AXE and Martin Garrix Unite Fans with Giant Earphones in ‘These Are The Times’ Promo

‘These Are The Times,’ out today, celebrates one of the most intimate and most recognisable moments in music: sharing headphones with your crush. The music video tells the story of a guy – freshly sprayed with AXE Martin Garrix limited edition body spray – and a girl who both find a single earbud playing the same track. They each follow the earphone wire that takes them on an unexpected adventure and ultimately brings them together.

Created by 72andSunny Amsterdam, the music video was directed by Ivana Bobic, who has previously collaborated with Bloc Party and Hannah Wants, among others.

To move people closer in an innovative way, Axe and Martin Garrix asked fans to submit their own earbud-sharing moments for a chance to feature in the new music video. They continued the movement on the rising social media platform TikTok with the #movesyoucloser challenge, calling on Martin’s followers to upload videos of themselves sharing earphones in the most creative way.

‘These Are The Times’ will also be the soundtrack of the advertising campaign to promote the new AXE Martin Garrix limited edition body spray featured in the music video and released later this year. The body spray isn’t the only item showcased in the music video that fans can get hold of, as AXE, in partnership with Sony, is releasing the earphones shown, as part of a gift pack.

The ‘These Are The Times’ activity builds on the launch of the AXE Music platform, which was created to boost affinity with guys and their passions, and launched with Martin Garrix’s ‘Burn Out’ music video, which has 55 million views. In addition to this, AXE Music also partnered with KYRA TV, Boiler Room and Spotify.

Martin Garrix said: “I’m very excited to be working with AXE again for my new track ‘These Are The Times’. The video looks amazing and I can’t wait for everyone to see the result.”

William Humphries, global brand manager at AXE Music, said: “It’s been a pleasure working with Martin again – he’s an amazing collaborator and is a perfect ambassador for AXE as we continue to grow our Music platform. In this campaign, we’ve highlighted the obvious relationship music has to attraction and we’ll continue to draw on this in the future. Saying this, the depth of the universal insight around how sharing music can drive real-life connection with friends, family as well as love interests is what has inspired this campaign and made it truly powerful.”

Adam Koppel, creative director at 72andSunny Amsterdam, said: “This is our second music video for Axe and Martin Garrix. It was a blast. It’s a great partnership. For us, it’s the perfect chance to bring some fun, magic and charm to the world of attraction. And any time you can throw a guy down a water slide is a good day.”