Running head: OLD SPICE I’M ON A HORSE Hello Ladies
Cassy Tracy, Nicole McKenna, Erica Wincheski
Illinois State University
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Old Spice I’m on a Horse
Summary
In 2010, Old Spice was aiming to raise awareness of its line of scented body washes.
Their target audience was women and men ages 18-24. For the first time ever, Old Spice wanted
to speak directly to the women who influence their men and often purchase body wash for them
(PRSA, 2011). Old Spice’s new product was planned to appear in retail locations in March 2010.
Old Spice was ready to release its new innovative advertising campaign “Smell Like a Man,
Man.” The campaign’s goal was to introduce Old Spice’s new scented body washes and
introduce the Old Spice brand character, Isaiah Mustafa.
Isaiah Mustafa, former NFL wide receiver, starred in Old Spice commercials, a series of
advertisements, and YouTube response videos. Mustafa’s sense of timing and washboard abs
provided significant buzz for the campaign. According to Reiss (2010), the Old Spice Guy
promised women he was "the man your man could smell like” (p. 1). Brad (2014) said “several
of the videos feature Mustafa answering people’s questions and comments received via Twitter,
Facebook, Reddit and other social network channels sponsored by the American grooming
products brand” (p.1).
In the 2010 Super Bowl, Mustafa made his first appearance as the Old Spice commercial
model giving him the name the “Old Spice Guy.” The video titled “The Man Your Man Could
Smell Like,” featured Mustafa conveying a fast-paced monologue as the green-screen scenery
changed from a bathroom to a beach ending with the actor sitting on top of a horse. The online
and television marketing campaign was written and produced by Craig Allen and Eric Kallman
of the Portland-based ad agency Wieden + Kennedy (Brad, 2014).
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After the commercial "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" debuted, its renowned
opening words “Hello Ladies” and flawless transitions from shower to ship to horse quickly
became a viral sensation and acquired extraordinary buzz. Isaiah Mustafa returned four months
later appearing in a second commercial. Followed two weeks later with two days of personal
response videos targeting key media, influencers and consumers.
As a result of the “Smell Like a Man, Man” campaign there was over 2 billion media
impressions from over 1,000 placements, including appearances on Oprah, The Ellen
DeGeneres show, and Jay Leno which helped make the campaign and its star (Mustafa) one of
the most buzzed about cultural icons in marketing and on the Internet. It was the result of a
carefully integrated PR launch and PR strategy, designed with Old Spice marketing and
advertising agency. According to PRSA (2011) “During all campaign phases, PR amplified and
extended coverage, as well as consumer conversations to drive awareness, sales and share of
voice for Old Spice in the male grooming space” (p. 1).
ROPE Model
Old Spice was looking to increase the awareness of its line of scented body washes
among its target audience. In order to come up with the most effective way of accomplishing this
goal, they started with researching their brand, their challenges, and what has or has not worked
for them in the past.
In research submitted to the Effie Awards (2011), Old Spice determined that their target
audience was going to include men ages 18-24 as well as women. During their research, they
discovered that 60% of men’s body washes were actually purchased by women. Therefore, Old
Spice needed a campaign that was going to attract the attention of both sexes as well as spark a
conversation between them.
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After realizing how large of an influence women were on the type of body wash men use,
Old Spice came across their first challenge. Dove, one of the leading female beauty brands,
announced their new Men+Care body wash Campaign that would be unveiled during the Super
Bowl. Which led to the next challenge. With a crowded advertising news cycle consisting of
Super Bowl ads, Old Spice was going to need to find a way to stand out.
Lastly, the brand wanted to overcome the stigma that they were the “old brand for old
men”. An important part of the researching process, is for the brand to understand why they are
seeing certain problems. Before the campaign, Old Spice was slipping in comparison to other
body wash brands, such as Dial, Irish Spring and Nivea. According to the Effie Awards
document (2011), Old Spice said they needed to prove that they were the “manly-smelling”
brand rather than the “lady-scented” brand.
Figure 1- Source: Effie Awards
Old Spice continued in depth research that included a look into the last three years of
Super Bowl advertising. According to PRSA (2011), the brand looked at the possible
opportunities for both media and online spots. They also studied key influencers in the media and
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in what ways they used social media, allowing the brand to determine with whom to seed their
commercial and personal response videos.
After conducting their research, Old Spice concluded three major objectives. PRSA
(2011) stated that the three objectives included sustaining news coverage throughout the
campaign, securing influencer endorsements and increasing the sales of Old Spice body wash.
With the establishment of these objectives, the brand was able to begin the planning process of
the campaign.
Old Spice collaborated with the Wieden + Kennedy agency to figure out strategies and
tactics that would achieve their objectives. In order to overcome the challenge of a crowded
advertising cycle on the day of the Super Bowl, Old Spice decided to launch their campaign
around the big event. The brand released the commercial a couple of days before the game with
search tags such as “superbowl” on YouTube. The commercial did not actually appear on
television until 24 hours after the Super Bowl. Due to the amount of buzz already surrounding it,
people assumed it actually debuted during the game.
Prior to the launch of the commercial, Old Spice knew they were going to have to reach
both sexes and get the conversation going. Therefore, with strong and masculine dialogue such
as “Hello Ladies” and “look at your man, now back at me,” it caught the attention of women and
nearly forced them to engage in a conversation about the commercial and product. This media
strategy also placed the commercial in television environments that males and females would
both be watching together. In the report from the Effie Awards (2011), shows such as Lost,
American Idol and the Vancouver Winter Olympics were all places the ad could be seen. The
timing of the campaign was also very relevant. Old Spice bought advertisement space in cinema
during Valentines Day weekend where there would an abundance of couples (p. 3).
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Old Spice was able to engage with several different types of media outlets. The star of the
commercial, Isaiah Mustafa, appeals to both men and women for different reasons. For women,
he’s a masculine male, while for men he is a former NFL football player. Therefore, there was
room for mentions in both men’s, women’s, sports, and entertainment outlets. Mustafa appeared
on both Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey’s talk shows where the commercial was played for
audiences.
Old Spice wanted to maintain consistent coverage throughout the campaign as well as
getting consumers to engage with the brand. They released a second commercial in June, and
two days after, they began creating and posting personal response videos. In a two-day event,
Mustafa responded to 186 Twitter mentions and Facebook comments with YouTube videos.
PRSA (2011) reported that 70% of the videos were directed to consumer Twitter users, while the
other 30% of the videos was in response to the tweets of celebrities and influencers (p. 3).
Old Spice has employed several different social media strategies that utilized several
different websites. In an interview that blogger “Ckettmann” (2011) did, Wieden + Kennedy’s
Digital Strategist, Dean McBeth said, “Social media allowed us to bring the character of the Old
Spice guy to life. Without digital channels we wouldn’t have been able to field questions,
communication near real-time or improvise according to the trends in the conversation that we
were seeing” (p. 1).
In the final stages Old Spice evaluated the success of the campaign. The first objective
was to drive sustained news coverage throughout the campaign with spikes around commercial
and response video launches. By the end of the campaign there had been over 2 billion media
impressions. The second objective was to secure influencer endorsements and buzz around the
product and campaign. The campaign and Mustafa landed media endorsements with Ellen
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DeGeneres, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Jay Leno, The TODAY Show, ESPN, and Good Morning
America. They also received engagement from celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher, Alyssa
Milano, Kevin Rose, and Georige Stephanopolous. The last and third objective was to increase
the sales of Old Spice body wash. According to PRSA (2011) after the first commercial body
wash sales increased 27%, and after the second commercial sales rose to 55%. Finally, after the
response videos sales had increased 107%. Old Spice also became the number one brand of
antiperspirant/deodorant and body wash (p. 4).
Figure 2 Source: PG.com
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Figure 3 Source: Briansolis.com
Grunig and Hunt’s Models to PR
Grunig and Hunt used four different models for public relations. Those models are the
press agent model, public information model, two-way asymmetrical model, and two-way
symmetrical model. This campaign used the two-way symmetrical model of public relations
which is also the most successful model. According to Diggs-Brown (2011) the two-way
symmetrical model “uses research to better understand the target audience and resolution of
disputes. Both the organization and the target audience want to further their own interests within
the win-win zone” (p. 183). In this model behavior change occurs on both sides between the
sender and the receiver. Research is done to understand, not manipulate the audience to better
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target their campaign. Tools for this model include bargaining, negotiation and compromise. It is
a two-way form of communication between the organization and the publics that works to
achieve a mutual understanding (Turney, 1998).
The campaign used research to reach its target audience. Also, for the first time ever, they
targeted women in their campaign with the line “Hello Ladies.” They wanted to reach the women
in the lives of their targeted male audience because women act as influencers to purchase certain
products or go out and purchase products for men. Old Spice communicated with the media and
sent out information. They sent out exclusive footage to media outlets during different phases of
the campaign to ensure that it received coverage. They also created response videos to the fans
on Twitter and other social media outlets. They made sure that they were not only sending out
information, but also responding to information and communicating with their fans and the
media. Even five months after the launch of the campaign they were still communicating with
their followers. Someone tweeted @OldSpice asking for the Old Spice guy to show up and he
did. He posted the response videos on Twitter and Facebook in full character in a bathroom barechested and manly (Reiss, 2010). Isaiah Mustafa made himself available to do interviews and instudio appearances so that the media was able to gather all the correct information they needed.
Although this model was used for majority of the campaign, they did use the two-way
asymmetrical model as well. This model focuses heavily on persuasion. It conducts research to
persuade and grasp the audiences’ attention by spinning messages by emphasizing a change in
behavior. The audience changes their behavior in accordance to the objectives and goals of the
organization (Diggs-Brown, p. 183).
This campaign was trying to persuade their audience to like and purchase their product.
They used successful advertisements along with public relations to spread awareness and
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communication. Old Spice quickly became the number one selling product in men’s body wash
because the campaign generated so much buzz (PRSA, 2011). They used an influential former
NFL player with rock solid abs as the face of the campaign. They contacted talk shows and
influential celebrities such as Oprah and Ellen to feature the campaign. Both women loved the
commercial and talked about it on their own talk shows. They were definitely trying to shape
their audience’s opinions by changing the beliefs of their audience. They wanted to clear their
name of the old man product to being every man’s product.
It is important for a campaign to use both models, two-way asymmetrical and two-way
symmetrical, to be successful. It worked for the “Smell Like a Man, Man” campaign for Old
Spice. They were able to persuade their audience that Old Spice was the brand to buy while
communicating with their audience and responding to their fans on social media. There was a lot
of celebrity influence that made it a successful, unique campaign.
Analysis of the Campaign
After researching the “Old Spice “Smell Like a Man, Man” campaign, our group
concluded that the campaign was very effective in addressing its objectives and target publics.
The campaigns target audience of men ages 18-24 and specifically reaching out to the women in
their lives who often influence and purchase body wash for their men, was an appropriate
audience for the campaign. It was very bold and unique to focus the commercial on gaining the
attention of females. Our group also thought that by Old Spice being able to maintain and
continue all of the buzz and media coverage on their brand, they were able to stay relevant
between the launch of the first commercials and the following commercials. Our group also
thought their campaign was a huge success because their brand character, Isaiah Mustafa,
appealed to both men and women. This was a huge factor in reaching their target audience as
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well. Mustafa appeared on many media channels and he was featured in several men’s and
women’s sports programming and entertainment.
Although the campaign did address their objectives, the objectives were very broad. They
made were not measurable and also did not have a timeline. Without measurable objectives,
there was no way from Old Spice to say whether or not they met their benchmark. Old Spice’s
objectives were too vague and therefore, they can easily say they exceeded or surpassed them..
For their objectives to measure their success of the campaign they needed to make them
measurable, reach a certain audience and have a deadline for when they needed to be met.
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References
Brad. Isaiah Mustafa: Old Spice. (2014, January 1). Retrieved October 7, 2014. Retrieved from
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/isaiah-mustafa-old-spice
Cketmann. (2011, October 25). Q&A with Wieden + Kennedy. Retrieved October 8, 2014, from
https://www.viralheat.com/blog/2011/10/20/qa-with-wieden-kennedy/
Diggs-Brown, B. (2011). Foundations of public relations: Understanding public relations theory.
Boston: Wadsworth.
Effie Awards. (2011). The man your man could smell like. Retrieved from
http://www.apaceffie.com/docs/default-source/resourcelibrary/oldspice_case_pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=2
Korogodsky, E. (Cartographer). (2010, September 28). Old Spice [Infographic]. Retrieved from
http://www.briansolis.com/2010/10/twitter-promoted-to-ad-network/
Norton, M. (n.d.). By the numbers [Infographic]. Retrieved from
https://www.pg.com/en_US/downloads/innovation/factsheet_OldSpice.pdf
Public Relations Society of America. (2011). Old Spice rides a horse into history. Retrieved from
http://www.prsa.org/searchresults/view//6BW.
Reiss, C. (2014, July 18). Now look here, now learn from this ... Retrieved October 7, 2014.
Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/38282026/ns/businesssmallbusiness/t/now-look-here-now-learn/#.
Share of online conversation: Male body wash brands [Infographic]. (2011). Retrieved from
http://www.apaceffie.com/docs/default-source/resourcelibrary/oldspice_case_pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=2
Turney, M. (1998). Asymmetric vs. symmetric public relations. Retrieved from
http://www.nku.edu/~turney/prclass/readings/3eras3x.html