Brands
HUL’s Axe takes a ticket to the IPL
MUMBAI: Sachet pricing. That’s a tack that’s worked like wildfire amongst India’s masses who lie at the lower end of the customer pyramid. Shampoos, soft drinks, detergents – almost every category and brand has tried it – with much success. They have scaled their offerings to mini sizes to make products affordable and usable by those in the hinterlands and those short on money.
India’s savviest marketing company, the giant HUL, has been using the IPL to promote Axe Ticket, a miniaturisation of the famed Axe perfume which it launched in February 2018.
The 2018 version came in a 17 ml size and was priced at Rs 65. A concentrated perfume, it could be used for 250 sprays, but required three or four pumps to give the wearer odour protection and make them attractive to the opposite sex. The Axe mini-ticket followed in late 2019 in a 10 ml size priced at Rs 35, but promotion was suspended on account of the Covid2019 pandemic.
For the past two months, the mini-version has been back, but with the sobriquet Axe Ticket. A humorous campaign which is airing during the IPL telecast shows folks in an ATM queue all masked up and keeping socially distanced from each other. One of them brings out his Axe ticket and sprays himself. Presto, the perfume gets to a pretty young thing who is immediately drawn towards him and turns around and parks herself in a demarcated space just before him. Pop comes the message: “Smell ready. Axe Ticket at Rs 35 only. “
The TVC ends with an older bald man, bringing out his Axe Ticket, hinting that he will spray himself with it, in the hope of luring the lady behind him in the queue.
Why does HUL need to promote a smaller pack under the Ticket brand and at a lower price? The reasons are obvious: the pandemic has resulted in incomes getting clipped, jobs being lost, and the mood getting pretty sombre amongst the target audience for the perfume: the young Indians.
Hence, HUL is attempting to induce purchases of an item considered a luxury by most – at a time of cash paucity. At Rs 35 for 10 ml, it comes within the reach of many who buy adulterated duplicate perfumes from the roadside at prices double that. And with the promise of longer lasting fragrances such as wood and chocolate, Axe Ticket thus looks attractive.
Brands
UK’s OnlyFans seeks US investor at $3bn valuation after owner’s death
The adult video platform is seeking stability after the death of its billionaire owner
LONDON: OnlyFans is looking for a new partner. The London-based adult video platform is in advanced talks to sell a minority stake of less than 20 per cent to Architect Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, in a deal that would value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).
The move is driven by an urgent need for stability. Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American billionaire who owned OnlyFans, died of cancer last month at the age of 43, leaving the future of one of Britain’s most profitable privately held businesses suddenly uncertain.
The choice of Architect Capital is not arbitrary. The firm has deep expertise in financial services, which aligns neatly with OnlyFans’ ambitions to offer banking products to its creators, many of whom have long struggled to access basic financial services because of the nature of their work.
The numbers behind OnlyFans are, by any measure, staggering. The platform posted revenues of $1.4bn in the year to 30th November 2024, with a pre-tax profit of $684m, up four per cent on the prior year. Payments to creators totalled $7.2bn over the same period, a rise of nearly ten per cent. Radvinsky personally collected $701m in dividends from the business in 2024 alone, on top of more than $1bn in such payments he had already received. The platform, run through its parent company Felix International, hosts 4.6m creator accounts, with performers keeping 80 per cent of subscription proceeds and the platform pocketing the remaining 20 per cent. It has 377m fan accounts in total.
The current minority stake talks represent a notable scaling back of ambitions. In January, OnlyFans was reported to be in discussions with Architect about selling a majority stake of 60 per cent. Before that, the company had explored a sale to a consortium led by Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Neither deal materialised.
OnlyFans has built an enormously lucrative business on content that mainstream finance has long refused to touch. Now, with its owner gone and a $3bn valuation on the table, it is looking for the kind of respectable institutional backing that might finally persuade the banks to take its calls.
