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Another deoderant showcase:
Old Spice "When Sweat is Sexy"

Client: Axe
Creative Agency: ipsh!

The Axe brand focuses on the teen and young adult male audience--  a primary candidate for mobile marketing. The brand's underlying branding concept is that using the Axe product drives desire in women of all types (Okay, so in the commercials it happens to always be beautiful women being drawn en masse….). The brand wanted to connect to these users on a personal and frequent basis and believed that by providing free ringtones to users, the user would be reminded of the Axe product each time their phone rang.

The idea of the little black book as a delivery mechanism for ringtones came out of a series of concepts for delivering themed ringtones to users. The little black book was decided on because of its references in history to a place where people store information about relationships and was a snug fit with the idea of Axe making you so popular that your little black book would be chalk full of interesting and exciting women. The concept was built with the theme of Axe in mind-- with your new popularity with the women, you better have a way to tell who is calling before you pick up your phone and create an embarrassing situation!

Once the initial idea was settled on we were tasked to create the profiles for the various women and come up with music that fit the theme, was recognized and desirable with the target demographic and provided a degree of humor. Of an initial 30 profiles and 300 ringtones, a final set of 16 profiles and ringtones were decided upon. Each woman got a two-page layout in the book with a photo, a description, a sample of the music and any little extras we thought fit the bill. (For example you will notice on the “Head Case” profile there is a clipping from your phone bill which shows that the girl has been calling you over and over, or on the “Anything Goes” profile there is a set of handcuff keys and a shopping list with everything from whip cream and strawberries to leather polish listed.)

I think this campaign proves that there is a lot of creativity and innovation coming from the world of mobile marketing today. As marketers, we take something as simple as the ability to download a ringtone, and turn it into a branding exercise that not only reaches the consumer on a personal level, but follows them around and creates viral marketing every time the phone rings! It also shows the benefits of having a mobile marketing agency in your rolodex-- people who know the market and will not only implement, but will help you come up with strategy, creative concepts and drive the process through to the end.
-- Aaron Watkins, creative lead/ NW sales, ipsh!

Rogues of the world, we have your ringtones. Would-be rogues using Axe, hoping it will make you a master swordsman, we have a fun site that further nurtures that fantasy.

But advertising is all about the fantasy, no matter how absurd. And who in the world is more gullible than a teen to early twenties male trying to get some girlie action? You spray on the Axe, dude, and not only will she want you, her roommates and her mom will too.

The pairings of songs to "female types" in this ad is the real fun, and we've all known the woman whose life soundtrack should be the theme from the Twilight Zone. (But word to the wise, Axe-user: don't let her know you've assigned that ringtone to her.)

Execution of this ad was well done. The "black book" concept, while a little dated in an age when we all carry phone numbers in our mobile phones, is universally understood. The interactivity is fluid, very slick and easy-to-use. (There's something telling about the overly-comprehensive directions at the start of the book, reminding me once again what my father said, "God gave you two heads, but only enough blood to make one work at a time.")

Boys in my day had to rely on National Lampoon magazine for this sort of humor, and it's nice that there're plenty of places today's pre-shaving guys can go where ancient stereotypes are reinforced and next-to-impossible sexual fantasies are fed. And let's face it; the target market here is really 13-year-olds.   

So, the real question is, when my phone rings and Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" starts playing, indicating that "Demanding Diva" is calling, will I subconsciously jot a note in my brain that says "head down to CVS for more Axe?" Not likely, but maybe I can talk Mom into getting me some on her next trip to the grocery store.
-- Dave Wilkie, creative director, Kinetic Results

Axe is at it again-- egging on young males that, with Axe's help of course, believe they can make it happen with the ladies. (Hmm, that's a subtle recurring advertising theme.)

Axe's brand promise is all about getting the ladies to take action on guys who wear their spray. This campaign is in your face like the rest of their ads.

Clicking on the link takes you to a minimalist and funcitonal flash page with a little black book. Its very easy to navigate-- the little yellow sticky note on the book corner says "grab here to flip the page"

Once inside you can choose form a variety of "booty tones" including "Last Night," "Midnight Marathon," "Head Case," "The Tease" and about 10 other tones. Each tone takes you to a scrap book page with the girl's photo and some info about her. On the page the user can easily preview the tone or download up to three of them for free. The next page requests your phone number, carrier, university and gender. There is also the "send to a friend" function.

The site is easy to understand and delivers on its nicely focused metaphor of selecting numbers from a black book. My only complaint was the song samples were a bit slow to load. Otherwise it's very well designed and executed. It remains to be seen if the downloaded booty tones deliver on their promise.
-- Mark Friedler, CEO, GameDaily