An innovative, engaging and contemporary 3D expression of the Axe/ Lynx brand.
Icon 2 came to market without compromise, solving huge challenges on the way. It set up the brand for a different future with a quality, more premium feel.
Challenge
The Axe customer’s world had changed quite fundamentally: the explosion of social media, the arrival of smartphones, changes in fashion and a ground shift in attitudes to all things design required a repositioning of the brand and with it, Axe’s core product: the body spray.
Insights
Our ‘Cool-Hunting’ research quickly revealed attitudinal changes within Axe’s target audience. Formerly, the brand was about ‘Getting the Girl’. Now, Axe users were talking about design, driven by contemporary new products: primarily, Apple’s iPhone, which triggered the new digital landscape.
Outcome
The new aerosol design (Icon2) is innovative, with a strong identity: sophisticated, yet youthful, engaging and intuitive. It runs down existing high-volume production lines, is made on existing can-forming machines, is more sustainable . . . and hits the target price! Its round-to-square, singular form is pure, visually simple and confident. When not in use, the button is flush and the action safely locked. Twisting the top is pure emotional ergonomics: a ‘mechanical ballet’ which both lifts the button up, revealing a flash of variant specific colour, and inclines it backwards into the ready-to-use position. This is both practical and intriguing: providing the sense of fascination, delight, playfulness and emotional engagement at the heart of the Axe brand.
Client
Axe
Capabilities
Brand DNA
Design & Brand Strategy
Innovation
Product Design
