The Axe (Lynx in the UK) brand team has continued its collaboration with strategic partner PB Creative to reinvent Axe’s premium fragrance platform across all markets.

With the rise in popularity of Eau de Toilette and After Shave variants in recent years and the positive impact they have had on the gifting market, the Axe team at Unilever identified the opportunity to redefine Axe’s mass fine fragrance offering and to harmonise and consolidate the varying packaging formats for global alignment and consistency. The brand team was also keen to relaunch the range to make it feel more relevant to the current Axe consumer and to today’s market.

Axe/Lynx is the biggest male fragrance brand in the world through its body spray format and actually shares the same ‘house of fragrance’ expertise as some of the leading designer fragrances. These compelling fragrance stories needed to be communicated to reaffirm the brand’s strong credentials in this area with redefined and holistic packaging designs speaking of fragrance, craftsmanship and above all heroing key Axe brand assets to their full potential.

PB has reinvented Axe’s mass fine fragrance platform with a graphic and structural redesign of the primary bottle and outer carton packaging across both Eau de Toilette and After Shave tiers.

The bottle is a contemporary combination of smooth geometry and confident lines to form a balance of softness versus the Axe edge. Bottle transparency across both After Shave and Eau de Toilette delivers differentiation, depth and intrigue as well as elevating Axe’s perception as a fine fragrance brand. Flint (clear) glass has been employed for the After Shave range while a smoked black tinted glass is used for the more premium Eau de Toilette products. The Eau de Toilette range is further enhanced and premiumised through the use of foil cartonboard and typography on the outer box. Creating a larger surface area to project the brand and product proposition has meant that the outer packaging can deliver on a number of levels – including on shelf disruption, as a distinctive and dynamic 3D form and on complete brand ownability. The 2D aesthetic is inspired by the existing core portfolio variant icons cropped for dynamic impact with stripped back colours for enhanced sophistication.

Ben Lambert, Creative Partner and Co-founder, PB Creative commented: ‘Axe needed to update their Eau de Toilette and After shave portfolio to offer an attainable fine fragrance look and feel whilst at the same time reflecting the craftsmanship that the fragrances deserve. This bold fusion of structural and graphic design delivers a strong, contemporary approach to the individual fragrance stories with a refined yet instantly recognisable Axe Edge.’

Lara Kerbaj, Senior Brand Manager, Unilever added: ‘The approach and strategy was a seamless partnership and shared vision between brand and agency. PB Creative has successfully reaffirmed Axe’s aroma credentials with a beautifully crafted and refined design that accentuates each variant’s unique fragrance story. The new fragrance platform builds on Axe’s core DNA but at a much more premium level, reinforcing the brand as being much more than just a body spray.’