Integrated Campaign Overview

Old Spice practically invented body wash for men. But as the category has grown the competition has heated up. With business slowing, Old Spice body wash was in need of a boost.

With women making more than half of all body wash purchases, we decided to target men and their ladies for the very first time. But how could we get couples to talk about body wash? How could we get women to stop buying “lady scented” products for their guys and choose Old Spice instead?

“The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” debuted online shortly before the 2010 Super Bowl and quickly became a sensation. Originally created to spark a conversation between men and women about Old Spice body wash, the campaign helped to revive this once “tired” brand and created a whole new generation of fans.

On the heels of this success, we challenged ourselves to leverage “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” to engage with fans in a more intimate, democratic conversation.

As a result, we created the “Response” campaign—186 personalized YouTube response videos to Old Spice fans who commented on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Digg, 4chan and more. This effort became one of the fastest-growing and most-popular interactive campaigns in history.

On day two of the two-day video making effort, Old Spice had eight out of the top 11 videos on YouTube. After just one week the campaign had been viewed more than 40 million times and after 30 days that total had eclipsed 52 million views. Has the work has an impact on the bottom line? Yes. Since the campaign has launched, sales of premium body wash have doubled, helping to cement Old Spice as the number one brand of body wash for men.