AXE is a personal care brand famous for giving guys an edge with girls. Each year it launches a new product (fragrance, packaging and communications campaign) designed to recruit more guys into the brand. For the brand to grow at the same pace, each new launch must as big, or bigger than the last.

The brief: Create a product concept and communications campaign that sold more than any other.

We created ‘AXE Apollo’, a new range of products with an idea built in - the AXE Apollo Space Academy, a global competition to send 23 guys into space. For real. The launch featured a PR announcement with Buzz Aldrin, an epic advertising campaign, a digital hub and a global event - Space Camp - held in Florida to select the final cadets to go to space.

The AXE Apollo product launch had all the ingredients we needed to make this the biggest of all time, and it all started with a humble can of deodorant.

To date, over 600,000 people have entered the campaign, over 5 million votes have been cast and the hub site has received over 12 million unique hits. In it’s first few months, AXE Apollo is our best seller in a number of major markets and the campaign still has about 20-30% of global media spend remaining.

With Axe Apollo, a product with Space at its heart, it was important to deliver an experience and a reward that could excite our target audience. What better to get teenage guys interested that a chance to become an astronaut. For real.