Inspiration

AXE Gold shines with hilariously fresh videos

Using Spotify’s array of video ad experiences, Unilever made listeners laugh and drove home the idea that with AXE Gold, you “stay gold.”

  • 168%

    Ad Recall

    168% lift in recall of AXE Gold ads on Spotify compared to control.
  • 14%

    Brand Awareness

    14% lift in awareness of AXE Gold compared to control.
  • 75%

    Relevance

    75% agreed that the AXE Gold ads were relevant to them.

Brief:

Unilever wanted to drive awareness in Germany for their new AXE Gold products — a spray deodorant and a shower gel — among young men, aged 16 to 29.

Solution:

With their AXE brand of male grooming products, Unilever aims to be there when consumers are in need of, let’s say, a fresh approach. They got the word out in Germany about their new AXE Gold line with a campaign that leveraged Spotify’s audience understanding, serving simple but hilarious video shorts to their target audience of 16- to 29-year-old men.

To reach them, Unilever decided to use Spotify’s desktop and mobile Video Takeover ad experiences, along with Sponsored Sessions, which let music fans unlock 30 minutes of ad-free listening by watching a brand’s video. Their accompanying display ad read “#GOLDBLEIBEN,” or “stay gold,” and the clips played off of that theme, capturing young men reaching for AXE Gold products before or after moments of high stress, sweat, or dirtiness.

Whether the guy in the video takes a spill while bringing drinks back for his festival friends, or climbs through a filthy air duct to rescue a beloved cat, he always emerges cool, calm, and, of course, clean. The tightly edited, hip-hop-scored shorts all come to the same conclusion — that when you apply AXE, du bleibst gold, or, “you stay gold” — while our champion is hailed with praise from a rowdy crowd that suddenly appears from nowhere, “Harlem Shake”-style.

“As a [consumer packaged goods] brand in a competitive market, it is important for us to cut through the ad clutter in order to reach our audience in attentive moments,” says AXE Brand Manager Leonie Radel. “Video is a powerful storytelling tool for us and Spotify helped make sure our ads got seen and heard by relevant users.”

Using Spotify’s array of video experiences, Unilever made listeners laugh and drove home the idea that with AXE Gold, you “stay gold.”

With its memorable message, driven by humor, the campaign drove an enormous 168% lift in ad recall. And the 14% lift in brand awareness is significant for a brand that is already so recognized in Germany.

Impact:

  • With an easy-to-understand message and hilarious creative, AXE Gold saw a 168% lift in recall of their Spotify ads.
  • By delivering engaging ads to an engaged audience, AXE Gold saw a 14% lift in brand awareness compared to control.
  • Thanks to Spotify’s audience understanding, 75% of those who saw the AXE Gold ads agreed that they were relevant to them.
Formats: Sponsored Session, Desktop Video Takeover, Mobile Video Takeover Market: Germany Flight: June — August 2018 Source: LeanLab, June — August 2018

Looking for something a little more custom? Let's talk.