In 2013, AXE launched the AXE Apollo Space Academy, a global initiative to send guys to space. The campaign idea ‘leave a man, come back a hero’ promised that when it comes to attracting girls, nothing beats an astronaut. Ever.

Over the year, guys encountered legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin, epic advertising, a digital hub, a global Space Camp to train the best recruits, and of course, 23 lucky guys won the trip of a lifetime. Space.

The campaign climaxed at Space Camp, a real astronaut training facility in Florida, where 107 people from around the world competed for 23 tickets to space and the chance to make history. They experienced zero gravity, flew a fighter jet, endured a g-force simulator, and faced a gruesome assault course. The event was filmed and the story told through an hour long TV documentary ‘Generation Astronaut’ that will air in over 180 countries.

The Space Camp event took place over 4 days at a real astronaut training facility in Florida. 107 guys and girls from over 70 countries experienced zero gravity, flew a fighter jet, endured a g-force simulator, and faced a gruesome assault course whilst being assessed by judges including Buzz Aldrin.

The event was promoted as it happened across social and editorial channels. Recruits were encouraged to broadcast their activities whilst bloggers and journalists covered the action through third party media. All activity was amplified by the AXE social publishing machine, which pushed updates to the brand’s 25 million facebook fans on a regular basis.

The ‘Generation Astronaut’ documentary told the story of the campaign and the Space Camp event, capturing the emotional journey of dedicated recruits in competition for a lifelong dream - to go to space. The 45 minute TV documentary will air across 180 TV channels across 2014.

Over 2m people signed up for the program (vs. 35k entrants to Tourism Queensland’s ‘Best Job in the World’), 8m votes were cast and the hub site received 19m unique hits. The campaign has done well socially, gaining 25m video views and over 81m Facebook impressions.

The Space Camp event and the ‘Generation Astronaut’ documentary gained media coverage from the Huffington Post to Maxim, achieving 1.9bn impressions globally. The story even caught the attention of Beyonce, who publicly celebrated our South Africa winner via Facebook for being the first black African bound for space. The ‘Generation Astronaut’ documentary is now being shown on over 180 TV channels worldwide.

AXE Apollo now accounts for for up to 20% of the total brands €1.4bn turn-over, in key markets (US, Brazil, Mexico) Apollo is the most successful launch over the last 3 years, tracking 13%-17% higher than the previous best seller.