Axe: From Insight to Execution

A new campaign from Axe.

How this great commercial generated?

Enjoy my side of story.


Andi S. Boediman – Strategic Innovation Consultant
_____________________
In a Friday afternoon, Shinta from Bubu called me.

What's up? Turns out we need to create digital campaign for Axe–the leading male deodorant. And we have to present all the solution on Monday morning. Goosshh! Always a deadline like that :)

On Saturday, the team, including me, Shinta and Agung–the Creative Director at Bubu sit together and review all the progress so far. We got the qualitative research, we have a few creative digital marketing solution, but we don't have the coherent BIG IDEA. Ouch, a creative idea without answering the direct big question will be a waste. It will be shooting to too many direction without aiming.

Then we have to go back to the drawing board. We start the brainstorming session, we ask questions, we challenge the solution. The execution idea didn't rings true without knowing the real problem. We see the Axe ad from all over the world and we ask WHY they come up with the solution. You know, women flocking to men. Hmmm, is this what we have in Indonesia? I don't think so. We are moslem country. And most of the user are regular male.

We look into the qualitative study based on loose interview with the target market. A pattern emerge from this interview. There is a vast difference between Indonesian male and caucasian male. Indonesian are shy, they don't have the courage to approach girls, even for just introduce themselves, not to mention asking a girl's name or getting their phone number. Aha, this is a real problem! How come you get the best girl if you don't have the confident to approach them? Could this be the MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION? The kind of question that really give a million dollar solution when you really answer them. Let's try to exercise the solution then.

Will Smith in The Hitch. This is the kind of guy that we are all dream about. Cool, smooth and really know what he is doing with girls around. Who else? The Game, a book about the secret world of pickup artist came to mind. The protagonist, Neil Strauss, is a journalist who enter this world of women seduction as 'Style' and became one of the most successful PUA (pickup artist). In this book, he shares his insight on getting a woman, from learning the pickup line, peacocking strategy, neghits and many other tips. Wouldn't it be cool if Axe can become the vehicle for guys to really know get around girls like that. This idea really cement our thought on approaching the problem.



Then we step into the next question. If Axe is the leading brand, how can the adoption is still quite small in Indonesia? What is really the problem? We look again at our target market behavior. Turns out that quite a lot of them don't buy the product themselves. They ask their mom to buy for them. And they don't admit that they use deodorant. They feel it's their problem, not others. It's common for women to use deodorant, not for men. Wow, what a shame! Then how we solve this problem?

When we see women, they have a ritual when they meet men. They use lipstick. That's why lipstick is a big category. Every woman use them. This is a big consumption. Can we turn deo becomes a consumption? Then it should become part of the ritual. What ritual do men have when meeting with women? They style their hair! Another BIG AHA! How about creating ritual, style your hair, spray your body and get the girl!

Challenge, Insight & Solution – Deodorant in Indonesia

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: pick-up insight)

Working two looong night to prepare the strategic insight presentation. Bubu team fine tune the digital campaign to reflect this insight! Suddenly all the creative idea leads to one direction. Make Axe the vehicle for guys to get KNOWN to girls.

And on Monday morning, our full team heading to the client's presentation for idea pitching. It's a blast! From idea to execution is a matter of understanding a real problem and looking the right answer. In a matter of weeks, we got the project! Even though we have to pitch with all the big guys! Appointed as the digital marketing agency, our team at Bubu then work with all the stakeholder, the ad agency, the event organizer and the brand manager.

After a few looong meeting with all the agency and client, in the end, our crazy night becomes the leading strategic insight used even for the TV campaign and set the theme! WOW! I am so proud becomes the daddy of this insight along with the Bubu team!

Cheers to the Bubu team, cheers to the clients who really understand what we propose, and also cheers to the ad agency who did very well on adopting this idea as part of the group idea, expand them, twist them and executing this idea very well.

Looking into another story on strategic idea becomes great execution!

Keep inspired,

Andi S. Boediman