REXONA LIFT EXPERIMENT

TitleREXONA LIFT EXPERIMENT
BrandUNILEVER
Product / ServiceREXONA
CategoryA03. Online: Fiction & Non-Fiction
EntrantR/GA Singapore, SINGAPORE
Idea Creation R/GA Singapore, SINGAPORE
Production R/GA Singapore, SINGAPORE

Credits

Name Company Position
Nina Ee R/GA Media Group Senior Copywriter
Melvin Lim R/GA Media Group Art Director
Sami Jaaskelainen R/GA Media Group Executive Producer
Ays Tan R/GA Media Group Content Producer
Mary Tan R/GA Media Group Producer
Joyce Yee R/GA Media Group Account Director
Riku Vassinen R/GA Media Group Strategy Director
Katie Hardy Unilever APAC Global Brand Director
Patrick Reyes Unilever APAC Senior Global Brand Manager
Vim Shanmugam Brand New Media Producer
Guilad Kahn NA (Freelance) Film Director
Ryan Seet Bra Director of Photography
David Brown R/GA Media Group Regional Executive Creative Director
Samuel Poh R/GA Media Group Associate Creative Director
Mark Tipper R/GA Media Group Executive Creative Director

The Campaign

We staged a social experiment in a small space, found around most offices - the lift. Rexona scientists engineered a potent ‘odour producing’ solution which, when in contact with skin, would produce REAL body odour. We then sprayed our attractive test subject and let her loose on unsuspecting lift passengers. Using hidden cameras, we aimed to pick up how passengers would react to her smell, and hoped to proved our hypothesis that no-one tells you to your face when you have body odour (and it did). The experiment helped drive home that body odour can happen to anyone. Use deodorant every day. Don’t leave it to chance, because people may never tell you.

Creative Execution

Before hiding cameras in a lift to capture people’s reactions, we asked Rexona scientists to engineer an odour producing spray. It didn’t just mimic BO, it actually produced real body odour. We then sprayed it on an attractive actor, let her loose on the unsuspecting public and documented their reactions. This video became a runaway YouTube hit, called Rexona Lift Experiment. Apart from YouTube, we drove contextual relevance by running the film in elevator TVs in selected office buildings in Indonesia.

The social experiment has garnered over 6.9 million views, making it the most successful Unilever video to date in Indonesia. It has 270% more views than the next best performing Rexona video. The video got more views in a matter of months than Rexona’s biggest competitor Nivea got for their whole YouTube channel in a year. It was so successful that a similar experiment has now been replicated in three other major markets (India, Brazil & Russia). The month the social experiment launched, Rexona had the biggest growth of market share in Indonesia, in the brand’s history.

The unscripted reactions from the social experiment demonstrated our universal insight in a relatable and entertaining way. The short-form video approach made the story easy to view and share with friends. With close to 7 million views, the truth clearly entertained, as well as resonated with our intended audience.

To drive daily antiperspirant usage, we needed to go beyond traditional ATL marketing, and find a more hard-hitting and engaging way to drive behavioural change. Our starting point was a simple insight validated by numerous discussions with our target audience: no one will tell you that you smell, but they will talk about it behind your back. But we did not just take their word for it, we wanted to test that insight with real people in a real environment. The social experiment took a place in lift, which is a highly relatable setting to our target audience: 18-35 year old, female office workers. Lifts are also where passing conversations are likely to happen, as people are in close contact with strangers. This was the ideal setting to demonstrate that body odour happens every day, and to help explain why deodorant usage shouldn’t just be for special occasions.

Links

Video URL