Campaign Overview Old Spice added a new line of products to their existing lineup of odor blocking superstars in January. The new “Wild Collection” Campaign, created by Wieden & Kennedys Portland Agency, was created to target men in watching the 2013 super bowl with a 30 second commercial to launch the campaign. Initially only aired in Juneau Alaska because of the affiliation of the wolf to that state, but the commercial aired the next day nationwide.
Old Spice uses an affective message strategy to enhance its likeability from consumers that are exposed to their message. Their media strategy has 3 elements that communicate their message to their target audience, TV, print, and several channels of social media including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. I believe this campaign was created to keep the already strong Old Spice brand in consumers’ evoked set and appeal to their masculine and primal but more sophisticated side. The advertiser wants men to believe that if they use this line of product they will have a more intriguing and almost frightening yet confident appeal to women. Ultimately their goal is to gain market share with the older side of their target audience. |
- Campaign Launch Super bowl Commercial -
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The challenge
Market analysis
The internal factors at work are past experiences with different brands of products and likability of these brands. The External Factors are going to be friends’ opinions about the products. Women have an impact because the thing consumers are most concerned about is being able to smell good for women. Because the campaign is using an affective strategy that does not talk about facts, they do not have to worry much about legal forces like the FTC making allegations. The American consumer culture is very concerned with self-image, which I believe is a big socio-cultural force. There are not that many technical forces at work since there have not been any recent breakthroughs in this industry. With the competitive landscape, the Old Spice Brand faces high competition in a saturated market with similar products. Brands like Gillette, Axe, Dove, Degree and others all compete on the basis of odor blocking deodorant, body spray and shower gel.
Audience Analysis
The audience is very broad and lightly segmented with products appealing to men around 14 years old all the way to men in their late 20’s but for this campaign they are targeting males at the older end of this spectrum from 22-30. The main assumptions that Old Spice is making is that their original younger audience is maturing and so are their need for more mature and masculine scents. Old spice understands that men have a need not only to smell good, but also do so in a sophisticated masculine way, which is their key insight.
Men in this age category are very appropriate for this product because of their want to express themselves in a masculine way to differentiate themselves from the rest of the crowd. W&K used a self-image positioning strategy to target most of the nation because men desire to be the men in the ads. It is also important to note that they used the wolf in the ads as a cultural symbol to target men in Alaska. The positioning for the target audience is appropriate because of how it relates to the key insight.
The internal factors at work are past experiences with different brands of products and likability of these brands. The External Factors are going to be friends’ opinions about the products. Women have an impact because the thing consumers are most concerned about is being able to smell good for women. Because the campaign is using an affective strategy that does not talk about facts, they do not have to worry much about legal forces like the FTC making allegations. The American consumer culture is very concerned with self-image, which I believe is a big socio-cultural force. There are not that many technical forces at work since there have not been any recent breakthroughs in this industry. With the competitive landscape, the Old Spice Brand faces high competition in a saturated market with similar products. Brands like Gillette, Axe, Dove, Degree and others all compete on the basis of odor blocking deodorant, body spray and shower gel.
Audience Analysis
The audience is very broad and lightly segmented with products appealing to men around 14 years old all the way to men in their late 20’s but for this campaign they are targeting males at the older end of this spectrum from 22-30. The main assumptions that Old Spice is making is that their original younger audience is maturing and so are their need for more mature and masculine scents. Old spice understands that men have a need not only to smell good, but also do so in a sophisticated masculine way, which is their key insight.
Men in this age category are very appropriate for this product because of their want to express themselves in a masculine way to differentiate themselves from the rest of the crowd. W&K used a self-image positioning strategy to target most of the nation because men desire to be the men in the ads. It is also important to note that they used the wolf in the ads as a cultural symbol to target men in Alaska. The positioning for the target audience is appropriate because of how it relates to the key insight.
The campaign
Brand Positioning/ Strategy
The Old Spice brand is centered on fun and self-confidence and attractiveness. These values are portrayed by the humor and sex appeal that these ads express as well as in past campaigns like the “Old Spice Guy”. These values also strengthen the competitive position of the brand because they are instilling belief in their audience that their products reflect those values.
Creative Analysis
The concept for this campaign is to appeal to the wild and mysterious aspect inside men by relating this dangerous and primal side to attractiveness and masculinity that women find attractive and other men may find intimidating.
The promise that is made to the consumer is that if I use Old Spice products I will appear and smell more masculine and appear more confident. The campaign uses several message techniques including TV, print, and social media, all using primarily humor and sex appeal. The ads use problem creation because they are showing an ideal and dominant state for a male to aspire to and creating a gap in the consumers mind. The two graphic elements that are used are the TV ads and the Print ads both working to complement the tagline “Answer the Smell of the Wild” because the ads are communicating dangerous masculine bravado that is intimidating yet seductive.
For the analysis of the different elements I will be analyzing the Wolfthorn specific ads for TV and Print since they seem to be the main focus of the campaign.
The Old Spice brand is centered on fun and self-confidence and attractiveness. These values are portrayed by the humor and sex appeal that these ads express as well as in past campaigns like the “Old Spice Guy”. These values also strengthen the competitive position of the brand because they are instilling belief in their audience that their products reflect those values.
Creative Analysis
The concept for this campaign is to appeal to the wild and mysterious aspect inside men by relating this dangerous and primal side to attractiveness and masculinity that women find attractive and other men may find intimidating.
The promise that is made to the consumer is that if I use Old Spice products I will appear and smell more masculine and appear more confident. The campaign uses several message techniques including TV, print, and social media, all using primarily humor and sex appeal. The ads use problem creation because they are showing an ideal and dominant state for a male to aspire to and creating a gap in the consumers mind. The two graphic elements that are used are the TV ads and the Print ads both working to complement the tagline “Answer the Smell of the Wild” because the ads are communicating dangerous masculine bravado that is intimidating yet seductive.
For the analysis of the different elements I will be analyzing the Wolfthorn specific ads for TV and Print since they seem to be the main focus of the campaign.
TV
The main elements within the "irresistible" commercial that were used to draw in the viewer are the man/wolves, the girl and the car. The music and visual setting suggest classiness and sophistication while the wolves instill fear and the car is exciting and fast. Put them all together and you get the feeling that you have to “answer the smell of the wild”. This vertically balanced magazine ad grabs your attention right away with the two headed man wolf as it guides the eyes to the drink then the girl and what she’s holding and finally to the tagline. The dark background suggests traditional mood lighting but the fact that the wolf is snarling gives the impression that this guy is all but traditional and maybe a bit dangerous which holds the viewers attention even longer. The different elements are asking the viewer to do exactly what the tagline says, even if they are not consciously aware of it, it will remind men that they have a wild side and encourage them to change behavior and eventually buy the product. |
Media StrategyMedia Selection
The key media channels that Old Spice is using are TV Commercials, Print, and Social Media. The strength of having the Wolfthron commercial aired in Alaska is not only their high percentage of male population that may watch the super bowl but their association with the wolf as a native predator. The weakness is that Alaska is a relatively small segment of the market. I was unable to identify what magazines the print ads were in. The only weakness would be that print is a dying media in advertising today. Their use of social media on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube is a big strength because that is where their audience spends a lot of time. The videos on their YouTube channel are hilarious and have potential to go viral. A specific example is a remake they did on their Hawkridge commercial using the current “screaming goat” YouTube trend. These media channels are widely used with men and women in the target audience, which will help drive sales for this product line. The media used in this campaign has worked for previous campaigns for their audience and brand. The existing followers on their social media sites will help with viral circulation. Strategic use of paid, owned and earned media The paid use of their Wolfthorn and Hawkride ads were designed to create buzz about their funny and bizarre commercials and ads on the owned Old Spice social media channels. Their videos being the highlight of the content shared by users, they hope to earn media coverage by making hilarious and entertaining videos that are fun for users to watch and want to share, which leads to viral content. |
Conclusion
It is early on in this campaign but I believe they will be successful with the integration of these different elements and results that they will bring. Each of the two commercials on The Old Spice YouTube channel have received approximately 2.8 million views in the first month of its release which is fairly impressive considering that’s still within the top 15 on their channel. The “Hawkgoat” commercial remake that was launched a week ago has significantly more shares on their Facebook page than the original commercials showcasing its viral potential. From these limited results I believe they are on track to increase sales with their target audience.
- Original -
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- Remake -
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