Axe wanted to launch Axe Shower Gel in India. The challenges – In India Axe is synonymous with deodorants and consumers are not familiar with the product format.

Objectives:

Create awareness for Axe shower gel, with zero misattribution to Axe Deodorant.

Familiarize the Urban Male Youth with the format of shower gel.

Achieve 3% market share in liquid soap category within 3 months of media launch

Our target audience, the Indian urban-male youth, flirts with multiple media, actively deciding what he wants to consume. Content for them has evolved from one medium to a multi-platform interactive experience. Shocking, fast-paced, high-voltage drama dominates the content consumed.

Hence, we wanted to embed the news of the brand launch in a story that would spread organically and integrate the brand with the storyline to establish the product format. However the existing programing on television targeting the youth did not present such an opportunity. Additionally, regulations governing the content on television do not allow airing of the kind of risqué content that was required. Therefore, while the content was toned down for television, it was shown uncensored across digital media to meet the brand’s needs and audiences’ demands.

India woke up to news of MTV VJ Jose being kidnapped. After a nerve wracking 96 hours the three female captors announced their demands “Launch Axe Shower Gel in India or Jose will bear the consequences”. Tension built up as the kidnappers hijacked MTV’s website, posting 40 videos of them torturing Jose, while audiences interacted with them. The hostage drama finally ended when huge pressure from Jose’s fans resulted in Axe officials relenting. The campaign concluded with the release of a 10 minute film and music video.

The story unfolded simultaneously on television and digitally, as a 10 part short film series. The microsite ‘find jose’ was the primary hosting vehicle. Content was disseminated on social media, seeding conversations. Promotion was done on video sharing platforms. Print, radio, cinema and mobile were deployed to boost awareness levels at critical junctures.

• 45 days activity, 185 different communications, average of 4.5/day, resulted in 4.1% market share in liquid soap category within 3 months of media launch against the objective of 3%.

• Average monthly sales volumes doubled from 4 tons to 8 tons post activity.

• The content created huge pull digitally, delivering 8 Million video views, 117 million impressions and 1.8 million page views on the microsite.

• High engagement metrics – Axe Shower Anthem YouTube banner delivered a CTR of 3.18% against the industry average of 0.3%.

• Average time spent on ‘WeHaveJose’(hacked MTV website) and ‘FindJose’ microsite – 3:41 and 2:11 mins respectively.

• 48% of the target audience was aware of Axe Shower Gel post activity. This was delivered single-handedly by the activity.

• 54% of aware consumers were excited about purchasing Axe Shower Gel.

• The campaign’s effectiveness was recognized at awards like, Emvies (3 Awards, 5 Shortlists), Effies (2 Awards, 2 Shortlists), Festival of Media Asia (1 Award, 4 Shortlists) and Festival of Media Global (4 Shortlists).

• The campaign was covered extensively by Economic Times, India’s leading Business newspaper.

• In the Most Exciting Brand Survey 2013 conducted by Brand Equity and Neilsen, Axe featured as No.1 brand in Personal Care.