Campaign Casebook: Lynx Pulse

One year on and Unilever is still buzzing with talk of this landmark campaign, writes Claire Murphy Lever Faberge is currently promoting this summer's Lynx variant - Touch - but it will have to work hard to emulate the success of last year's Pulse campaign, which won a commendation in last month's Marketing Society Awards. European brand director Margaret Jobling says she would never have predicted just how successful it would be. 'Even when you think everything has been planned well, there are no guarantees a campaign will work. But there was something about this one that captured the imagination of young men.' And not just young men. During last summer, as the UK sweated through record-breaking temperatures, people were breaking into the 'Pulse dance' both here and abroad. Club reps taught it to guests, and it was even performed as the first dance at weddings. The Sun went so far as to produce a double-page feature illustrating the moves. Media coverage produced about £2m in advertising-equivalent value. Jobling remembers being in a bar, hearing the music start and watching people get up and do the dance. 'That's when I realised it had really taken off,' she says.