Sport Unlimited

Lynx had lost its way and the brand had an image problem; “lad culture” was now seen as outdated by the brand’s 13-25 core audience. Market share was slowly shrinking.

UNLIMITED set about changing the way modern men think about Lynx by challenging their perceptions of masculinity. Although Lynx has always been a brand synonymous with men, it was increasingly being thought of as immature and outdated. No longer all about ‘getting the girl’, our task was to help change the perception of Lynx and reposition them as a relevant brand for young men.

It was essential to get an understanding of modern masculinity, to ensure that the strategy, campaign and content were rooted in real insight – reflective of how the audience felt about being a man in today’s modern world.

Compiling an insight panel across the breadth of the demographic, we quickly established that there was little consensus on what ‘being a man’ entailed, but the audience cared about making the world a better place and were hyper aware and engaged with social causes.

Our Men In Progress campaign was a six-month social media activation in which we featured real men talking about what it is to be a man today; how they feel about their body, relationships with fathers and the last time they cried.

There was no script, no party-line and no moral being preached - other than to demonstrate that masculinity has never been more complex or contradictory.

Every piece of content was rooted in raw authenticity unlike anything LYNX had produced before.

A key area of focus was of course sports, and we featured sports stars of scale and with stories to tell; Anthony Joshua, Keegan Hurst and Bobby Petta.

56% of young men said that this content alone made them reappraise the brands relevancy to them.

Collaborating with the mental health charity CALM, we created a national campaign to ignite the conversation around this complex issue. Our #BiggerIssues campaign put the spotlight on all the inane things young men were talking about online, to highlight the one thing they’re not: the fact that suicide is the biggest killer of men under 45.

A technology first, this campaign was the first time digital outdoor media had been powered by real-time social listening and our headlines were regionally tailored and refreshed with newly trending topics every 2 hours, to reflect the rate in which men take their own lives in the UK.