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05/23/2006
iMedia Creative Showcase: Axe Goes Mobile
Campaign Details
Client: Axe
Creative Agency: ipsh!
Campaign Insight
The Axe brand focuses on the teen and young adult male audience-- a primary candidate
for mobile marketing. The brand's underlying branding concept is that using the
Axe product drives desire in women of all types (Okay, so in the commercials it
happens to always be beautiful women being drawn en masse...). The brand
wanted to connect to these users on a personal and frequent basis and believed
that by providing free ringtones to users, the user would be reminded of the Axe
product each time their phone rang.
The idea of the little black book as a delivery mechanism for ringtones came
out of a series of concepts for delivering themed ringtones to users. The little
black book was decided on because of its references in history to a place where
people store information about relationships and was a snug fit with the idea
of Axe making you so popular that your little black book would be chalk full
of interesting and exciting women. The concept was built with the theme of Axe
in mind-- with your new popularity with the women, you better have a way to
tell who is calling before you pick up your phone and create an embarrassing
situation!
Once the initial idea was settled on we were tasked to create the profiles
for the various women and come up with music that fit the theme, was recognized
and desirable with the target demographic and provided a degree of humor. Of
an initial 30 profiles and 300 ringtones, a final set of 16 profiles and ringtones
were decided upon. Each woman got a two-page layout in the book with a photo,
a description, a sample of the music and any little extras we thought fit the
bill. (For example you will notice on the "Head Case" profile there
is a clipping from your phone bill which shows that the girl has been calling
you over and over, or on the "Anything Goes" profile there is a
set of handcuff keys and a shopping list with everything from whip cream and
strawberries to leather polish listed.)
I think this campaign proves that there is a lot of creativity and innovation
coming from the world of mobile marketing today. As marketers, we take something
as simple as the ability to download a ringtone, and turn it into a branding
exercise that not only reaches the consumer on a personal level, but follows
them around and creates viral marketing every time the phone rings! It also
shows the benefits of having a mobile marketing agency in your rolodex-- people
who know the market and will not only implement, but will help you come up with
strategy, creative concepts and drive the process through to the end.
-- Aaron Watkins, creative lead/ NW sales, ipsh!
Editor's Note
Creative Showcase is meant to be a teaching tool and an inspiration for our
readers. We comment only on creative that we really love. Our panelists discuss
what makes it great, but if they feel there were missed opportunities that would
have made it better, we invite them to mention those. And finally, we seek out
a wide range of opinions that reflect the marketplace for the panel, in order
to provide constructive, useable feedback for agencies, clients and others involved
in these creative pieces.
Footnote: Submissions are judged by a panel of industry experts from and based
on the following criteria: how the creative captures the specific customer;
how it meets the brand's business needs; impact of execution; and creativity.
If you would like your creative considered for Creative Showcase, send an email
to creative@imediaconnection.com.
The Panel
Rogues of the world, we have your ringtones. Would-be rogues using Axe, hoping
it will make you a master swordsman, we have a fun site that further nurtures
that fantasy.
But advertising is all about the fantasy, no matter how absurd. And who in the
world is more gullible than a teen to early twenties male trying to get some
girlie action? You spray on the Axe, dude, and not only will she want you, her
roommates and her mom will too.
The pairings of songs to "female types" in this ad is the real fun,
and we've all known the woman whose life soundtrack should be the theme from
the Twilight Zone. (But word to the wise, Axe-user: don't let her know you've
assigned that ringtone to her.)
Execution of this ad was well done. The "black book" concept, while
a little dated in an age when we all carry phone numbers in our mobile phones,
is universally understood. The interactivity is fluid, very slick and easy-to-use.
(There's something telling about the overly-comprehensive directions at the
start of the book, reminding me once again what my father said, "God gave
you two heads, but only enough blood to make one work at a time." ;)
Boys in my day had to rely on National Lampoon magazine for this sort of humor,
and it's nice that there're plenty of places today's pre-shaving guys can go
where ancient stereotypes are reinforced and next-to-impossible sexual fantasies
are fed. And let's face it; the target market here is really 13-year-olds.
So, the real question is, when my phone rings and Franz Ferdinand's "Take
Me Out" starts playing, indicating that "Demanding Diva" is calling,
will I subconsciously jot a note in my brain that says "head down to CVS
for more Axe?" Not likely, but maybe I can talk Mom into getting me some
on her next trip to the grocery store.
-- Dave Wilkie, creative director, Kinetic Results
Axe is at it again-- egging on young males that, with Axe's help of course,
believe they can make it happen with the ladies. (Hmm, that's a subtle recurring
advertising theme.)
Axe's brand promise is all about getting the ladies to take action on guys who
wear their spray. This campaign is in your face like the rest of their ads.
Clicking on the link takes you to a minimalist and funcitonal flash page with
a little black book. Its very easy to navigate-- the little yellow sticky note
on the book corner says "grab here to flip the page"
Once inside you can choose form a variety of "booty tones" including
"Last Night," "Midnight Marathon," "Head Case,"
"The Tease" and about 10 other tones. Each tone takes you to a scrap
book page with the girl's photo and some info about her. On the page the user
can easily preview the tone or download up to three of them for free. The next
page requests your phone number, carrier, university and gender. There is also
the "send to a friend" function.
The site is easy to understand and delivers on its nicely focused metaphor of
selecting numbers from a black book. My only complaint was the song samples
were a bit slow to load. Otherwise it's very well designed and executed. It
remains to be seen if the downloaded booty tones deliver on their promise.
-- Mark Friedler, CEO, GameDaily
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