In 2009 Old Spice launched one of the most viral marketing campaigns ever. Together with the Wieden+Kenny agency they transformed its ‘dull & made for old men’ image to a product made for a young and cool crowd. And they did so in the most awesome way ever, it has proven to be one of the most memorable concepts to this day. The ad, featuring Isaiah Mustafa as ‘the man your man could smell like’, was initially created for the Super Bowl, instantly reaching the target group.
After hitting serious viral levels on YouTube, Old Spice took it to the next level. They invited fans to ask all questions on the Twitter channel. Within days they posted 180 videos with Mustafa answering questions. Some stats at the end of the campaign (true story!)
- 40 million YouTube views within a week
- During the campaign 8 out of 11 most viewed clips were made by Old Spice
- The amount of Twitter followers increased with 2700%
- Facebook interaction skyrocketed with 800%
- Web traffic tripled
- The Old Spice YouTube channel became the most viewed channel
- A whopping 107% increase in sales
- Took over the market leadership from AXE
What did you guys think of the campaign?
I think this is a perfect example why social media is one of the most important marketing tools in the world. I guess this didn’t even cost as much as an advertisement on television and it worked more way better. I think this campaign is good because they saw people liked it and after that they asked people to respond. Old Spice reacts back with again a video of Mustafa repyling to their questions. This is what the people didn’t expect and it was a realy good way to answer the questions. They did a really good thing in my opinion!