My Crush

Sometimes you run across an idea that’s so fun, so novel, so GREAT – you just wish you were the one that came up with it. Enter Wieden + Kennedy, the creative agency behind the fellow we simply call “The Old Spice Man.” In the midst of a second advertising campaign for Old Spice using actor Isaiah Mustafa, WK took the effort social in a YouTube video series that pretty much infected the Twitterstream the week of July 11 - not to mention the attention it also garnered on Facebook and YouTube.

The Particulars

Standing in a nondescript bathroom (somewhere in Portland, OR) and sporting a towel, the Old Spice Man responded to a wide variety of social media-fed inquiries and posts in a series of short videos that quickly became online conversation-fodder. In an interview with Mark Borden of Fast Company, Weiden’s global interactive creative director Iain Tait spoke about how they developed the online campaign:

“We knew it couldn’t be just responding to tweets in words, that wouldn’t have felt so special and had been done before. The fact that we were able to do this in video feels appropriate in relation to the prior TV ads.”

The Videos

According to AdAge.com, actor Mustafa delivered 186 video responses to both celebrities and everyday people. A few examples:

• George Stephanopoulos
• Ellen Degeneres 
• Mustafa’s own daughter

And there’s one I’m particularly fond of – one he did for a dog on Twitter. (I’ll admit bias on this one – he’s MY dog! But who can resist a BARKING Old Spice man?).

The Impact

Early reports don’t indicate a marked sales increase since the character’s launch in mid-February – quite the opposite, in fact.

I’d give it time. While these stats indicate a 7% sales decline, they don’t include any sales figures from retail giant WalMart, AND figures were only reported (so far) through June 13. The viral elements of the Old Spice campaign didn’t really take off til JULY 12: the @OldSpice Twitter account had just over 11k followers around 5pm EST on that Tuesday. The next day, same time? More than 65k. And at this writing? 93,748. Facebook? 704,415. And the YouTube views are TRULY impressive.

For now, it’s a wait-and-see game. As many can tell you – major brand shifts take time. The Old Spice brand had aged over the past several years, more staid than hip by any measure.

My dog and I (and certainly Old Spice parent company P&G, and Wieden & Kennedy) will be tuning in to see what future sales figures show.

Some of the coverage:

• Surprise interview with Mustafa at Local Portland TV Station
• American Marketing Association (article on the campaign)
• AdAge.com (article on the campaign)
• Mark Borden interview with Wieden & Kennedy

What's YOUR favorite video in the series?

(Shaun Amanda Herrmann)