Mobile marketing never smelled so sweet

Ask any adolescent what Axe smells like…and you’re likely to get a response. Love it or hate it, Axe has become the scent of many teen boys–and the boys’ locker room! Popularity is growing and mobile marketing campaigns have something to do with that.

Unilever (which markets Axe as well as a variety of other personal care products) has hit on a successful combination of product, message and media to promote this line of body sprays, body washes, deodorants and hair care items. Axe knows that teen boys want to smell good. Axe also knows that teen boys like to play games. And Axe knows that teen boys love their cell phones…hence the Axe Pogo Extreme game.

To teach teen boys how to properly use the body sprays, Axe launched a multi-platform game initiative that included mobile, web games and console media. The campaign introduces boys to the ‘Double Pits to Chesty’ move (a spray under the pits and across the chest). Game player execute pogo stick moves to earn cans of Axe spray in the game and are then prompted by a sexy girl voice and animated figure to do the body spray move described above. The free application is available through the web for phones and PlayStation 3.

Educational (well, most teens can use some hygiene education), fun and cool all at the same time, Axe Pogo Extreme is an example of both Advergaming and Mobile Marketing. The mobile marketing campaigns that Axe has executed have been creative and entertaining, and supporting media have promoted benefits of enjoyment, usefulness and expressiveness to users, thereby encouraging the target audience–young males– to accept and even embrace the Axe campaigns and ultimately the products themselves.

Further, the most successful mobile marketers worldwide are trusted, recognized brands. For the young male market, Axe does represent a product line that is familiar and associated with current trends and style—much like mobile communications itself. Positive attitudes generated through mobile campaigns like the Axe examples can benefit other brands that discover mobile marketing as an ideal way to reach particular demographic groups.

Family routines get rewired

There’s no doubt that technology has changed the ways families interact today. As I write this, three of my family members are working on laptops in three different rooms–one in front of a TV as well. My Blackberry sits next to my laptop and I’m eagerly awaiting a return text message from my college student son. This is just a typical night for us–and millions of other Americans.

The New York Times described how household routines have been shaken up by the rapid integration of new technology. We used to awake to alarm clocks–now we wake to the alarm on our I-Pod or cellphone. We greet the day with technology and it’s often the last thing we encounter at night. Kids aren’t just distracted by morning TV shows. They’re checking their Facebook page, playing a video game or texting their friends. There are a million new reasons to be late for school.

Don't miss the bus! Have mom send you a text.

Adults are just as eager to get up and get online. The workday never ends when we’re connected 24/7 via mobile devices and our wireless laptops. We try to get an hour of work in before we’ve even stepped in the shower. We steal a look at our email on the way to the coffee pot. For many of us, the days of reading the newspaper over a cup of coffee seem a nostalgic thing of the past.

The New York Times article references an Arbor Networks study that finds that American Web traffic peaks at 11 p.m., gradually declines from midnight to 6 a.m. and then spikes up again at 7 a.m. At least we can rejoice in the fact that most of us get a little rest before we log on to another wired day.

So what does this mean to the American family?  Making a conscious effort to find balance and to stay connected through real, live face-to-face family contact is more difficult than ever before. Our daily rituals may be changing, but we just might find that these changes enrich our lives in ways we just can’t fully understand yet. And what’s “new” today is the next generation’s “old-fashioned”.