Old Spice has been getting all sorts of praise for its “Man your man could smell like” advertising campaign. The premise is simple: jacked dude explains to women that if their men used Old Spice, they could smell like him—while all the while he is shirtless doing amazing feats (and riding horses… backwards). It’s cracked me up from the start and is absolutely brilliant in its absurdity. Understandably, the ads were instantly viral.
With their new series of ads though, they’ve taken brand participation to a new level. The Old Spice twitter handle is written in the “voice” of the actor, which is funny and is a great way to make the brand accessible. But tweeting isn’t all—the company is also taking the time to individually respond to “@OldSpice” tweets with commercial-style video responses.
So when Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg.com tweeted “i’m considering buying old spice body wash just so they keep making these epic commercials – http://bit.ly/K87jz” while also complaining about a fever in a later tweet, Old Spice guy responded with this:
Absolutely love it. Now, I may not be a marketing guru, but I do think I know funny. And this, dear readers, is funny. Funny things get passed around and talked about. And that, I’m pretty sure, is marketing gold.
So what do you think: Is this an effective campaign? Do you think that as brands look to engage deeper and deeper with their customers we will be seeing more of this direct participation? Or, even more importantly, does a funny, viral campaign even affect sales? Will Old Spice be able to measure the effectiveness of this campaign? Let us know what you think in the comments!
The thing that makes this advertising campaign so effective is it’s just ludicrously funny, and because no one knows Mustafa’s name (and he’s been signed as “talent” to NBC for a series to be developed), everyone keeps calling him “The Old Spice guy”. Brand, brand, brand.
Steffani–I completely agree. If nothing else, this keeps the Old Spice brand buzzing. Do you think Mustafa is so linked to Old Spice that if and when NBC develops a series around him it will generate even more hype for Old Spice?
Hype is 1 thing, but a more interactive and engaging experience with the brand would be to follow up with free “product” or attach coupon codes or other incentives to get people to purchase the product. That is a more integrated campaign, IMO
Mike Pascucci
@mikepascucci
I agree it’s a brilliant campaign. It has brought an old, tired brand back to life. It’s not often agency and client teams are able to be bold and use humor in a way that has this much impact. I wonder what if any copy testing research was used or if they just went for it?
Very cool.
I agree with Barry. I remember the first time I saw this ad, I did a double take and thought to myself, “that was Old Spice?!”. Great job of making me start thinking “cool” about a brand I had pretty much forgotten about. And Lou, it cracks me up everytime too. Nice post.