Thursday, March 3, 2011

My Favorite Ad Campaign

I would be lying if I told you that my favorite ad campaign was something obscure and artsy. The truth is, I'm in love with the Smell Like a Man, Man campaign with Isaiah Mustafa. You know the one, the third most watched YouTube video of 2010. Look at the video, back at me, now back to the video.



The first time I saw this ad I actually looked at my man, back at him, back at my man, back at him. The husband wasn't impressed. Oh well, I'm the one who does the shopping. Which is exactly why I love this video. It's sexy, so the women are interested; it's manly enough that the men don't object. In fact, many men have a new role model.



It's not enough to just appeal to the ladies. Old Spice (and W+K) had problems. Old Spice was exactly that--old. For many years now, they've been fighting their position as your grandfather's aftershave. The brand was getting its ass kicked by Axe. Everyone knows sex sells, therefore Axe sells. Your grandfather does not.

I'm lucky enough to have gained a contact in Wieden + Kennedy, a strategic planner for this campaign. He gave me a little run down about how the Smell Like a Man, Man came to be. They started by trying to copy Axe, selling with sex. It wasn't working.



So then they tried decided to change it from "old" to "experienced" with a hilarious spot featuring Bruce Campbell.



The problem with this campaign was that they were having a difficult time presenting the different products and different scents. So they moved on. There was a slice of luck with Isaiah Mustafa being so charismatic, but the strategy is spot on.

Even the media strategy was genius. They took Twitter mentions and YouTube comments and turned them into YouTube responses. Zero media buy, limited production budget, huge impact. Every person that got mentioned spread that video as far as they could. It was brilliant.

From @TheEllenShow:


To the unknown Raondy, who doesn't need perfect grammar to be admired by the man:


Unbelievably effective advertising, which is why this has to be my favorite campaign.


Ice cream? yes please.

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