AXE

Objective

AXE is a leading global male grooming brand known for its range of deodorants, body sprays, and other personal care products. The brand aimed to drive awareness and consideration for its AXE Fine Fragrance Collection, a new line of deodorants with perfume-like scents. They partnered with TikTok to tap into the platform's massive audience of Gen Z males in the Netherlands, and launched a novel campaign aimed at redefining the deodorant standard.

Solution

AXE teamed up with agency WPP Media to develop a TikTok-first strategy focused on strong product visibility, brand recognition, and authenticity, recognizing that Gen Z requires a distinct approach.

A key part of the strategy was a partnership with popular Dutch influencers Roxy Dekker and Koen van Heest. Tapping into a prevalent curiosity among the Gen Z audience in the Netherlands – "How does Koen keep managing to date the most beautiful women in the country?" – the campaign developed a hilarious three-part series of organic videos that playfully revealed his "secret": AXE Black Vanilla.

This approach not only resonated with male AXE users but also engaged females who often influence purchasing decisions. To further amplify reach and drive success, a paid social campaign was implemented. A combination of paid advertising solutions was used to amplify the reach of these videos and drive the top-line objectives of this campaign.

To kickstart the campaign with a boost, a Top Feed ad was deployed on the first two days. Alongside the Topfeed, a combination of a 6-second & 15-second In-feed video view layer was implemented. The 6-second layer generated high reach with product focused creatives among the audiences, whereas the 15-second layer aimed to capture and maintain the target audience's attention with influencer-driven content.

Results

AXE's TikTok campaign achieved outstanding results in both platform engagement and key brand perception metrics, driven by a TikTok-first creative strategy and effective use of paid formats.

The campaign achieved impressive reach and engagement, with the Top Feed generating 1.5 million impressions and reaching 86% of the target demographic. The accompanying 15-second in-feed video campaign significantly exceeded AXE's expectations, achieving a Cost Per 15-Second Video View of just €0.02, well below their €0.06 target. This efficiency resulted in a far greater volume of 15-second video views than anticipated, highlighting strong audience interest in the influencer-led content.

Beyond platform metrics, a Brand Lift Study revealed a significant 20.2 point lift in Ad Recall, demonstrating strong campaign memorability and a substantial increase in brand retention among the target audience. This also led to a notable 9.2 point uplift in brand association with the key attribute: "known for having the best fine fragrances," indicating the campaign's effectiveness in shifting brand perception.

A study conducted by DVJ Insights further validated these insights, demonstrating that the influencer-created assets effectively built brand awareness and elicited a strong emotional response, particularly the content featuring Koen and Roxy, which resonated well with both followers and non-followers among young men.

To conclude, AXE's TikTok-first approach not only captured the attention of Gen Z but also strengthened brand building and successfully achieved their top-line goal of fostering a perception of AXE as a provider of appealing, fine fragrance-like scents. The success of this TikTok campaign is acknowledged by the industry as well, as it has been nominated for and won several prestigious media awards, incl. the Grand Prix Content Marketing, Esprix Awards, and SAN Accenten Awards.