PROCTER & GAMBLE / OLD SPICE GLOBAL REBRANDTurning an aging brand into a cultural phenomenon
Old Spice brand trajectory began with this rebrand campaign that helped Old Spice shed its dated image and gain double-digit sales growth by the end of the first year, bucking earlier decline. Old Spice has solidified its place at the top - not just as the definitive leader in the male grooming category, but as one of the most entertaining brands on the planet
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy
GLOBAL MARKETING ACTIVATIONThe marketing efforts helped Old Spice shed its dated image and reintroduce it with a humorous, masculinity-driven tone that balanced irony with brand heritage. The campaign set the stage for breakout success in later years
While major awards came later (2010+), this early period laid crucial groundwork—strategically, financially, and artistically—for future campaign success.
Advertising Age would later name Old Spice advertising among one of the top campaigns of the 21st century.
IMPACT: The “Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign was driven by a key insight: 60% of body wash purchases are made by women. The campaign created to provoke a conversation between couples. Launched online Super Bowl weekend and on television shortly thereafter, “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” quickly became a phenomenon, with buzz fueled by a media buy that targeted environments where couples would be watching together.
Most importantly, "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" had a dramatic impact on the bottom line. The goal was to increase body wash sales by 15%, but by May, sales of Old Spice Red Zone Body Wash had increased 60% from the previous year. By July, sales had doubled.
EFFECTIVENESS:
Global spend: U.S. media spend approx $60 million, digital activity totalled $3 million
Traffic & social growth:YouTube: over 10 million views, oldspice.com 900% increase traffic from previous period Facbook: 55,000 new fans
Market share: Double-digit sales growth, best in nearly a decade and reversing years of decline
Markets reached: Middle-east and US
BRAND POSITIONINGAt the end of the 2000’s first decade, young people saw Old Spice as stale brand, and it was deeply unpopular. Some youth customers derisively called Old Spice “a grandfather's” product and said that it smelled like “old people.” The team at Old Spice knew that it had to act to save the brand and change its fortunes… with a very unlikely experimental partnership between Procter & Gamble and Wieden+Kennedy.
Industry cynics shrugged, and nobody gave the relationship good odds of surviving, however the results from the collaboration are undeniable, as Old Spice and Wieden+Kennedy have created some of the most talked about, shared, and successful campaigns of the past decade
W+K and P&G built almost everything together, holistically, from the ground up (alongside engineers, perfumers, packaging designers, and more). What problem are we solving? Who is the target? What’s an on-brand solution? By the time the first prototype arrived, a creative idea was already baked inside.
Today, over twenty years later, the experimental partnership remains alive and well and continues to push and create things that have never been done before.