The spot launched on March 13 and will run across broadcast and streaming networks, with a concentration on primetime sporting and entertainment programming in addition to social, where the brand recently released its hugely successful “Ratio Challenge” campaign, which has amassed an impressive 8 billion views on TikTok since its Feb. 23 launch.
Greatest (launch) of all time
The gutsy multichannel marketing campaign kicked off with a 3D billboard takeover in Times Square boasting some surprising-but-true stats (according to the brand), attesting that 73% of participants in a blind smell test preferred the new Axe scents in comparison to their premium fragrance counterparts from luxury brands Chanel, Versace and Polo Ralph Lauren.
The brand then encouraged fans to “ratio” other things they thought Axe smelled better than by typing their answers into their TikTok filter, which would then put the user’s face and answer on a can of the fragrance. Gen Z comedians Preacher Lawson and Adam Conover and TV and film personality Chanel West Coast kicked off the TikTok challenge on their accounts.
“Over the past few years, we’ve put a big emphasis on better understanding the Gen-Z male and showing up in a way that’s authentic to them, so we love that they are resonating with our campaign,” says Gregory of the response.
A scents-ational return to a formula that works
While Axe has embraced a whimsical approach to their marketing, they’re taking both their investment in the Gen Z customer and their return to their fragrance roots very seriously.
The Unilever brand recruited Givaudan and Firmenich—two of the world’s top perfumers—along with Ann Gottlieb, a renowned fragrance developer who honed her craft under Estée Lauder, to formulate the five scents: Blue Lavender, Green Geranium, Aqua Bergamot, Golden Mango and Pure Coconut.