Young men in Kazakhstan do not perceive deodorant as a must-have hygiene product for daily use and instead, they use it only in certain cases: at events, before sport, at a job interview. Some Kazakhs due to long-established cultural habits also believe that it is not manly to worry about how you smell. Therefore, male deodorant category penetration in Kazakhstan is 2,5 times less than in benchmark country in region. Business objective was to make Old Spice number one brand of choice in Kazakhstan (top of mind awareness and market share), before this campaign Old Spice was number 2 both in top of mind awareness and market share. But most importantly we also wanted to grow the whole category consumption. To do so communication objective was to show and convince Kazakh men that deodorant should be used regularly in a very creative and entertaining way.

We had to position Old Spice as a cool must have product for daily use for men in Kazakhstan, while accurately challenging traditional behavior that did not encourage use of deodorants. Together with Irina Kairatovna team, we tapped into locally relevant symbol - horses - we created the "Big Idea" that for cool men fresh scent is as important, as a horse. To deliver this message we tweaked a popular proverb: «Иісіңе сай - астыңа тай!» – «The greater the scent, the greater the horse!». This idea became the center of our campaign. Next we adapted a famous Old Spice character to local market, we picked a cool local guy named Cheena to become the face of the brand. Finally, together with Irina Kairatovna band we created a song about Old Spice Cheena character and shot music video about it.

The brand target audience is males 18-35 years old. We chose the most popular and influential band in Kazakhstan "Irina Kairatovna" to help deliver the brand message "the greater the scent, the greater the horse". Together with the group we created a branded track that not only accurately conveyed the message of our slogan and idea, but also was a cool track itself!. At the same time, we came up with a local character Cheena, who became a collective image of masculinity and a projection of an experienced older brother. He became the hero of music track, music video and the Old Spice brand! We took our song and music to all relevant social media platforms - Instagram, TikTok, music streaming services and YouTube, all of these having huge penetration in Kazakhstan among target audience.

We launched our campaign right at the start of high summer season June 9 with music track released on all music platforms and music video released on Youtube channel of Irina Kairatovna band. Music track and video immediately got high attention from youngsters. We followed up with 360 activation during summer and on: huge OOH campaign, in-store communication, TV and OLV advertising, social media & influencer marketing, Old Spice branding and Cheena performance during Irina Kairatovna band concerts and PR activation. All of the 360 degree activation elements were with national coverage.

We achieved historical record in media coverage in Kazakhstan, our campaign became the mainstream of the year:

- music video gained more than 121 million views and became the No. 1 music video in Kazakhstan and entered top 100 best music videos in the world on Youtube

- music track was streamed 39 million times and became number one track in Apple Music and TikTok's track of the year

- UGC content in TikTok using our Cheena Old Spice track were viewed more than 3.1 billion times which bringing 600 000 dollars worth of media reach for free

We also delivered historical brand growth:

- Old Spice became unbeatable market leader and number one brand in market share and Top of Mind Awareness.

- Old Spice sales set record in Summer 2023 (index to previous year 147).

- Total deodorants’ market size grew by 25% in 2023.