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!
Alvin and the New Ad Age 
HAHAHA love the Terry Crew Old Spice commercials! Hillarious! n great analysis! was a pleasure to view your blog. take it easy 😉
Thanks! Old Spice really knows how to choose their spokespersons. Terry Crew was a great choice for their deodorants.
Hahaha, Fabio is such a has-been – good for a laugh though. I’ve noticed other companies trying to be intentionally tongue-in-cheek and self-reflexive with their marketing, such as the Virgin Mobile ads with Doug Pitt. I think they’re trying to engage customers by making us laugh at their decidedly lame spokespersons. Whatever, I still like Doug better than Brad in the Chanel No.5 ad who just looked like a pretentious tosser in that. Great blog!
Thanks! I know what you are referring to about being intentionally tongue-in-cheek. It really does help improve ad recall and create buzz, much like with Chanel adopting Brad to front their ad.
The whole Old Spice campaign is really just epic. I have no idea how Old Spice smells like and males and females have vastly different ideas on what smells good and what not. The fact that Old Spice managed to sell to both the man and ladies proved that the campaign was successful and what it even more successful was that it created a whole online craze.
On a side note, Fabio is just ridiculous.