Old Spice: same brand, new audience, new strategy

Case study · Marketing 475 · Brand Strategy: Who Is Your Brand?

Old Spice did not change its name or drop its heritage. It changed who the brand was talking to and how it talked, and the visuals followed the strategy.

The situation

Old Spice dates to 1937, when the Shulton Company launched it. Its men’s products carried a nautical theme, with sailing ships on the packaging. Procter & Gamble bought the brand in 1990.

By the 2000s the brand had a problem. The Drum describes it as having been seen as “archaic and largely unstylish” in the early 2000s. A 2007 Taipei Times report noted that the name could call up a grandfather’s generation, and that P&G had been advised for years to drop the word “Old.” Meanwhile Unilever’s Axe was growing faster with young men.

The challenge

P&G had to decide what the brand was for. It could chase Axe with a new name and a new look, or it could keep the heritage and find a new way to use it.

It chose to keep it. A P&G executive told the press in 2007, “For years, we’ve been counseled to drop the ‘Old’ from ‘Old Spice.’ I’m here to say we will not do that.”

What they did

In February 2006, P&G moved the Old Spice account to Wieden+Kennedy. The agency’s first Old Spice work ran in January 2007 under the theme “Experience is everything.” It targeted males roughly 12 to 34 and treated the brand’s history with humor. The cursive logo, clipper-ship imagery and a vintage jingle stayed in, but now they were part of the joke. One print ad read: “If your grandfather hadn’t worn it, you wouldn’t exist.”

The strategy peaked in February 2010 with “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” starring former NFL player Isaiah Mustafa. It launched online on Super Bowl weekend and on TV shortly after. The key insight came from P&G research: women made about 60% of body wash purchases. So the ad spoke to women about their partners, mocking “lady-scented” body wash and promising yachts and diamonds.

• After the first ad took off, a Wieden+Kennedy team filmed 186 short video replies to questions from fans and celebrities on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and other sites, in about two and a half days.
• The replies were posted to YouTube almost as fast as the questions came in.

What happened

The campaign became one of the most-watched pieces of brand content of its time and one of the most awarded.

• The campaign’s videos drew 5.9 million views on day one, more than President Obama’s victory speech in its first 24 hours, and more than 40 million within a week (Marketing Week, citing Visible Measures, 2011).
• By May 2010, unit sales of Old Spice Red Zone body wash were up 60% year on year; by July 2010 they were up 125% (Marketing Week, citing Nielsen).
• SymphonyIRI data showed Old Spice body wash sales up 16.7% for the 52 weeks ending in June 2010, and P&G said Old Spice was the No. 1 male body wash and deodorant brand in the U.S. by dollar and volume share (Campaign Brief Asia, 2010).
• The first spot won the Film Grand Prix at Cannes in 2010 and an Emmy for Outstanding Commercial.

Why it worked

The product barely changed. What changed was the strategy: who the brand was for and what tone it took. Old Spice stopped apologizing for being old and started joking about it with confidence. That self-aware humor gave younger men permission to buy a brand their grandfathers wore.

The 2010 work then widened the target to the person actually buying the body wash. The absurd scene changes, the confident spokesman and the over-the-top promises all served that one strategic idea.

Where it gets complicated

Not every sales report agreed. In July 2010, Marketplace and NBC News reported WARC data showing sales of the specific Red Zone After Hours body wash down 7%, and some commentators argued the jokes made the product embarrassing to buy. The sources measured different products, retailers and time frames, which is a good reminder to ask exactly what a sales claim covers.

The repositioning also did not start in 2010. It took about four years of consistent work before the breakout. Students often see only the viral moment and miss the strategy built underneath it.

The marketing principle

A brand can keep its product and its history and still change who it is for. Old Spice set a sharp strategy first, then let tone, casting and visuals carry it. The heritage cues did not go away. They were reframed to serve a new audience.

Sources

• Old Spice: Smell Like a Man, Man, Wieden+Kennedy (2010)
• How the Old Spice hunk took over the world, Marketing Week (2011)
• Feature on Old Spice and Wieden+Kennedy’s first campaign (Jan. 18, 2007), Taipei Times (2007)
• World’s best ads ever #4: Old Spice ignites comeback with The Man Your Man Could Smell Like, The Drum (2022)
• Old Spice campaign is not only great, it sells, Campaign Brief Asia (2010)
• Old Spice Red Zone sales drop 7% despite hot ads, Marketplace (2010)

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