Old Spice has the POWER!

Old Spice, once a dying brand (because their core customers were actually dying), was associated with the seniors and was shunned by the young. But yet now it is hard to find a digital native that has never heard of Old Spice. Since its re-branding campaign that took Youtube by storm in 2010, the Old Spice Youtube channel has had close to 297 million views.

Th re-branding campaign featured former NFL wide receiver, Isiah Mustafa, as the Old Spice Guy. The campaign was a great application of  both video and social media. It captivated the audience with creative and spontaneous videos and gave personalised marketing through social media.

The ads had the winning formula, which made the campaign spread like wildfire across the Internet. Allowing Old Spice to become the top brand on consumer’s minds when it came to scented body products for men for the rest of that year. The buzz around the brand was astounding. But there were skeptics that felt the brand couldn’t maintain its position once the hype of the campaign died down.

Old Spice answered the skeptics with another Youtube and social media driven campaign in 2011 (if its not broken don’t fix it right?). They cleverly put a twist to the Old Spice Guy relationship with fans. Introducing Fabio, the contesting new Old Spice guy, asking Isiah out for a duel. Fabio is a long shot from Isiah Mustafa and is a tad bit thick-headed, though he does entertain in his own disturbing way. This entry of the ‘bad guy‘  rejuvenated the 2010 campaign in an uproar of support from Isiah’s fans.

(click here for a full list of Fabio’s ads)

The campaign saw the two fighting to respond to the Old Spice fans and ended in a challenge for the most number of votes (which was not really a challenge after all, since most people hated Fabio). The campaign ended with a face to face confrontation between Fabio and Isiah.

The revival campaign in 2011 was a success and it got the Internet buzzing over Old Spice again. Old Spice had the winning formula for marketing the brand and at a low cost too, due to the usage of Youtube to host their videos and responses.

They carried on their whacky and entertaining commercials in 2012 and hired a new spokesperson, actor and former NFL player, Terry Crews to promote their line of deodorant. The brand first introduced Terry Crews as its new spokesperson through creatively outrageous TV commercials.

These commercials were once again loved by the public and it spread through the social networks quickly. Just recently in August, Old Spice worked with online video player, Vimeo, and released an interactive viral video into the online social sphere. The video allowed viewers to use various parts of Terry’s body to make music after the advert finished playing. Viewers are encouraged to record and share their music with their friends (here’s why it became viral).

Wieden & Kennedy, the ad agency responsible for all these great campaigns from Old Spice, has won numerous awards like the 2011 annual Effie awards and the 2011 Adcolor awards.

I hope they will keep the zany and creative ads coming! How about you? What do like most about the Old Spice campaigns? Let me know by leaving a comment!

Surgically Placed Products in our Music

Have you ever watched a music video and while grooving to the tunes, suddenly feel like you are watching a scene from an advertisement? Well, your senses are not wrong because technically you were grooving to an advertisement. I personally think they did a better job in the past when they subliminally advertised to you in a split second. Lately, the product placements are just getting more and more invasive. The camera literally stays on the product for a good 3 seconds or more! Some even have a scene that looks so disjoint and forcefully stitched into the music video just for the sake of commercializing it. Maybe I’m just extra sensitive to it being from an advertising background but it really seems overdone. You’ll be the judge.

This first one is an example of subtle product placements that are almost unnoticeable. The videos get more obvious and absurd as we reach the last example.

Billionaire

I like how subtle the placements are in this music video. Though Mini has a lot of time on screen, it doesn’t come across as obvious and invasive. Vespa and Tuborg appear briefly in the music video as well.

On the Floor by Jennifer Lopez

The music video starts off with two painfully obvious product placements, BMW and Swarovski both appearing for 7 seconds! A more subtle placement of the alcohol brand, Crown Royal, appears at 2.33.

Where Them Girls At by David Guetta

This music video’s product placements are probably the most invasive. Its not about how long the products stay on screen. Its about how obvious the placement is. Right at the start of the music video you will see 3 full seconds of Ice Watch on David’s wrist. At 1.22, you’ll see Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play for a whopping 4 full seconds. You’ll see a couple of more shots of the ice watch when David is mixing. Then, comes my favourite product placement in the video at 3.10. A 3 second advertisement of the Renault Twitzy which looks so forcefully stitched into the video.

Telephone by Lady Gaga

I hereby crown Lady Gaga as the queen of commercializing her music videos. Though not as invasive as Where Them Girls At, Lady Gaga’s Telephone is laid with a total of 6 product placements. At 1.33, you will briefly see her beats earphones. I find this placement acceptable and subliminal to an average user. But the 2 second Virgin Mobile LG placement at 2.06 is unbearable if you notice how the hand actually holds out the phone so obviously. This comes back to haunt the viewer at 4.15. Then comes subtle Diet Coke placements in her hair starting at 2.16. HP’s beats laptop enters the fray at 4.23. Polaroid joins the party at 5.36 right smack in the centre on the video. Kraft joins last at 6.41.

Maybe we are to blame for all of this. With all our illegal music downloads, the music industry needed to commercialize and use music video like real estate. I guess we’ll have to get used to these placements if it becomes an advertising trend. If you have came across any other music videos with unbearable advertising, please share the youtube link in my comments!