Axe asks soccer fans to go out on a limb for World Cup tickets

What would you do for a pair of World Cup tickets? Put on a ridiculous outfit and ask someone out on a date, the marketing team at Axe is hoping.

The men’s grooming brand, owned by FIFA sponsor Unilever, is activating against the tournament with a campaign encouraging soccer fans to don their wildest World Cup-themed outfits and record a video of themselves asking someone out, Dolores Assalini, head of Axe US, shared exclusively with Marketing Brew. As part of the sweepstakes, Axe is giving away 82 tickets total, including two suite tickets to the quarterfinal in Miami.

Sounds crazy? Getting sports fans to go all-out on their outfits is hardly extreme, Assalini said.

“We know that guys do this for all sporting events, especially the World Cup,” she told Marketing Brew. “We know that they don’t always look their best when they’re doing that, but we as Axe can make sure that they’re smelling their best when they’re looking their craziest.”

Soccer isn’t exactly a typical lane for Axe to play in, Assalini said, but given the massive cultural relevance of the World Cup this year, the tournament is all but essential for a brand that’s long sought to connect with young men.

Whiff it

Getting fans to think outside of the box when it comes to their wardrobe is one thing; getting them to ask someone out on a date—on video, no less—while dressed to the extremes is another. Speaking of extremes, though, attending a World Cup game isn’t exactly cheap (tickets to the final are going for about $11,000)—and the “insanely expensive” price tag has Assalini thinking the stakes of the contest seem pretty reasonable, she said.

“It’s not like we’re not asking them to dress up in a tuxedo or a suit to ask a girl out,” she said. “We’re asking them to…do what you do best, be yourself, be authentic, be the fan that you are, add a little bit of Axe, and that’s going to help you build that connection with girls.”

The contest is open on TikTok starting today through May 31, according to Axe. To enter, fans must show or mention Axe, tag the brand, and include specific hashtags in their posts. In addition to the World Cup tickets, Axe is also offering winners $2,000 gift cards for travel and lodging.

To help spread the word and boost involvement in the contest, Axe tapped The Pointer Brothers, content creators who often post about sports, including soccer. They’re featured in a promotional video for the campaign that’s running on social and digital platforms, primarily TikTok, Assalini said.

“They’re the perfect combination for our brand because they touch on everything that we’re about: fragrance, humor, attraction, and now this cultural moment of the World Cup,” she said.

The sweepstakes is part of a broader campaign platform called, appropriately, “Smell Your Best When You Look Your Worst,” Assalini told us. It’s set to include additional 15-second ads, social content, and limited-edition World Cup-themed products like cans with soccer balls on them, she said.

Never grow up

The Axe team is measuring different elements of the campaign in aggregate, including participation and engagement with the sweepstakes and sales of the limited-edition cans, which will be available through the World Cup, Assalini said.

The brand targets “young guys” in the range of 11- to 25-years old, but it avoids focusing on one specific generation, since it’s “not a brand that grows up with our guys,” she said. (The sweepstakes, though, is only open to people 18 and up.)

“We’re a brand that is really always speaking to that young guy, so it’s really important for us to be in the cultural zeitgeist, because we want to make sure that we are always on trend and cool,” Assalini said.

The buzziness of the World Cup is one of the things that makes it a good fit for the brand, she added, as well as the fact that the competition presents an opportunity for young people to form connections in the real world, which the campaign aims to encourage. Axe is generally more focused on marketing around “cultural moments” than sports specifically, according to Assalini; her team hasn’t typically leaned into soccer, but decided to embrace the sport in this instance because of the global appeal of the tournament.

After the World Cup, Assalini said her team will turn their attention to back-to-school, a time when the brand “does really well” given its target audience. This year, they’re planning a campaign tied to early 2000s nostalgia, she noted.

“As soon as the World Cup ends, we’re not taking our foot off the gas,” she said.