Lynx 'Keeping Keeley'

Last month Lynx launched the campaign ‘Keeping Keeley’ which involved a 15 minute interactive online video/game featuring page 3 model Keeley Hazell, Blake Harrison (Neil Sutherland, ‘Inbetweeners’) and comedian Mike Fielding, to promote the new ‘Lynx Twist’.

The campaign for the men’s fragrance is based on the idea that girls are easily bored and so guys need to remain interesting in order to keep a girl. The Lynx Twist keeps girls interested in the wearer because with just a twist of the can the fragrance changes from a citrus smell to a woodier smell which girls tantalised and intrigued.

The video is obviously targeted at young men aged 18-29. Not only does the video appeal to this age group because it’s available as a Facebook application and on Xbox Live, but it also utilises two things popular amongst this audience – the Inbetweeners and glamour models. Publicity for the campaign was gained by having Keeley pose in sexy pictures for the Metro Newspaper. Whilst watching the film I could tell that the target audience had been kept in mind whilst filming the film as there were a lot bikini and underwear scenes where viewers got close up camera shots of the girls’ chests.

The video is supposed to support the following TV advert for the product:

The Keeping Keeley video allows viewers to control the life of the main character –played by Blake Harrison- as he tries to keep Keeley interested in him. Every minute or so, a ‘twist moment’ occurs where the viewer chooses what the actor is going to do next out of the options given. Each decision could either result in losing Keeley or getting a step closer to spending the night with Keeley.

The game itself is fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously – much like Lynx’s brand personality. One of the funniest bits of the video occurred when I made the wrong choice and the main character ends up having to get waxed and screams in agony. However, the other option is equally funny as he pretends to be a male model and models a ‘hoodkini’ and really gets into the role. The game really manages to capture what the typical Inbetweeners viewer find funny and loves about the show – the geeky guy trying to impress a girl and look very stupid whilst doing so.

The intention is perhaps that guys will post facebook posts about how far they’ve managed to keep Keeley interested. It seems that the campaign has been successful as early figures have shown that 125,000 Facebook users have used the application, Lynx has over 40,000 more Facebook fans, and on Xbox over 150,000 peope have downloaded the Keeping Keeley campaign. (http://www.creativeshowcase.net/en/1/runnerup2.mxs?pos=3&month=201002)

Could Lynx’s success result in more brands using promo games and social media to get consumers interested in and engaging more with their brands. I think that this Lynx campaign has been such a success because the online video/game has acted as an extension of Lynx’s personality and what it stands for and means to consumers.