Old Spice: Not Your Grandpa’s Body Wash

^{How One Insight Allowed Old Spice to Unofficially Rebrand}

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Let’s take it back to 2010. New Harry Potter movies were still coming out. Lady Gaga wore a meat dress to the VMAs. And Old Spice was an older demo’s brand—they advertised to more mature gents so they were culturally associated with them, too. 

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But times were a-changin’. Old Spice decided to pivot their target consumer to the 18-34-year-old demographic—which wasn’t an easy leap to make. They were going up against trendy brands like Axe, which already had huge appeal to the Millennial market. 

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Old Spice’s parent company, P&G, knew the challenge this change involved. So they brought in the big creative guns at Wieden + Kennedy to get it done—the same agency that coined the “Just Do It” slogan for Nike. From this partnership, the “Smell Like A Man, Man” ad campaign was created. 

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This week, Case Studied takes a look at how Wieden + Kennedy used one singular insight to fuel the campaign that revitalized Old Spice.

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The Brief:

The “Smell Like A Man, Man” campaign was a prime example of what market research can accomplish. When Wieden + Kennedy conducted their research for Old Spice, they found that 60% of body wash purchases were made by women. 

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Using this insight, the agency sought to initiate conversations between couples about body wash

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The Execution:

Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” video was launched online over Super Bowl weekend, making its way to TV soon after. 

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Wieden + Kennedy made sure to lock in a media buy that targeted environments where couples would be watching together so the campaign got in front of the ideal audience at the ideal time. In the video, Old Spice Guy (played by Isaiah Mustafa) addresses the women viewers about their man, who’s presumably within eyeview, and what he ~ could ~ smells like. 

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The video immediately stirred all kinds of buzz, which teed up a brilliantly executed encore performance in the form of a “response” campaign. 

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Wieden + Kennedy took an interactive, engaging approach here. In just two and a half days, their team produced 186 video responses to fans and celebrities based on questions and comments sent across social platforms. They were posted on YouTube in real-time, racking up thousands, sometimes millions of views. 

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The follow-up campaign became such a hit that Demi Moore specifically requested a “special response” video (which, of course, she received). Each video features the shirtless Old Spice Guy standing in a bathroom and doing the most, including:

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💍 Proposing to a Twitter user’s girlfriend for him 

🪒 Coily responding to Gillette, an Old Spice sister company

💌 Making 4 response videos + sending roses to Alyssa Milano 

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The response campaign was a highly engaging way to pull people back into the campaign, keep them talking about it, and get the message across that Old Spice wasn’t your grandpa’s body wash brand anymore.

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The Results:

The goal of Old Spice’s “Smell Like A Man, Man” campaign was to increase body wash sales by 15%. The campaign launched in February and by May of that year, Old Spice Red Zone Body Wash sales increased 60% from the previous year. By July, sales had doubled. 

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Beyond the bottom line, the campaign unofficially rebranded Old Spice from an older man’s brand to a young man’s brand. 

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AdAge would later name Wieden + Kennedy’s work one of the Top Ad Campaigns of the 21st century.

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The Takeaways:

The media landscape these days is a lot more complicated than it was in 2010. But there are still plenty of opportunities to take a page from The Old Spice Guy’s book. 

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Here are a few:

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1. Don’t sleep on market research

Wieden + Kennedy used one lone insight about body wash buyers to inform their campaign and differentiated from the competition. While Axe was churning out male-centric ads, Old Spice reached their target audience by speaking to couples. 

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Asking the right questions in your market research can have a huge ripple effect on an ad campaign. Make sure you aren’t making assumptions so you can get the highest quality insights.

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2. Use humor if that’s your thing

Obviously, part of the charm and appeal of “Smell Like A Man, Man” is the hyperbolic, bold humor of it. This was a hard pivot from Old Spice’s previous branding and it worked for them. To this day, they're fully committed to it.  

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Humor, hyperbole, and absurdity can be a really powerful tool if it aligns with your brand. If it doesn’t, don’t force it. If it does, use it to your advantage. You don’t have to do it on the same scale as Old Spice—you just have to find your brand’s place on the spectrum of creative flare. 

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3. Substance over style

Don't get us wrong, this was a big budget campaign, but the beauty of the ad is it's messaging and tone. With so many tools and creators available to help you create videos, focus on what your core message as opposed to optimizing for pixel perfect.
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