When Durban-based agency, The Hardy Boys, was tasked by client, Unilever with beefing up the image of its Axe deodorant brand among the urban black youth (UBY), agency CEO, Dale Tomlinson, knew his creative team had a tough proposition on its hands.

"The Axe brand, strong as it is, needed to remain relevant for this key market segment. Young black guys are already pretty confident with the opposite sex. They regarded Axe as a deodorant for geeky white guys who couldn't pull chicks.

"Their attitude was, 'we don't need a deodorant to help us get girls'," Tomlinson said.
It was clear that the, 'Axe Effect' radio and TV campaigns, which had gelled so well with the brand's young white male market were not going to do the job for their UBY counterparts.

Enter the Cheese Girl... The Hardy Boys team, headed by Creative Director, Geoff Paton, opted to turn the brand's perceived weakness into a strength.

"Young black guys may not need Axe to help them get girls. But our aim was to convince them that they would need Axe if they wanted to get THE girl, the Cheese Girl," Paton said.

"Cheese Girl is slang for the young woman even savvy black guys realise they have no chance of attracting. She's confident and sexy. She lives in a swanky area and drives an 'image' car like a Mini Cooper," Paton explained.

"We didn't want to go for a traditional TV or radio campaign." Their solution was an innovative, if risky combination of viral marketing and targeted public relations.

"Success was always going to be about partnerships. So we enlisted top local disc jockeys and music industry insiders, including DJ Sbu, radio stations YFM and Metro FM, and media planning specialists, Nota Bene as partners in the campaign."

A series of auditions was held and three-woman band, the Cheese Girls, was born. Their first single, strategically launched at a Southern African DJ conference to gain industry buy-in, was titled eKasi No No. It's message was that a Cheese Girl would never date a township or 'eKasi' guy.

Thanks to the catchy tune and controversial lyrics, the launch was followed by extensive radio airplay and media coverage, none of it mentioning the Axe brand.

Then came the twist... In a carefully staged PR coup the lead singer of the Cheese Girls was snapped by the paparazzi while out on a date with the ultimate eKasi guy, a soccer player.

This was followed by interviews with the Cheese Girls in which they confessed that there was something special about this particular eKasi guy. It was at this late stage of the campaign that the brand was introduced for the first time when 'that something' was revealed to be Axe deodorant. This message was pressed home with the release of a music video in which a Cheese Girl catches a whiff of Axe on an eKasi guy and just can't help following him home to a township party.

A second single, eKasi Nova, underlined the Cheese Girls' new found attraction to those eKasi guys who have that something special. "The accompanying music video featured Axe very subtly, but by this stage the brand was firmly associated with the Cheese Girls," said Paton.

"Credit to the client for taking a risk with the Cheese Girls. You must remember the first half of the campaign was unbranded. "And while it wasn't intended as a volume driving exercise, we made some good gains on this front and garnered a huge amount of free exposure. It's very rare to get 1 000 free radio minutes on a branded song."

The campaign also attracted its share of industry recognition. It was a Festival of Media Awards (FMA) and Loerie finalist, and won a Gold for best use of radio at last year's Roger Garlick Awards.

Paton attributed the campaign's success to good teamwork between the client, the agency and various partners. "Another key factor was the willingness of the team and client to break new ground. The traditional way of doing things would have been a TV campaign for awareness and a buy one, get one free offer to drive volumes. This may have driven some sales, but it wouldn't have changed attitudes.

"With the Cheese Girls, we've managed to achieve this all-important mind shift and drive sales in the process, all at a fraction of the cost of a traditional campaign," Paton said.