The Man Your Man Could Smell Like – how Old Spice capitalized on their social media engagments

Title of Post: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like – how Old Spice capitalized on their social media engagments

Organization: Old Spice

Industry: Consumer goods

CEO: David S. Taylor

Web references: Old Spice, TNW News, Digital Buzz, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Old Spice has had one of the most successful and famous social media campaigns to date. Launching first as a television commercial in the United States in February 2010, “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign initially marketed Old Spice’s Red Zone After Hours Body Wash, but subsequently expanded to include other products following the success of the initial advertisement.

The campaign centers on the “Man Your Man Could Smell Like”, or “Old Spice Man”, character played by Isaiah Mustafa. Throughout the video the Old Spice Man is addressing the viewer in confident, rapid-fire monologues which promote the benefit of using Old Spice products, all while progressing through various activities, locations, costumes, and/or extraordinary situations, all in one uninterrupted take while maintaining constant eye-contact with the camera in a nonchalant demeanor.

When the commercial launched super bowl weekend the campaign managed to capture 75% of all conversations online before everyone was talking about the Old Spice ads and launched Mustafa into instant stardom. This is the part where the light bulb went off in Old Spice’s head – building rapidly on the success of this campaign was key to taking the company and sales to the next level. Over three days, a team of creatives, digital strategists, developers, and producers filmed 180 videos around the clock, creating direct responses to fans and celebrities in real time to create what is now known as the best social media campaign ever to have been created.

Just take a listen to npr discuss how this was accomplished and the impact it had.

The buzz that the videos and the subsequent social media engagement created was impressive. Within one day, the campaign received almost six million views (that’s more than Obama’s victory speech)! On day two, Old Spice had eight of the 11 most popular videos online. After the first week, the campaign had over 40 million views and Old Spice’s YouTube channel became the most viewed channel of all time. Their Twitter followers increased by 2700%, Facebook interaction was up 800%, oldspice.com traffic increased 300% – all of this combined reaching impressions of 1.4 billion users.

The reach of the Old Spice campaign is impressive – but how did it affect their sales? Did their social media campaign actually have an impact on their return on investment? Yes, it did, and quite a massive impact. Since the original campaign launched sales increased 27% year on year. But in the three months after the height of the campaign, sales were up by 55%, reaching 107% in the final month of the social media campaign. And of course, Old Spice is now the number one body wash brand for men. By monitoring and capitalizing on the increase of social media engagements, Old Spice was able to drive a significant return on investment.

Lessons for Others:

The question of whether or not social media drives sales is still up in the air for many marketers and brands, as the issue is not as straightforward as it seems – there are multiple ways to measure the benefits of social media and it isn’t as simple as looking at your sales on one end and what you’ve put out on social media on the other. Monitoring social media metrics in order to figure out how you can capititalize on your trends is more beneficial than looking for one single return. In this case, Old Spice was able to monitor their increase in social media engagment after a successful video and use their new found followers to their advantage by engaging even more. The benefit was an increase in sales and a position on the top of the leader board as the most used body wash brand for men.

Submitted by: Erika Kastner, rare Charitable Research Reserve

To contact the author of this entry please email at: erika.kastner@raresites.org

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posed on this site please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Programme Director, Social Media for Business Performance