Mar 10 2011

The Old Spice Guy – Did the campaign work?

In all likelihood, you will have seen the Old Spice Guy ad. Some of you may have studied It in some detail. Isaiah Mustafa has it all – romance, diamonds, yachts, horse-riding on the beach, muscles. If your man can’t look like him, at least he could smell like him if he stopped using those lady-scented body washes.

Here’s a reminder;

But did it work – did it sell more Old Spice? And has the company followed up on all the attention?

The Old Spice Guy ad was initially released on US television the day after the superbowl last year, and immediately went viral. The YouTube video has attracted 30 million views, and it gained free publicity in the press around the world (It was featured as ‘ad of the year’ on the Gruen Transfer)

There was a follow up TV ad

and an unprecedented ‘social media’ campaign focused on Twitter and YouTube, with personal video replies to online questions from the man himself.

In his new book ‘The Thank You Economy‘, author Gary Vaynerchuk has an analysis of the campaign. Sales of Old Spice increased by 55% after the TV ad and then by 100% after the follow up response ads – which includes one stick of Old Spice one stick bought by me (for Oliver, of course, not for myself). However, he despairs that Proctor and Gamble have not taken maximum advantage of the followers they have gained through social media. An excerpt from Gary’s book discussing this issues is available at Fast Company.