The iconic brand that was reborn, known best as Old Spice, has reinvented itself and made a huge comeback.
After loosing traction in the young men’s/antiperspirant category Procter & Gamble decided they needed to rebrand away from the dated sailor imaging from 1966.
“We recognized that the grooming category had shifted and that product performance was no longer enough,” said Bill Brace, Vice President of Procter & Gamble. “With young guys moving to more expressive scents, we needed to forge an emotional connection with our target.”
In 2006 Old Spice created a theatrical and quirky advertising campaign to grab the attention of consumers using the actor Bruce Campbell. Sales sky rocketed and made a 4 percent gap in dollar market share in comparison to their competitors.
As of yet Old Spice is the largest brand in its category with a 28% share in the market in 2015.
Old spice has continued their quirky advertising by bringing Terry crews, Will Ferrell and other influential figures on board. Most people remember Isaiah Mustafa, He was featured I the ad’s as ‘The man your man could smell like’.
The recent campaign, “Make a smellmitment” has been viewed more than 31 million times on YouTube since it debuted in August. The brand currently has upward of 500 million YouTube subscribers making it massively successful, especially considering it’s a deodorant brand aimed at male only consumerism.
“Guys often only think about deodorant when they need it,” P&G’s Brace said. “What that means for Old Spice is that the competition isn’t just other deodorant brands, it’s everything out there that can command a guy’s attention, from YouTube clips to video games to mobile apps. … We’ve built a reputation for creating engaging and entertaining content that is celebrated and shared. This has helped us build one of the most loyal fan bases in the category.”
In conclusion Old Spice saw the need for change and decided to grab the markets attention by using theatrical Advertising and using influential males of the time era. The brand has used amazing tactics to totally rebirth themselves; as well as finding a brand new younger worldwide market whilst they were at it.
Hina Mirza
PR Specialist
The Social Company