Is the Axe Effect site a pointless 'wankfest'?
And now it's Axe's turn. It, too, is dipping into the Modernista! school of Web marketing with an "Axe Effect" site. Technically, it's not an un-site, but it follows the same theme set by Modernista! and subsequently imitated by Skittles: Let others define your brand. The Axe Effect links out to Wikipedia, YouTube, StumbleUpon, Facebook, Drugstore.com and few Axe microsites in an attempt at a new take on the brand microsite. (Axe eschews the wild world of Twitter, which caused Skittles some mild consternation after pranksters thrilled in posting about how they were placing the candies in various orifices.) Will Axe's site work? Count Wieden + Kennedy global director of digital strategies Renny Gleesen in the not-very-impressed camp. "The only folks I don't see deriving ANY benefit out of this 2.0 wankfest are normal people," he writes in a blog post with the refreshingly direct title "Brands go web 2.0. Give me a F---ing break." What's your opinion of the latest attempt to weave the social Web into the brand site? —Posted by Brian Morrissey |
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April 2, 2009 in Agency web sites, Axe, Microsites, Morrissey, Personal care | Permalink |
Comments
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the style was widely seen by Modernista more then others that did it before them. The way Axe does it is just a "hey check us out on these sites...." with no link back to main site. At least the way Monernista did it was different.
Everyone wants to be a part of the social networking sites anyways they can. I think it's different if you have a product that you want to reach as many people as you can then I see the reason doing this.
--Tom
Posted by: Tom OKeefe | Apr 2, 2009 11:04:30 AM
If anything Axe did what Zeus Jones did (archived link to site below)
http://web.archive.org/web/20070825103253/http://www.zeusjones.com/
Posted by: Tom OKeefe | Apr 2, 2009 11:14:58 AM
Why is everyone hating? Did we run out of things to debate? Here's a few topics: "Full page takeovers bad and intrusive online, but networks can parade overlays promoting new shows all over my TV screen? Hypocritical much" Or "Yellow Pages, how do I opt-out. Why do they just show up at my house?" Or "enough with the @replies in twitter. We get it, you have a lot of people to thank."
Haven't we spent years talking about the importance of experiencing a brand in relevant areas? Take the brand to consumers? Measure exposure to a brand in bite sized pieces? Don't make driving traffic to your website the end all be all?
Axe just updated their site with links to where you can find their content. I won't get started on the fact that modernista somehow sits at the top of a pyramid scheme taking credit for an amazing idea that is far from original... squeaky wheel, I guess.
Back to Axe, why is a bad thing that a brand took all the random efforts their offline, online, media, PR (the list can go on) and actually looked at them together and gave users a table of content to their messaging? Guess what... if no one ever makes it to their site, it doesn't matter because they can experience the brand where they already are. At least the brand managers can see all the work going on across the brands.
It is no different than media companies linking to their twitter accounts, or bloggers linking to their facebook, twitter, youtube page.
Distributable content is good. A brand that gives easy access to all content is smart. Brands have been doing it for years online.
we should be encouraging this thinking, not slamming it.
why can't we all just get along?
disclaimer: i don't work on axe, at the agency who handles axe or at the parent company.
Posted by: schmogel | Apr 2, 2009 11:45:14 AM
schmogel--
I agree 100%
Posted by: Tom OKeefe | Apr 2, 2009 12:28:22 PM
TTG just bought Axe Antiperspirant for the first time because it was half price at Duane Reade. The stuff is terrible. My armpits have been dripping sweat on to my rib cage, and I sit at a desk all day.
Posted by: TunaTacoGrande | Apr 2, 2009 1:43:19 PM
Sometimes, there is a downside to becoming a household name. Example: (overheard at a Caribou Coffee the other day,) "My blind date turned out to be an ax murderer, by that I mean he almost killed me with his cheap body spray."
Posted by: Scott Fullerton | Apr 2, 2009 3:18:59 PM
The problem I have with it is that it shows people the reality of their market position rather than where they want to be.
Prior to seeing this, my perception of their brand came from the entertaining earlier 'Lynx effect' UK TV ads, which positioned the product as a 20 something lifestyle brand.
Now go to the axe site and click on 'The Effects/Facebook' and look at the fans profile thumbnails. Full of gorgeous single women? er... no. Just reams of barely pubescent boys.
Adopting social media is about transparency and honesty. Does this site tick those boxes? Sure. Does it make me inclined to buy the product? Never.
Posted by: tom_h | Apr 2, 2009 4:14:12 PM
Can you imagine what it took the agency to even get the brand to agree to produce something other than a silly flash-heavy, multi-page deep site.
No one has mastered social media, we're not even close.
Posted by: paulhobbs | Apr 2, 2009 9:11:30 PM
I agree "wankfest."
The Axe site is really a shame as it strengthens the argument that Traditional agencies like BBH cannot do Digital. The people involved in doing the Axe "campaign" clearly do not understand digital, remember these are the same knuckleheads that had the opportunity to work on the Oasis album launch and their big idea was to put videos on MySpace. Unbelievably lame.
They also lack the ability to manage brands. Tagging a site toward Social Media sites is simply promoting other brands, for free - BBH's strategy, account and creative are so short sighted they didn't even gain from the tie in. So it's promotion for promotional sake. Lame creative work on top tier brands like Axe and Miller Lite is also an extremely worry some trend at BBH NY. They have become the new dinosaurs spanning both the traditional and digital world.
WOW, just caught a Axe "Hair Crisis Relief" spot. Can you say, "hack?" HACK!
Posted by: James | Apr 6, 2009 10:58:50 AM
