Results and Effectiveness

The website received 3.5 million page views and over 27,000 guys called to download the mobile application. Additionally 20,000 single-use mobile alarm services were set up via the website. (Source: Unilever internal data, confidential – not for publication.) We successfully effected the behavioural change we set out to achieve. Purchase repeat rates increased significantly. The percentage of Axe users who had purchased more than once increased from 25.7% before the campaign to 29.8% after. The percentage who had purchased more than twice rose from 14.2% to 36.8% over the same period. (Source: Unilever internal data, confidential – not for publication.) Clearly young Japanese guys were waking up to the benefits of spraying Axe on everyday.

Creative Execution

The centrepiece of this campaign was a mobile alarm-clock application which gave guys a fun and sexy wake up call every morning for 3 weeks. All channels in this campaign served to establish the concept of a sexy wake-up service from Axe and drive guys to experience it on their mobile phone. TVCs in the style of crazy Japanese game shows ended with a toll-free number to call and download the application. Guys who called reached a Live Call Centre, manned by “Axe Angels” who sent the mobile application to the consumer’s phone. Guys could also download the mobile application from the website or, for those with less fancy phones, set up a single-use mobile alarm service for the next day. Print advertorials explained the service in detail and included the toll-free number POSM visually reinforced the TVCs and included the toll-free number to download the application.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Axe launched in Japan in 2007 to great success however we soon discovered that Japanese guys used it like a fine fragrance – spraying only on special occasions. If we could get the consumer to use the product like a deodorant and spray Axe everyday, we could almost double our sales. The challenge was to break into their morning routine of “Wake-Up –> pee –> brush teeth –> shower –> (shave) –> breakfast –> leave home” In exploring this routine more closely, we discovered an invaluable channel insight: 67% of young guys in Japan use their mobile phones as an alarm clock (Source: JNN Databank, 2006, confidential – not for publication). The mobile phone was consistently the first channel our guys interacted with each morning. Based on this insight, we created the “Axe Wake-Up Service” and built a campaign around the fantasy of being personally woken by a team of gorgeous girls.