Impulse and Australia’s Next Top Model

Faced with declining sales and fierce competition in the high street fragrance market, Impulse was rapidly losing its relevance with its key consumer group of 18-25 year old women. The brand also needed to counter its down-market reputation, and reposition itself as a modern, sophisticated experience for the modern, sophisticated woman.

Using the insight that, despite the plethora of fashion magazines, women predominantly observe the fashion habits of other women, Impulse decided to use real “believable” women as brand ambassadors, a concept that has proven popular with other toiletries brands.

Tasked with the challenge of presenting itself in such a way as to convince Australian women 18-25 that it was a sophisticated daily fragrance, Impulse identified the TV show “Australia’s Next Top Model” as a suitable TV partner. The show’s premise of young ordinary girls becoming sophisticated young women mirrored the journey of the Impulse brand.

Most TV tie-ins end with a short TV spot at each ad break, but given the opportunity that Australia’s Next Top Model presented, Impulse was able to maximise the partnership in other areas. An Impulse-branded photo-shoot, using the contestants from the show, appeared in Cosmopolitan magazine, and a wider TV and print campaign assigned an Impulse variant to each contestant. The eventual winner, as part of her prize bundle, became the “face” of Impulse in future advertising campaigns.

Online, Impulse had a heavy presence on the ANTM website, and posted regular updates from the show on its own Facebook page. The combined PR, TV, print and online ventures served to unite the two brands in the eyes of consumers, despite the presence of four other show sponsors.

By the end of the activation, Impulse achieved an impressive 83% market share of the female body spray market. ANTM achieved an average audience of 300,000 for each episode of its 11 week broadcast.