Advertising Age writes about how Axe, the deodorant line created by Unilever, was a unique challenge: to "launch a new product into a mature $2.4 billion consumer-products category, and take leadership of that category against powerful rivals in just four years."
The brand did so, Ad Age writes, "with edgy creative and a marketing message to unleash your inner animal magnetism in a category where efficacy is normally the selling point. Axe has climbed the category by turning its back on other traditional tenets, eschewing sports tie-ins and programming; using online and content integration plays; and defining its competitive set not as deodorants but as PlayStation and Nike."
In other words, Unilever and the Axe brand managers didn’t let other companies and competitors define the game and the rules…which is an increasingly critical creative leap to make for companies looking to compete in a world awash with competitors and alternatives.
The brand did so, Ad Age writes, "with edgy creative and a marketing message to unleash your inner animal magnetism in a category where efficacy is normally the selling point. Axe has climbed the category by turning its back on other traditional tenets, eschewing sports tie-ins and programming; using online and content integration plays; and defining its competitive set not as deodorants but as PlayStation and Nike."
In other words, Unilever and the Axe brand managers didn’t let other companies and competitors define the game and the rules…which is an increasingly critical creative leap to make for companies looking to compete in a world awash with competitors and alternatives.
- KC's View:
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This story caught our eye because our son loves the stuff – he has four or five different flavors/aromas lined up on his shelf, which we find hysterically funny.
Sometimes he smells to high heaven, but we think that's overuse more than anything.
The brand works because the message resonates.
