Rexona’s premium male deodorants has been existing in the market for many years but remain challenged in differentiating themselves from its key competitors who are more known to have better fragrances than Rexona.

With efficacy and freshness as the top two triggers for deodorant use amongst its audience, Rexona had to find out a way to properly demonstrate its functional benefits are better than that of its competitors.

An active lifestyle has now been revived

COVID-19 restrictions have halted physical activities outside. But after more than two years, the Philippines saw an increase in such activities again. Rexona saw this as an opportunity to tap to showcase its functional benefits of efficacy in an experiential way.

The key objective is to cement Rexona premium male deodorants in the active space by penetrating key passion spaces that resonate with its target market of active users.

While Rexona is currently omnipresent on the digital space in terms of freshness messaging, it still lacks innovative real-time efforts that directly demonstrate its key benefits.

Finding an activity that will showcase Rexona first-hand

Spartan is a global experiential sport and wellness brand and has been active in the country for a few years. Rexona tapped this organization and the Spartan Race Partnership provided an opportunity for Rexona to convey key benefit messaging directly on-ground via shower stations with deodorant giveaways, allowing race participants to get a first-hand experience on how Rexona can help them stay fresh.

With over 2,000 participants per event day, composed of people with active lifestyles or interests, Rexona can cement itself as the ideal deodorant to get the Next Level Freshness, especially since people are starting to become more active post-pandemic, allowing them to freely explore their active lifestyle.

Rexona x Spartan Race: Survival of the Freshest

Rexona launched a partnership with Spartan Race Philippines, a campaign activation that creatively integrates its brand messaging and that helps active lifestyle enthusiasts experience Rexona firsthand.

Spartan Race participants are active lifestyle enthusiasts through their resilience in the obstacle course. However, the usual problem of racegoers is staying fresh after a sweaty and messy race since there are no available showers or cleaning stations. With no proper way to clean themselves and apply deodorant, they are prone to get body odor. Rexona comes in to provide participants an option to help them stay clean and fresh after a difficult and tiring race.

This execution enabled Rexona to penetrate a significant passion space that its target market occupies in. Through the Spartan Race event, participants were able to engage with the brand both online and offline through social posts and on-ground activations.

The campaign flowed as follows:

1. Pre-event anticipation was highlighted through weekly posts from 4 Spartan influencers, Gabb Rosario, Mauro Lumba, Steven Near, and Jeff Reginio and the Rexona Spartan Race partnership announcement

2. Training Video for Endurance, Strength, and Obstacle Courses

Various training videos released to prepare participants for the event, all of which end by reminding them to use Rexona to stay fresh towards the end of the video

3. Race Event Proper: September 24-25

On event day, the Rexona booth provides Rexona loot bag containing products and a Survival of the Freshest printed shirt, as well as access to the shower station which were heavily in demand, allowing a firsthand experience on how take freshness to the next level with Rexona

4. Post-Event Wrap Up

KOLs upload their post-race photo, ultimately thanking Rexona in helping them to keep fresh after a tiresome and messy, yet rewarding experience.

Given that the primary focus is centered on the on-ground activation itself, the role of digital is mainly to promote and build anticipation, done by strategically creating KOL content considering authenticity and relevance.

A total of 4.8M reach (vs 3.5M target) and 9M impressions across weekly digital releases

The Strength Training video garnered the highest metric in terms of CTR, View Rate and Engagement Rate:

- CTR: 0.065% (37% higher than category benchmark)

- View Rate: 7.8%

- Engagement Rate: 7.9%

1,313 race pass sign-ups (vs an initial target of 800), showing a 64% achievement versus KPI

4,000 total shower hits, over 50% of race participants avail the free showers

Rexona brand power increased by +1.2% vs past year, driven by Meaningful attribute at +17pts, proving how the campaign has helped cement the brand's affinity and being able to meet the needs of consumers.