Going head-to-head
Axe took on designer fragrances in an internet-heavy campaign - and won?
At the centre of this campaign is a 2-minute video where Axe enlist the help of people who are overly familiar with the smell of Axe: locker-room veterans. Basketball icons Shareef O'Neal, Chiney Ogwumike, Kris Jenkins, and Brandon Beloti are asked to judge between Axe Black Vanilla and Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille. And Axe comes out on top. In an OOH campaign, Axe leans on internet vocab with the headline "ratio + new Axe smells better than Chanel". A “ratio” is when a comment on a post gets more likes than post itself, but it has kinda become a shorthand for a middle finger. There are three interesting things about this campaign: The talent is well-chosen. Who gets sick of the smell of Axe? People who spend lots of time in locker-rooms. So who better to judge a blind smell-test? It doesn't make sense. The OOH doesn't really have anything to do with the video. Yes, it's broadly about the fact that Axe > designer. But Axe clearly wanted to use different channels differently. Axe continue their inclusivity push. Decades of men-only marketing hurt the brand. But in 2021 they reinvented themselves for a Gen Z audience, continuing here by featuring Chiney in the video. Axe isn't just for men, and they want/need us to know that. It's working.
Watch
The work
