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Setting the stage for Old Spice to own the Internet
A lot of ink has already been written about why Old Spice owned the Internet last week, and I don’t want to rehash the various aspects that RWW has covered, and Dave Stubbs has mentioned, among others, but what I feel is missing from the conversation is how it all started. My friend Leigh Himel deconstructed what the brief could have looked like, and I think it’s worth expanding on to describe how the campaign set the foundation for success.
It all started with the insight and a deep understanding of the market and the consumer.
The objective, as Leigh rightly points out, was to re-position and re-invigorate the brand. To do this the team needed to understand the competitive landscape, the perspective consumers had of the brand, and the territory they had to play in. The market was saturated with female unfriendly AXE advertising, and as women are the primary consumers for male scent gifts, turning that into an advantage would have been mandatory for Old Spice.
With that as the starting point the Old Spice team (with a receptive client) decided to do the obvious: appeal to women without alienating men.
Old Spice cast the perfect actor for the new positioning. A former NFL player, a nice guy, and someone who wasn’t so perfect that men would feel threatened. Genius casting. Based on, I imagine, a perfect casting brief.
The next step was to create a seriously funny commercial that turned all the cliche’s of advertising and film on their heads. “Look at your man, now back at me”. “It’s now diamonds”. “I’m on a horse”. They made a commercial that was frankly better than 90% of the TV shows it appeared alongside. I first heard of it because my partner was watching TV and told me I had to see it. So what did I do? I went to YouTube and there it was. Word of mouth at it’s finest, but it would have been dead in the water if the team hadn’t thought to seed it online first.
They let that roll and roll it did. Everyone who saw the commercial started sharing it, and a character was born.
Now what to do with the follow up? The character was a success both online and offline and while they could continue to let it ride as a TV spot, the proof was there that they could take advantage of how much the spot resonated with the folks online.
The plan was to create a new TV spot, let that simmer for a bit and then pounce. The social media marketers did their homework and decided what the right outlets were to start spreading the character. The fact they took on 4Chan and won speaks volumes about how integrated and on the ball they were. While everyone talks about how they took over Twitter in a day, they really started seeding the campaign before that. They laid the groundwork. And it paid off. Big time.
It came on my radar with @jakrose tweeting that he’d received a video reply early Tuesday morning. “Fry it up and eat it down JakRose. Fry it up and eat it down.” The network effect took over and for the next two days it was all I cared about that was happening online. The social team did a brilliant job monitoring responses and working with the creatives to write compelling copy. They didn’t just target celebrities and “influencers” but responded to comments, Diggs, tweets and blog posts that they felt fit with the character as a whole. They were obviously fully immersed in the language and cadence of the social web because their video responses contained references only a geek would love (or get). They respected all the unwritten rules of the culture and tailored their responses to match the brand, and the mediums they were using.
They embraced the mash-ups and promoted them. They let the community roll with it. They poked fun at themselves (Old Spice responding to @isiahmustafa) And they set a time limit. Any longer than 2 days and it would have become tired. Any shorter and it would have been disappointing. The mash-ups continue to roll in, with the most recent being Mel Gibson calling the Old Spice Guy.
It was brilliance that came from the initial insights and work they did a couple of years ago. And deep understanding of how the social web works.
The challenge will be what they do next and if it moves the needle at the top of the purchase funnel (awareness & consideration). But I have faith, and am looking forward to every moment of it!
[Update August 13, 2010] W+K just released their case-study of the campaign: Old Spice is now the #1 brand of body wash for men, with sales increasing 107% in the last month alone.
This has got to be some of the biggest nonsense ever written on this, otherwise terrific, blog. So many words so little value.
“It all started with the insight and a deep understanding of the market and the consumer.”
How about it started with a client willing to do whatever it takes to climb out of the gutter and having the balls to let go and trust their hired professionals.
“appeal to women without alienating men”
Definitely not the priority here. The modern man buys his own products, not his woman.
“The social media marketers did their homework and decided what the right outlets were to start spreading the character.”
C’mon, really? My computer illiterate mother could name Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
“It was brilliance that came from the initial insights and work they did a couple of years ago. And deep understanding of how the social web works.”
This is so elementary. The brilliance came from the great writing, W+K ability to convince the client this craziness will fly, and most importantly the client saying yes.
This post belongs elsewhere, on a more personal space where people actually care what your personal experience was.
PS – This entire campaign is all for nothing if they don’t actually improve their products. I used Old Spice for years. I switched to AXE because their products are just simply better… meaning they don’t leave me smelling like an old fart.
Thanks Anonymous for your comment, even if it is loaded with insults. I’ll do my best not to stoop to your level in my reply and just stick to the facts.
I’m sorry you feel that marketing communications doesn’t belong on this blog, obviously I disagree having worked in marcom for almost 15 years, and insight driven marketing is pretty key for most clients, considering they’re interested in moving the needle on sales with their customers.
“How about it started with a client willing to do whatever it takes to climb out of the gutter and having the balls to let go and trust their hired professionals.”
Which is where the insights come in, and if you read the RWW article you’d see that the client was involved in the campaign and set ground rules. Sure, they trusted their integrated team, but if the team didn’t have solid insights into the consumer & how to reach them it wouldn’t have gone anywhere. That’s how great advertising is made, it doesn’t just spring fully formed out of the blue. That’s why things like creative briefs are mandatory.
“Definitely not the priority here. The modern man buys his own products, not his woman.”
Old Spice is a gift product and appeals to an older demographic. Women buy the majority of these types of products. Considering the first TV spot was titled “The man your man could smell like” and had the character speaking to women, I’d say it’s pretty obvious they were appealing to women with the spots.
“C’mon, really? My computer illiterate mother could name Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.”
Just because you know how to post a comment on Facebook or upload a video does not mean you can market successfully on them as so many campaigns have proven in the last 4 years. That’s why you hire people who know how to, which is why W+K involved the social marketers right in the creative process as they stated in the interview with RWW that’s linked from this post.
“This is so elementary. The brilliance came from the great writing, W+K ability to convince the client this craziness will fly, and most importantly the client saying yes.”
I’m glad you feel this is so elementary. Considering there’s so much bad advertising and marketing out there I wish more people could see just how easy the whole thing is.
Copywriting is one part of it. Insights and understanding the consumer is another part. Nothing exists in a vacuum as you seem to be claiming. The best work, especially in social media, comes from an integrated approach.
P&G is renowned for their systematic approach to marketing. They are “the company which defined many marketing strategies we now take for granted.” They’re pretty big on insights and intelligence about their customers and the market.
“This post belongs elsewhere, on a more personal space where people actually care what your personal experience was.”
Sorry you don’t like my approach to writing, but to each their own. I’m not planning on changing it. I like personality in writing on a blog.
“PS – This entire campaign is all for nothing if they don’t actually improve their products. I used Old Spice for years. I switched to AXE because their products are just simply better… meaning they don’t leave me smelling like an old fart.”
This campaign is for the body wash, not the cologne. I don’t know what the body wash smells like, but from what I’ve heard others say it’s different. Changing people’s perceptions and getting them to try the body wash is a pretty big part of why they advertised.
Have a nice day.
It’s funny how many digital agencies that are starting to get into video don’t realize how important some of the fundamentals are. Convincing people that you actually should hire broadcast producers who get video or spend the money on a casting agent (i mean how hard could that be?)…..
As for our brave friend @anonymous – s/he is dead wrong about who buys cologne when it comes to a NEW scent. Trying a new scent usually happens when someone (mostly a woman in their life) buys them something they haven’t tried before bc men, even modern ones, are generally creatures of habit who once they find a scent, rarely stray.
Snap. I wasn’t expecting that there would be THIS much spice in the comments as well as in the post.
Marketing communication is completely acceptable but your personal “experience” and/or “story” about this campaign is an empty shell that delivers no true value or insight about the campaign.
Regardless of what you may think, great advertising and great work in general isn’t made from carefully placed and carefully planned strategies… great advertising and great works derive from a tiny group of people (maybe only one or two extremely creative people), sitting around and shooting the shit. When a good idea surfaces you’d be surprised at how easy it is to create a rational for the sake of client sign off.
“Old Spice is a gift product and appeals to an older demographic. Women buy the majority of these types of products.”
–THE MODERN MAN BUYS HIS OWN PRODUCTS. If this wasn’t in the creative brief then your assumption of this campaign being based on “deep insight” isn’t true at all and if the Old Spice brand considers themselves a gift product, than I completely understand their need to reposition the brand… because that is a load of shit.
“I’d say it’s pretty obvious they were appealing to women with the spots.”
–If you want to be literal than yes they are appealing to women. But if their deep insights rely on women going out and buying their men Old Spice body wash, their brand is in serious trouble. Once again… THE MODERN MAN BUYS HIS OWN PRODUCTS!
“Considering there’s so much bad advertising and marketing out there I wish more people could see just how easy the whole thing is.”
–The one thing that’s remained true throughout the years is that a bad idea is a bad idea. But a good idea will flourish regardless of the medium. The medium is NOT the message.
“Copywriting is one part of it”
–Every element of this campaign can be broken down into parts, but to say that the copywriting is just one part of it puts the brilliance of the copyrighting on the same level of importance as every other “part”, which is definitely not the case here. The copywriting was one of the most important parts of this campaign, if not THE most important part, not just a part of it.
“Changing people’s perceptions and getting them to try the body wash is a pretty big part of why they advertised.”
–At least this much we can agree on.
The point I’m trying to make (which got me so heated in the first place) is that you can’t reverse engineer the incredible success of anything, even if you can identify the individual parts that made it successful you won’t be able to replicate its success, and you shouldn’t even try. A good idea is just a good idea, just leave it at that.
@Leigh
“men, even modern ones, are generally creatures of habit who once they find a scent, rarely stray.”
–This is true. But the solve for this isn’t in getting women to buy new stuff for their men. This is an interesting topic though… one that warrants a completely different forum.
If this campaign is based off insight and a deep understanding of the market and the consumer then we won’t know if that insight and understanding is correct until the financial results are in… and it’s not looking good for your argument: http://jezebel.com/5591548/alas-the-old-spice-guy-didnt-actually-help-old-spice-heres-why
BTW – I am in fact a man.
Dear “anonymous”:
Reverse engineering is a large part of marcom and strategy in general. You don’t reinvent the wheel, in war or in marketing. That would waste clients money. You learn from what works, which, I assume, you do at Blast Radius Vancouver as well. If you don’t learn from success and from failure you are standing in place.
There are a ton of other posts that talk about this campaign as well, it’s interesting you’re focusing so much venom on mine and Leigh’s take on it.
In terms of targeting women, yes, the campaign did – see for yourself from the horse’s mouth – http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/creative/features/e3i3639278d2189e4efb741cf130fdfc31f
And in terms of lifting sales, yes, it did that as well – http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/marketer/article.jsp?content=20100726_145222_3512/ http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/current-issue/e3i45f1c709df050192e8f8ac4ebfea51e5?pn=2
You may not care for my “personal experience”, but that’s really just your own opinion, albeit a somewhat anonymous one. As a marketer, and a consumer, personal experiences matter quite a bit.
“Sitting around shooting the shit” – yes, that’s always a good thing, we strategists, do that to. No matter what you may think, P&G isn’t leaving their billions of dollars of programs and products to a couple of guys just “shooting the shit” without solid consumer insights and strategies. That’s business and marketing my friend. W+K, if you bothered to read the articles, said the same thing.
“In general, we know from NPD’s FragranceTrack study, more women buy fragrance for men than vice versa. In fact, 43 percent of men who wear fragrance say they got it as a gift from a woman.”
Source – http://www.npd.com/
I saw the commercials, loved them, and switched my modern man from Axe Phoenix deodorant (which I had picked originally) to some Old Spice that smells like outdoors and freedom.
He didn’t care either way, and in my opinion the Old Spice smells even better.
Interesting perspective Tamera, although I must say I absolutely despise the campaign. This ad campaign aligns itself with a long list of new advertising trash that have become the fad of late.
These commercials deduce their audience to bumbling idiots who are entertained and made to laugh at the most ridiculous and elementary gags. Its insulting to the intelligence of the audience to say the least. They offer no value to the brand, add no insight to the product and rely on the audience to have cheap taste.
Now I’m all for humor being used in marketing it just has to be done right. It has to be a sincere & thoughtful attempt to bring some humor to the audience all the while delivering a MESSAGE. Not to deliver stereotypical one liners and childish gags with no message to speak of.
Here’s a list of commercials that do a great injustice to the world of advertising:
Progressive – Their annoying spokes lady has forced an oath on me that I will never ever buy from progressive insurance for as long as I live.
State Farm – “Uh dude watch this.. Like a good neighbor – state farm is there”.—Are you kidding me?
Old Spice…
“Look at your man, now back at me”. “It’s now diamonds”. “I’m on a horse”.
Wow, that was like so funny dude.. Is that the response I’m supposed to have? What does that have to do with good smelling long lasting cologne or deodorant? Jeez!
I think, I hope that these new marketers have it completely wrong, that instead of the majority being brain dead zombies, that they are instead a fresh, brighter, information fed & driven, fastidious group of individuals who are fed up with empty messages and overinflated everything.
What we want, what we need are sincere efforts by advertisers and the businesses that hire them to build real rapport & trust with us. Until that happens there will be no customer loyalty to brands or to businesses and who could blame them when all they do is feed us garbage and expect a laugh and not a gag in return.
Hi Micah,
Thanks for the comment! Appreciate your perspective although I have a different take on the campaign. For me, the brilliance of the Old Spice campaign is precisely because it makes fun of traditional advertising and the way males have been portrayed in everything from beer commercials to the AXE ads. Hence the “I’m on a horse”; “this is now diamonds” statements. It’s not about “real men” or what “real women” think, it’s about how unrealistically advertisers portray people in order to sell products.
Personally I hope to see more companies steer clear of the same old same old and recognize we’re not all stupid and don’t fall for the standard “use my product and hundreds of women will jump you in a mall” mentality.