Insights
Lynx: One brand’s journey from boy to manhood
Male grooming brand Lynx were proving extremely successful amongst teenage consumers but were failing to retain these customers as they grew out of adolescence. Lynx worked with Starcount to analyse the passions, mindsets and motivations of Lynx customers, to establish how best to communicate with them, creating greater retention as these customers aged.
The Challenge
In order to expand its brand and ensure growth, Lynx sought to engage the male grooming over-21 market. Despite being the best-selling brand for males aged 11-15, these customers did not remain with the brand as they progressed into adult life, driving the need for Lynx to optimise their marketing and revamp their brand to appeal to a more mature audience.
The Approach
Starcount analysed the audiences of Lynx to understand the journey of Lynx’s current customers, the events triggering their shift away from the brand and the passions and mindsets and motivations driving Lynx’s new target audience of older consumers. The analysis showed that Lynx customers were following brands that appealed more to younger audiences, whilst those following competitors were following brands aimed at more mature audiences.
The Impact
Our identification of the most influential and authentic brands, media and people to the more sophisticated male grooming audience allowed Lynx to optimise their marketing integration. Furthermore, our analysis of the driving motivations of their target audience informed Lynx’s new advertising approach in a shift away from “lad” comedy, towards a confident, self-assured and sophisticated man.
Lynx was able to activate this insight by empowering older men to ’ Find Your Magic’, with advertising that showcased men who were revelling in their individuality.
The Result
The campaign collected more than 39.3 million digital views and four billion media impressions in the first quarter after launch, and went on to spark a global debate about masculinity, attracting more than 225,411 direct engagements with the film and more than 12,000 comments across all platforms. This has all led to a major shift in brand perception for Lynx with over 30,000 posts referring to ‘Find your magic’ on social media, overall positive feeling rising from 14.74% to 41.35% and a YouGov study that shows a rise in purchase consideration among men in the US market from 16% to 20%.
“At Unilever, we are actively building 1 billion relationships with our consumers. The future of competitive advantage hinges on our ability to process and act upon the constant flow of information available to deliver value to people beyond our products – to create affinity for our brands by not only what they do, but what they mean to the individual and/or world at large. This is the unprecedented opportunity that Social and data about people’s lives offers us.”
Shawn O’Neal – VP Global of Marketing Data & Analytics, Unilever