothers to make the sleepover positive experience for their daughters.
Information about the sleepover was distributed online at dovesleepover.ca/soireedove.ca, offering mums tips on hosting a positive sleepover with music downloads, photo albums and live to air texting for daughters.
In a media first the promotion included a five network takeover with commercial breaks replaced with segments that linked live to real sleepovers and showing mums and daughters discussing issues that affected them.
TV programming was also adjusted in line with the positive theme to show empowering movies. Support also ran in-store, print and via PR.
The campaign delivered 11m media impressions and more than 30,000 registered attendees.

Vaseline:::Getting men to moisturise

BRAND OWNER:Unilever
CATEGORY:Toiletries/ Cosmetics
REGION:USA
DATE :Oct 2008 - Nov 2008


When Vaseline launched its men’s range of hand and body lotion, it wanted to raise awareness about the product and ensure that men connected the dots between skin health and body health.

The idea was that Vaseline Men helped fortify men’s skin to help it perform more efficiently.
The target audience was an average guy in his mid-30s with a family who used lotion every so often. He loves sports and is picky about his media usage.

Vaseline's main challenge was to differentiate Vaseline’s sports theme from other brands such as Gillette and Gatorade..

Vaseline chose athletes as brand ambassadors whose sports seasons were peaking during the Q4 launch: baseball and football.

The campaign idea was “15 seconds a Day to Stronger Skin”.

Athletes spend countless hours practicing their sports and preparing their bodies to deliver strong performance. But it only takes them 15 seconds a day to strengthen their skin.

Vaseline partnered with ESPN and worked across TV, radio, digital and print to create content featuring New York Giant’s football star Michael Strahan and Philadelphia Phillies baseball champion Chase Utley.

Not only were there TV vignettes about the sportsmen’s off-field regime, but there was also a digital hub and radio sponsorship of ESPN’s top-rated radio broadcast. There were also advertorials in ESPN magazine with a Vaseline ad on opposite page.

Additionally, content was delivered beyond ESPN properties to a broader audience with a homepage takeover of both YouTube and AOL, as well as Broadband Enterprise, and NFL.com. This was the first time ESPN created non co-branded content and allowed it to be syndicated across multiple channels.
As a result, Vaseline Men ended the year 40% ahead of the share target. The 24.5oz (lead product) was in the top 3 selling Unilever variants for 12 straight weeks at WalMart, making it one of Vaseline's most successful launches.

Bruno Banani::: Helping men to chat up the ladies

BRAND OWNER:Procter & Gamble
CATEGORY:Toiletries/ Cosmetics
REGION:Germany
DATE:Apr 2008 - Jan 2008


The male beauty product market is expanding by leaps and bounds and Procter & Gamble’s Bruno Banani wanted to be a major player. It needed to bring to life the brand’s persona of charming seduction in a way that would connect with young males.

Bruno Banani identified Carnival as the flirtiest season of the year a time when Germans go mad for a taste of Rio de Janeiro. At the same time Bruno Banani knew that young males needed the self assurance that would help them get the girl.

The brand identified male toilets as the best place to give the target audience a boost. Posters, mirror stickers and floor ads alerted them to the Bruno Banani’s helpful service offering smooth lines to impress the ladies.

By sending a text message and they could get a naughty but nice pick up line to help them get the girl: “All those curves and me without brakes!”

The brand helped the guys impress and underlined the cheeky positioning of the brand, boosting key brand scores by up to 30%.

The campaign helped deliver P&G’s biggest male lifestyle launch, helping the portfolio become the number 1 fine fragrance brand on the German market beating Boss, Davidoff and Armani.

Nivea::: Good-Bye Cellulite

BRAND OWNER :Beiersdorf
CATEGORY :Toiletries/ Cosmetics
REGION :USA
DATE :Mar 2008 - Jul 2008


Cellulite is a problem for a large number of women between the ages of 20 and 50, but most are skeptical about the efficacy of topical creams.

Nivea wanted to address this skepticism and relate personally to women’s experiences and feelings about their cellulite.

Nivea’s Good-bye Cellulite product launched in 2007 in partnership with the Tyra Banks Show, using real testimonials of women who had seen dramatic results from using the product.

Nivea decided to extend the partnership for 2008 and leverage the implied endorsement. The 2008 partnership spanned a series of Time Warner properties, including The Tyra Banks Show, People Magazine and Extra. The Tyra Banks element saw two full segments on the show – the first introduced the “Goodbye Cellulite Hello Bikini Challenge” participants and the panel of Nivea experts.
The second revealed the women’s fantastic results, with Tyra Banks herself discussing the product. People magazine followed the journey of the women taking the challenge. Readers were given a behind-the-scenes look to a Nivea sponsored fashion show, with the models attesting the effectiveness of GBC.

As a result of the campaign, Goodbye Cellulite increased sales by 50%. After the airing of the second integration on Tyra and the People advertorial, GBC Gel and GBC Body Beauty were the #1 and #2 ranked products in the category.

The GBC integration on Extra! helped Nivea become the #1 brand in the category for the first time in history

Gillette: India votes

BRAND OWNER :Procter & Gamble
CATEGORY :Toiletries/ Cosmetics
REGION :India
DATE :Aug 2008 - Sep 2008

The challenge facing Gillette was that despite the positive perception of Gillette Mach3 as a product, Indian men found shaving to be a chore.

As Indian men placed very little importance on shaving, they couldn't justify using the Gillette Mach3 - which is around 10 times more expensive than traditional Indian razors.

Gillette sparked a national debate on shaving that would infiltrate the conversations of millions.

The campaign platform of "India Votes....to shave or not" could have gone horribly wrong.

First, Gillette piqued the nation's interest by commissioning a Nielsen survey on the country's attitude to shaving. The research highlighted a series of controversial points that were sure to get the nation talking. Were clean-shaven men more successful? Did the nation prefer clean-shaven celebreties? And the big one: did women prefer clean-shaven men?

The provocative results generated buzz across the key news services. TV-news-anchors, and radio-DJs keenly picked it up and started a debate on their own perspective channels.

Even the Times of India ran a daily poll online on the subject.

Gillette had sparked a national conversation among celebrities, Bollywood-stars, noted business-icons and socialites.

An online poll and live polls conducted malls and cineplexes kept the debate raging, and also offered men a chance to trial the product. What was the critical insight that broke the brand challenge?

Quite simply, the survey proved conclusively and publicly that women preferred clean-shaven men. Sharing this observation with the men of India created dramatic change in the brand's fortunes.

The campaign set all time sales records with a dramatic change in the brand's fortunes. The campaign set all time sales records with a dramatic sales increase of 38%. Awareness doubled. Trials increased by 400% and Gillette's market share increased by 35%.

Rexona:::Deo verus B.O.

BRAND OWNER:Unilever
CATEGORY:Toiletries/ Cosmetics
REGION:Romania
DATE:May 2008 - Jun 2008


In 2007, Rexona set itself an ambitious mission – to get every woman in Romania to use deodorant every day.

Consumption per capita was rising, but the nation was still far behind Western European markets. Women in England use deodorant five times more than those in Romania.

Romanian women like to be admired by men and put a lot of effort into the daily ritual of looking good.

Rexona wanted to convey the message that if a woman smells of body odour then their efforts and aspirations to be beautiful would fall apart. The first stage of activity centred around the tagline “Romanian women do it five times less than English women” in an online and print teaser campaign.

Intrigued and “activated” the campaign, a number of TV and radio hosts tried to solve the mystery.

After one week of questioning the headline Rexona revealed that the “do it” referred to use deodorant.
The second phase aimed to raise paranoia about not using a deodorant and also create a social debate about deodorants’ usage habits, using a celebrity endorsement. Romanian singer and actress Jojo was recruited to accept the challenge of one week without deodorant, documenting her experiences on a daily TV slot and in an online diary.

She was also invited to talk about the experiment and its social significance in well-rated TV shows.
As a result, the campaign became a key topic in media for more than a month, and deodorant consumption per capita grew 15% year on year and Rexona value market share increased with 2.4% (June 2008 vs. June2007).

Axe:::Cheesegirls

BRAND OWNER:Unilever
CATEGORY:Toiletries/ Cosmetics
REGION:South Africa
DATE:Jun 2008 - Nov 2008


Axe was worried its market share would remain static unless it targeted untapped demographics, including urban black youth aged 18-25. The problem was that Axe hadn’t spoken to this segment for 5 years and even then, the urban black youth didn’t relate to the Axe communication.

Axe needed to engage with this target group in a meaningful way without alienating current users. Axe realized that urban black youth didn’t identify with the Axe promise of ‘getting the girl’, because they were far more experienced. However, they would identify with getting the girl who everyone is afraid of approaching, the rich girl, aka the cheese-girl.

Axe decided to create a band called The Cheesegirls, who would release two songs. The first song trashed ghetto guys (known as Kasi). The second video paid tribute to Kasi guys because they have been wearing Axe and are therefore irresistible.

The activation was focused on radio (a key channel for the target), used PR as the hook and then changed the traditional role of TV. The track was launched through the sponsorship of an annual DJ conference and on radio. Listeners were invited to vote for their favourite mixed Cheesegirl track from the DJ conference.

The Cheesgirls were marketed as if they were a genuine pop sensation, getting interviews in music magazines and on TV. Axe was never linked to the band.

A PR set up saw the lead singer of the Cheesgirls ‘busted’ dating a Kasi guy. The band then organized ‘apology interviews’ which saw the band openly apologize and promise to re-write the lyrics for the infamous track 'Kasi No No'. The second track was then launched and played across 3 key stations, along with the music video which finally revealed the Axe link to The Cheesegirls.

As a result, the first rack received 504mins of free radio exposure over the first 8 weeks. Track 2 yielded 441mins of free radio exposure over the 7 weeks.

The campaign also smashed through the 10% share barrier target, one year ahead of schedule.