Inspirational Brand Stories — Old Spice

Old Spice used to be something we might buy for our Grandads as a stocking filler at Christmas. But since the tongue-in-cheek advert starring ex-NFL player Isaiah Mustafa their sales of Old Spice body wash rose 11%. The campaign has become a textbook case of the successful use of social media marketing.

There are 5 Key Lessons we can learn from Old Spice’s success…

1. Concise, punchy content

Internet users watch an average of 5.6 hours of video content per week, so naturally Youtube is an attractive way for marketers to gain access to their audience. However, according to Youtube’s own statistics, hundreds of hours of video are uploaded to Youtube every minute. This means that your video content is fighting for space with a mind-boggling amount of other videos. Most of the Old Spice ads were less than a minute long. In order to catch your target audience’s attention keep your content short, punchy and to the point. Shorter ads are easier to create and they grab the attention much more easily.

2. Quantity matters

Craig Allen a creative director at Wieden + Kennedy the agency who created Old Spice’s marketing campaign, claims that their emphasis was “definitely quantity over quality. We try to make the best things we can, and we’ll get it as great as we can, but then we say, OK, next one. It’s more about pumping out so many videos than it is about getting five that are absolutely perfect.” By creating a number of short videos, they could hedge their bets and leave as many lines in the water to see which videos really worked and resonated with their viewers.

3. Hook your fans

Old Spice captured the attention and imagination of their viewers and customers by letting them suggest ideas for new videos. This has two benefits. Firstly, it is a free source of ideas.  And secondly, it creates a bond between your customers and your brand and makes them feel much more engaged. It’s a fresh take on the idea of Permission Marketing which Eloquens has reviewed in another post.

4. Blitzkreig your marketing

When Wieden + Kennedy introduced a new Old Spice ad they hit the whole range of websites to get the word out, including Youtube, Facebook and Twitter as well as on TV. The key point is to get people wondering why there is suddenly all this buzz. Pique their curiosity.

5. Believe in your marketing team

It’s not easy to trust your marketing team with a bold digital strategy, but this is what Proctor and Gamble did when they allowed Wieden + Kennedy to spearhead a bold and zany digital strategy. It paid off. Not every company will be able to take a risk like this as P&G did, but it does show that bold thinking can reap real dividends.

If you’ve found this topic interesting, you might also find these longer articles up your street.