In 2007, Rexona set itself an ambitious mission – to get every woman in Romania to use deodorant every day. Consumption per capita was rising, but the nation was still far behind Western European markets. Women in England use deodorant five times more than those in Romania.
Romanian women like to be admired by men and put a lot of effort into the daily ritual of looking good. Rexona wanted to convey the message that if a woman smells of body odour then their efforts and aspirations to be beautiful would fall apart. The first stage of activity centred around the tagline “Romanian women do it five times less than English women” in an online and print teaser campaign. Intrigued and “activated” the campaign, a number of TV and radio hosts tried to solve the mystery. After one week of questioning the headline Rexona revealed that the “do it” referred to use deodorant.
The second phase aimed to raise paranoia about not using a deodorant and also create a social debate about deodorants’ usage habits, using a celebrity endorsement. Romanian singer and actress Jojo was recruited to accept the challenge of one week without deodorant, documenting her experiences on a daily TV slot and in an online diary. She was also invited to talk about the experiment and its social significance in well-rated TV shows.
As a result, the campaign became a key topic in media for more than a month, and deodorant consumption per capita grew 15% year on year and Rexona value market share increased with 2.4% (June 2008 vs. June 2007).