The world’s leading deodorant brand

AXE (also known as Lynx) is the world’s leading male deodorant body spray, famous for giving guys the edge with girls. This promise of confidence and seduction is underpinned by great fragrances and a compelling brand idea: The AXE Effect.

Troubled times

In 2010 AXE was in trouble. Two years of poor performing product launches had eroded relevance with a global youth audience. We risked a ‘lost generation’ of guys who would never know the AXE Effect and brand growth had ground to halt.

Last year’s success

In 2011 AXE launched one of its most successful new variants of all time – ‘AXE Excite’. Supported by the famous ‘Angels’ campaign, Excite reconnected AXE with its essence and turned around the brand’s fortunes. The success of Excite was recognised in 2012 with the Cannes Grand Prix for Creative Effectiveness.

AXE was back on its game.

The difficult second album

The challenge in 2012: maintain year-on-year growth by launching a new variant even more successful than Excite. This intimidating task required us to create more fame, recruit more guys and ultimately sell more product than ever before.

New game, new rules

We needed a disruptive idea of epic proportions. A new understanding of the ‘dating game’ delivered the insight we needed. Relationships between guys and girls had become more open, more fluid and more chaotic. Above all, girls now played a much more active role. They had become equal players in a game with new rules.

AXE ‘Anarchy’ – for him and for her

Recognising the equal status of girls delivered the disruptive idea we sought.

The creative process started with the product. We created an additional AXE fragrance for girls for the first time in the brand’s 30 year history. We named the products AXE Anarchy, for him and for her, two fragrances that promised attraction on a mass scale.

Our campaign idea ‘Unleash the Chaos’, dramatised the mayhem caused by a world distracted by attraction. The work was underpinned by a simple principle – instead of just showing guys chasing girls, attraction was now equal.

Beating success

A disruptive NPD idea made sure we were noticed. A powerful creative idea opened up a new audience. A year’s worth of activity spanning over 80 markets delivered unparalleled scale.

The result?

Year on year growth driven by the most successful AXE new variant of all time.