2. Brand & Business Challenge
2
Unilever’s Axe brand was a
relatively fresh entrant to the
growing but saturated male
grooming category in Vietnam –
which was dominated by local
players with years of equity, a 3:1
investment versus Axe, and sheer
weightage of traditional media
behind them.
Coupled with the lofty business
challenge to increase market
share by 5% in a year, this
presented a real opportunity to
challenge the rule book and think
differently.
3. Strategy | The Alphas
3
Communicating with the
notoriously fickle, broadcast
media shy, hyper-connected
adolescent male
consumer, we needed to
establish saliency versus the
competition - both in brand
terms & perception, but also in
use of media.
With Axe being all about the
mating game, we started with
the Alphas – the guys girls want
to be with and guys want to
be.
4. Strategy | Social Ripple
4
Through proprietary Mindshare
research and 3rd party studies, we
identified that these young men
created social ripple effects, so if we
could win them over, they would
essentially become our media.
Core to their lives and ability to affect
& connect with those around them
are their mobile phones – their
portable digital social hub.
Penetration rates for the urban Axe
demographic are close to 100%, but
smartphones are at only 26%. And the
Alphas are more often than not the
ones with the coolest ones. We just
needed to give them a reason to
interact with Axe, socialize that
interaction and give them something
to talk about.
5. 5
Queen angel
CLICK angel
VICE angel
DARK TEMPTATION
angel
Working with Dentsu’s iButterfly Mobile AR
product, we gave our target consumers
the opportunity to catch their Angels.
Selectively releasing a series of 5 virtual
Axe Angels into Hanoi and Ho Chi
Minh, our Alphas needed to catch 4
Angels to win an instant prize, and 1
Queen Angel to win a festive trip abroad.
Demo-targeted and location-targeted
social and mobile advertising drove
awareness and generated excitement
amongst the core demo, and importantly
rewarded our fans, with social
currency, by letting them know where
the Queen Angel was going to appear.
Solution | Axe Angels
PROVOKE angel
7. 7
Only one Queen Angel was released
every Sunday, over a month
period, at a specific high-traffic
location. We then conducted
physical sampling at this
location, which had turned into an
impromptu gathering of our Alphas.
Their experiences, shared organically
as posts and photos, were then
propagated via paid media in the
form of sponsored stories. Social
ripple effect success. .
Solution | Axe Angels
8. Through embracing
microtargeting and adaptive
planning techniques, we had
88% of the Axe Male 18-24
ABC audience, in the top two
cities in Vietnam, who own
smartphones, install the app
and engage with the
campaign.
Results | The Alphas
9. For every Alpha that engaged with the
campaign, 30 of his closest mates
knew he’d given Axe his seal of cool
approval. Organic fan growth
quadrupled versus the previous
period.
Over half of all new brand ‘likes’
came from mobile during the
campaign period, and the campaign
was the source of 80% of people
talking about the brand.
Results | Social Ripple
10. Most importantly, Axe value
share grew by 10% as a direct
result of this activity. This was double
the business objective.
Results | Brand Value
+10%
value share
