When we talk about successful campaigns by legacy brands to target a younger audience, the hugely successful ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’ campaign by Old Spice from 2010 featuring the ‘Old Spice Guy,’ former NFL player Isaiah Mustafa, is unanimously mentioned.
Old Spice has always been associated with the image of old men using the product. But this campaign - YouTube video with the now infamous “Hello Ladies” line (Old Spice, 2010) and television spots, which was complemented with a social media “response” campaign launched with another YouTube video - helped revamp the image of the brand and made it a success among the younger segment of the market. You can watch the video here:
The campaign was launched with the objectives to:
Make this legacy brand relevant for the younger audience
Generate conversation about men and women about bodywash
The video was launched in February 2010, and by April 2010 the video had garnered over 10 million views (Fernandez, 2011). At the time of writing this post, the video has got 59,684,709 views.
This video was not only successful online with Old Spice capturing 76% of online buzz (over half of which came from women) in the first three months of its launch but was also led to 60% increase in unit sales of Old Spice Red Zone body wash by May 2010 (Fernandez, 2011).
The social media “response” campaign aimed at answering the queries of the consumers and was launched in June 2010 with another YouTube video titled ‘Questions’ (Old Spice, 2010), which asked consumers to send queries, which would be answered by the ‘Old Spice Guy’ himself. You can watch the video here:
The “response” campaign was also successful and produced some great results for Old Spice (P&G, n.d.):
More than 2,000 people sent questions and in a 48-hour period
Nearly 200 personalized video responses were created and posted to YouTube
Queries also came from Digg co-founder Kevin Rose, Ashton Kutcher, Alyssa Milano and ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos, and responses were also sent out for them, which added to the virality of the campaign
The “response” videos have been viewed more than 46 million times
Overall, the campaign was a huge success according to Old Spice (P&G, n.d.):
Nearly 105 million YouTube views of the campaign
1.2 billion earned media impressions, including features on national broadcast networks and international media outlets
2700% increase in Twitter followers
800% increase in Facebook fan interaction
300% increase in traffic to http://oldspice.com
Old Spice has become the #1 Most Viewed Sponsored YouTube Channel
In the words of P&G (n.d.), "The campaign is having a significant impact on Old Spice sales, both for body wash and the overall franchise. Old Spice has month over month strengthened its market position and is now the number one brand of body wash and deodorant in both sales and volume with growth in the high single/double digits."
The campaign was not only a digital and commercial success, but also received several awards including the 2010 Cannes Lions Film Grand Prix and an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Commercial (P&G, n.d.).
References:
Fernandez, J. (2011). How the Old Spice hunk took over the world. MarketingWeek. https://www.marketingweek.com/how-the-old-spice-hunk-took-over-the-world/
Old Spice. (2010, February 5). Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE
Old Spice. (2010, June 30). Old Spice | Questions [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLTIowBF0kE
P&G. (n.d.). factsheet_OldSpice. Retrieved June 5, 2021, from https://legacymt.pg.com/pgcom-en-us/downloads/innovation/factsheet_OldSpice.pdf