Well, lately, Old Spice has been getting a lot of coverage about what they've been doing with the Old Spice Guy. The commercials certainly are clever and fun to watch and they've garnered millions of views on youtube. The latest commercial alone has close to 7 million views and that's not counting all of the very clever responses that Old Spice and Wieden put up yesterday. They each have 250,000+ and those numbers will surely go up significantly as they were only put up yesterday. But, according to a July 12th Article in Adweek:
For instance, P&G picked up the Film Grand Prix this year for Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" spot from Wieden + Kennedy. Launched in February, it's racked up nearly 12.2 million YouTube views. But in the 52 weeks ended June 13, sales of the featured product, Red Zone After Hours Body Wash, have dropped 7 percent, per SymphonyIRI (this excludes those sold at Walmart). P&G execs were not available to comment. (See the full article at To the Cannes Victor Go the Spoils.)
So the question now for Old Spice is whether or not they can convert this traffic to trial and/or conversion. And maybe this is just the old ad guy in me, but there's also no call to action. There's no plan for a place-based, experiential element of the campaign that would get people somewhere where they could try the product. They should be hosting Old Spice events that help drive an Old Spice experience. There should be perfect looking men in towels on street corners handing out samples to woman and saying "this will help your man look like me. Or at least smell like me."
They've done an excellent job creating the online conversation, but now it's time to take it offline. It's time to see if people are just talking about Old Spice or if they're ready to have lunch with Old Spice.
B.L. Ochman writing on her "What's Next blog, had a similar thought. Take a look at what she had to say at B.L. Ochman's blog: Old Spice: a brilliant tactic whose strategy (and scent) reeks.
Make sure you go to YouTube - OldSpice's Channel to see all of the Old Spice videos.
One of my favorite responses to Old Spice. Wondering if it really is sponsored by Dove.
