Unilever deodorant brand Lynx (Axe in some markets) has established a strong position in the market with sexy, humorous executions based around the notion that women find it impossible to resist men who wear its products. 

Each time a Lynx variant is launched, advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty is called on to deliver a new creative execution centred on this theme. The latest is Even Angels Will Fall, a 90-second ad which is spearheading the £8.5 million launch of bodyspray Lynx Excite. In the ad, a group of beautiful angels drop from heaven and search out a young man wearing the Excite variant. When they find him they smash their halos. 

Digital game invites new users

Running alongside the TV campaign is digital work from specialist agency Tullo Marshall Warren (TMW), which features model Kelly Brook. This part of the campaign sees Brook feature in a digital game which invites online users to try and tempt her Angel character down from heaven. As users complete levels of the game, they receive personal messages from Brook. 

In terms of its PR value, the game does two things. Firstly, the inclusion of Brook provides a reason for mainstream media to cover the story. With strong visual imagery on tap, the likes of Mail Online and the Mirror Online both covered the story.

At the same time, the game is designed to build a relationship with each player’s social media network. By requesting permission to access their Facebook community, it is using fans of the brand to disseminate its message. If the game imagery is of interest to the player’s friends, you get a viral effect. 

Ready-made fan base

This is not the first time Lynx has called on TMW to develop a digital conversation with consumers. In 2010, TMW won a prestigious webby award for creating  The Lynx Lounge, a member's-only area within the main Lynx UK site (Lynx Effect).

Within the Lounge, TMW created an After Hours section where members could see what actual Lynx girls got up to 'After Hours' (i.e. when they weren't modelling or promoting the Lynx brand). 

At this point, users were shown eight casting videos for Lynx girls and invited to vote for their favourite. The girl who won was dubbed the Lynx Mynx  and given her own room in the Lynx Lounge where voters could suggest things for her to do. Every week for a month, TMW filmed the Mynx doing the funniest (or weirdest) things the viewers told her to do - with films going live on the website the following week. 

All told, the campaign secured around 75,000 Facebook fans and 65,000 Views on YouTube, thus providing Lynx with an ongoing relationship with 15-25 year old males. In PR terms, the value of this kind of activity is that it provides Lynx with a ready-made fanbase when it wants to launch tactical campaigns.