Category: Advertising
Old Spice Sales Prove Campaign’s Success
by Jan Morrison on August 12, 2010 | no comments
in Advertising, Branding, Measurement
As you now know, I love the Old Spice branding campaign featuring Isaiah Mustafa, because all of the elements are funny, smart and speak effectively to its audience. But has the approach worked to increase sales? After all, it is product sales that keep Mr. Mustafa and his chiseled abs around to entertain us.
According to AdWeek and Brandweek, who reviewed data from market researchers Nielsen and SymphonyIRI, the Old Spice campaign has helped Procter & Gamble significantly increase sales of its “man-scented” body products.
Nielsen reports that sales of Old Spice Body Wash have increased by 11 percent within the last year. The speed at which overall product sales have risen since the campaign started in February is even more striking. According to Nielsen, sales increased by 55 percent within the last three months and really jumped by 107 percent within the last month.
Now that we know the campaign worked to increase sales, we can explore how it actually happened.
1. Effective advertising. Wieden + Kennedy is to be commended (and they have by earning several awards) for creating ads that communicate with the target audience with creative messaging. These ads made people laugh, so they told their friends and shared online links to the commercial. This helped consumers rethink the Old Spice brand.
2. Leveraging social media to the nth degree. Wieden + Kennedy didn’t just take their witty commercials and slap them on their website and YouTube, then declare victory. They compiled a team of experts in advertising, marketing, writing and social media to leverage Mustafa and his towel across social media in a way that communicated with the brand’s target audience. This team camped out in a studio for days responding via video to tweets, Facebook messages and YouTube comments from fans in real time and posting them for the public to see. In true “Old Spice Man” fashion, these videos were funny, ridiculous and entertaining. This kept the brand top of mind and raised awareness among the target audience.
3. Brand consistency. The Old Spice Man and his witty bravado are not relegated only to the TV screen. His face and style permeate the Old Spice website and product packaging, as well. This helps consumers connect what they have seen on TV with what they see on their computers and the shelves.
4. Time frame. Old Spice executed all of these steps within a perfect time frame. The commercials and social media endeavors weren’t hard and fast, but they weren’t drawn out either. This helped keep consumers engaged and interested.
5. Brand attachment. All of these elements led to people wanting more of the Old Spice man and his brand of humor. Reddit.com created a voicemail generator without involving Procter & Gamble at all. Now you can have the Old Spice man in your voicemail and help raise brand awareness on behalf of the company. While part of me thinks that Old Spice should have thought of this themselves, I also think that this involvement by an outside organization lends a certain amount of credibility to the brand’s popularity.
Hopefully, this won’t be the last of the Old Spice Man. I hope we see him in more commercials and social media interaction. I hope his burgeoning acting career does not take the Mustafa out of the Old Spice Man.
What do you hope to see next in the campaign?
Old Spice Scores Again
by Jan Morrison on July 1, 2010 | 7 comments
in Advertising, Branding, Video
Old Spice has done it again. The company released its second commercial on Wednesday, as part of its campaign to win over a new demographic and keep the brand alive. And it is even better than the first one, by including even more elements of the most comprehensive female fantasy every created.
Old Spice’s advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy, chose the perfect spokesperson in Isaiah Mustafa and gave him just the right script to attract a younger audience to a product line that used to be for men who you would only refer to as “sir.”
Mustafa’s character fits the mold of contradictions many women daydream about—strong, kind, perfectly toned, handy around the house, skilled with baking, romantic and a little dangerous. I picture a table (or more likely, a bar) full of creative people brainstorming every possible element of any woman’s relationship fantasy. The only things missing might be caring for a baby, cleaning the house, or asking what happens next in my vampire romance novel.
Old Spice accomplishes all this without dismissing its heritage as a product for gentlemen. Its new deodorant packaging even pays homage to its past by audaciously printing this on the back:
THE ORIGINAL.
IF YOUR GRANDFATHER HADN’T
WORN IT, YOU WOULDN’T EXIST.
The logo still incorporates some imagery from the previous version, the packaging uses the same color scheme, and the commercials still contain a little whistle at the end.
We do not know exactly what the return on investment (ROI) has been for the campaign. The company has not released any sales or profit data that reflects the result of the new campaign, and Procter & Gamble Co., has invested almost all of last year’s advertising budget into this one campaign.
But if any other women who are in charge of purchasing for their households love it as much as I do, the company will reap significant results from Mustafa’s personified female fantasy.
Dr. Scholl’s Ad Is Off On the Right Foot
by Jan Morrison on June 22, 2010 | no comments
in Advertising, Branding, Marketing
As I’ve mentioned before, I love a good advertisement. I appreciate good ads because they are so hard to create. When I pursued an advertising specialty at my journalism school, I learned very quickly that I was not cut out for the graphic design side of the business. I am a writer, which is the other reason why I love a good ad so much. I admire the skill and vision of those who have the creative talent to produce attractive, effective, visual messages.
My most recent favorite advertisement is a print ad for Dr. Scholl’s For Her Open Shoe Insoles. The ad is so simple. It is printed on heavy cardstock to withstand the weight of one real life shoe insert that is stuck to the paper. It is not a replica. It is an actual shoe insert for a right shoe. The cardstock contains this terse copy:
Thin.
Cushiony.
Virtually invisible.
Try one. We bet you’ll buy two.
This ad is effective because it meets the most basic criteria for advertising:
- holds your attention,
- reinforces the brand,
- motivates you to action or influences your mindset.
The last criteria is key. In fact, one heel-wearer in our office (not me because I don ballet flats 24/7) tested out the insert before I even told her my plan for this post. She wore a pair of heels all day with one shoe insert in her right shoe. She felt the difference by the end of the day.
Such a simple, effective concept motivated her to try one. Now she plans to buy two.
Want an easy way to gain new customers?
by Jessica Turner on June 8, 2010 | 1 comment
in Advertising, Marketing, Newsletters and E-Newsletters
Try Groupon, a website that offers city-specific deals daily.
Businesses pay no up-front cost to Groupon – instead Groupon takes a percentage (usually 50%) of the deal. And with tens of thousands of people receiving emails from Groupon every day, the exposure is huge! (Nashville’s Groupon has more than 80,000 subscribers).
Last week we put Groupon to the test for our client, Matt McGee, DDS, PC and it was a huge success.
He offered a $99 teeth-whitening deal, regularly priced at $300 and almost 250 people purchased the deal.
That means:
250 people will come to Dr. McGee’s office for the whitening treatment.
250 people will experience Dr. McGee’s friendly and experienced staff.
250 people will likely become ambassadors for professional teeth whitening and Dr. McGee.
And many of those 250 people may consider having Dr. McGee become their regular dentist.
While Dr. McGee is doing the whitening treatment for a one-time steep discount, the long-term financial gain could be huge.
To help promote Dr. McGee’s Groupon, we utilized:
- Facebook – Dr. McGee’s fan page as well as personal pages
- Blogs – Four popular local bloggers blogged about the deal
Dr. McGee also staffed his office to handle the influx of calls about the deal and to book appointments.
The initiative was a huge success.
If your business has a product or service to offer, and you are looking to gain new customers, check out Groupon. It may be just the deal you have been looking for.
Kotex Ad Goes Against the Flow
by Allison Russo on May 27, 2010 | 2 comments
in Advertising, Branding, Video
I, for one, appreciate a witty commercial when I (finally) see one. Especially one that pioneers a movement toward honest and informative branding in the feminine hygiene industry and that is precisely what Kotex has done with their “Break the Cycle” Campaign.
Recently Kotex released an ad that “breaks the cycle” from the standard tampon commercials which customarily have portrayed women as carefree and effervescent during their periods (i.e. women running on the beach in all white or the slogan, “Have a Happy Period…”…).
Check it out:
The new commercial starts out with a girl sitting on a chair describing her menstrual experience:
“How do I feel about my period? … I love it. I want to hold really soft things, like my cat. It makes me feel really pure. Sometimes I just want to run on the beach. I like to twirl, maybe in slow motion. And I do it in my white Spandex. And usually, by the third day, I really just want to dance. The ads on TV are really helpful, because they use that blue liquid, and I’m like, Oh! That’s what’s supposed to happen!”
This monologue, alone, is hilarious and resonates with all women. But even more genius is the montage of clips from former Kotex ads appearing throughout the commercial, some of which have been shown in the United States or Europe as recently as last year. I like the way the company pokes fun at itself and acknowledges that Kotex was among those brands that had wrongly depicted women’s periods in past ads.
The New York Times recently quoted Merrie Harris, global business director at Kotex’s marketing firm, JWT, saying “The whole category has been very euphemistic, or paternalistic even, and we’re saying, enough with the euphemisms, and get over it. Tampon is not a dirty word…”
In closing, the commercial poses the question, “Why are tampon ads so ridiculous?”
Kotex has done what no other tampon company has done before: go back to Advertising 101 and know your audience which, in this case, is women. For years, tampon ads have catered to a squeamish male audience. In doing so, they have failed to relate to their target consumer and created an unrealistic notion of what women are really dealing with. I commend Kotex for its bravery and honesty. Do you think the rest of the industry will follow suit?
Advertising in the Dominican Republic
by Jessica Turner on May 12, 2010 | no comments
in Advertising, Marketing
Last week I had the opportunity to travel to the Dominican Republic with World Vision (a humanitarian organization) and blog about my experiences daily.
During the week, we traveled in a three hour radius around the capitol city of Santo Domingo. Throughout the country, I was struck by all the political advertising. Posters were everywhere – even in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere.
People’s homes were papered with posters.
Cars were covered with advertising.
Almost all billboards were for political leaders.
I have never seen anything like it, and as a marketing professional, I had to learn more.
When I asked our trip leader why so many political posters decorated the communities she said, “because the people here believe so strongly that the political leaders will help them and better their communities. So they put the posters up, but really, change never happens.”
Her candidness about the situation really saddened me.
In the United States we have cars and trucks that advertise messages. We have billboards. People put out lawn signs in front of their homes.
But there is diversity in the messaging.
Not seeing that diversity was shocking.
Have you ever traveled to another country and noticed a difference in the advertising? How were things different than in the United States?
To read more about my trip to the Dominican Republic, click here.
Facebook Update: No More Fans!
by Ashley Webb on April 22, 2010 | no comments
in Advertising, Facebook, Social Media
You may already be ‘in the know,’ but this came as news to me yesterday when I found out Facebook fans no longer existed. You no longer “Become a Fan” of a page, you now “Like This” page. According to Facebook the change “offers you a more light-weight and standard way to connect with people, things and topics in which you are interested.”
But the “Like” button isn’t stopping at Facebook, according to yesterday’s CNN story it’s taking the web by storm.
“We’re building toward a web where the default is social. Every application and product will be redesigned from the ground up to use a person’s real identity and friends,” said Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberger at this week’s keynote address in San Francisco, California.
The idea is for people to be able to share their likes and dislikes with friends all over the internet. Facebook will pull information about the websites, news stories, music or athletes a person likes and share that info with the person’s Facebook friends. But word is no new information than previously available on Facebook will be shown to anyone.
The new prototype is being called the “Open Graph” and it launched yesterday with more than 30 content sponsors like The New York Times, Pandora, ESPN and CNN.com. According to Zuckerberger “more than a billion” like buttons will be scattered all over the web by the time you’ve finished reading this blog.
It seems Facebook is searching for ways to beat out competitors like Google and Twitter by further profiling its members to allow marketers to reach a more targeted audience. But I’m curious to know how well social media ads work – do you pay attention to the ads on Facebook? Do they affect your buying habits?
Old Spice—Not Just Your Dad’s After Shave Anymore
by Jan Morrison on March 16, 2010 | 8 comments
in Advertising, Branding, Marketing
I love a good commercial. I love them because they are difficult to create well and achieve a desired communications goal. The new commercial for Old Spice body wash did just that—achieved its communications goal and kept me engaged. It also helped this brand appeal to a new generation of customers—a generation that thinks of Old Spice as their dad’s after shave. Watch it and see if you agree with my assessment:
Number one, it entertained me. I laughed out loud when I saw this commercial. Now that that’s out of the way, we can break it down for its effectiveness.
Number two, it communicates with its target audience. Sure, it’s a men’s product, but Old Spice has done enough research to know that women make most purchasing decisions, even on behalf of their male family members. It communicates to the person who is actually shopping and putting these items in her cart.
Number three, the campaign appeals to a younger demographic. Because Old Spice has always been your dad’s after shave, the company needed some new products and a new feel to stay relevant in the market place. In a product category that contains Axe (for hormonally charged teenagers and single 20-somethings), Old Spice positions itself as the grown man’s shower gel. It’s for men who are young enough to consider using scented shower gel, but are old enough to have an adult lifestyle that includes a mature relationship.
Old Spice used humor and careful messaging to appeal to a very specific demographic, reposition its brand and entertain all at the same time. I think it worked—what about you?