In 2010, Old Spice was a 72-year-old brand that young men associated with their grandfathers’ medicine cabinets. Within six months of launching “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” Old Spice became the number one men’s body wash brand in America, generated 1.4 billion earned impressions, and redefined what viral marketing could achieve for a legacy brand.
The campaign’s success was not luck. It was the result of a strategic insight so specific that it changed who the ads talked to.
Why Old Spice Needed Repositioning
The “Grandpa’s Aftershave” Problem
Old Spice launched in 1937 as a women’s fragrance before pivoting to men’s grooming in 1938. By the 2000s, the brand carried seven decades of heritage, most of it associated with an older generation. Young men aged 18-34 did not reject Old Spice. They simply did not consider it. The brand had zero relevance in the segment that drives body wash growth.
Brand heritage is an asset when it signals quality and trust. It becomes a liability when it signals obsolescence. Old Spice was firmly in liability territory.
Axe’s Aggressive Play for Young Men
Unilever’s Axe (Lynx outside North America) had dominated the young men’s body wash and fragrance market throughout the 2000s with sexually charged advertising that positioned the product as an irresistibility tool. Axe’s market share among 18-24 males was commanding. Their advertising spoke directly to the id: use this product and women will find you irresistible.
Old Spice, owned by Procter & Gamble, needed to take market share from Axe without copying their approach. Matching Axe’s sexual messaging would have been inauthentic for a brand with Old Spice’s heritage. The strategy required a different angle entirely.
The Body Wash Market Opportunity
The men’s body wash category was growing at approximately 7% annually. P&G had launched Old Spice Body Wash in 2003, but it held modest market share. The category’s growth trajectory meant that winning even a few share points would generate substantial revenue. The opportunity was clear. The challenge was making Old Spice the brand young men wanted, not the brand their fathers used.
The Strategic Insight That Changed Everything
60% of Body Wash Is Bought by Women
Research revealed that women purchased approximately 60% of men’s body wash. They added it to the shopping cart, chose the brand and scent, and placed it in the shower. The user and the buyer were different people.
Every competitor was targeting the user. Nobody was targeting the buyer.
Targeting the Buyer, Not the User
This insight reframed the entire creative brief. The campaign needed to appeal to women (the purchasers) while being entertaining enough that men (the users) would share it. The ads needed to make women want their men to smell like Old Spice and make men comfortable with a product their partner chose for them.
This dual-audience strategy is rare in advertising because most brands default to targeting the end user. Old Spice’s willingness to redefine their target audience based on purchasing behavior rather than usage behavior was the strategic foundation everything else built upon.
Wieden+Kennedy’s Creative Brief
Agency Wieden+Kennedy, the Portland firm behind Nike’s “Just Do It,” received one of the most focused creative briefs in advertising history: make Old Spice the body wash that women buy for their men. The creative execution needed to be funny (to earn sharing), aspirational (to position Old Spice as desirable), and inclusive (to work for both men and women).
“The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”: Campaign Breakdown
Super Bowl Timing and Multi-Platform Launch
The original 30-second spot launched online in February 2010, days before the Super Bowl, then aired during the broadcast. This sequencing was deliberate. The online launch generated buzz that made the Super Bowl airing an event rather than a debut. By the time it aired on television, millions had already seen it on YouTube.
This launch strategy, digital first and broadcast second, was revolutionary in 2010 and is now standard practice.
Isaiah Mustafa and the Jester Archetype
Former NFL wide receiver Isaiah Mustafa delivered absurd scenarios (a shower transforms into a boat, diamonds appear from his hand, he rides a horse) with unwavering confidence and direct-to-camera address. The character embodied the jester brand archetype: confident, entertaining, self-aware, and never taking himself seriously.
The jester archetype was the perfect counter to Axe’s approach. Where Axe took male attractiveness seriously (use this product to attract women), Old Spice treated it as comedy (your man should smell like this man, but he can’t actually be this man). The humor created a safe emotional distance that made the product aspirational without being threatening to male egos.
Practical Effects Over CGI
The production team used practical effects rather than CGI for the transitions: real set changes, mechanical props, and carefully choreographed timing. This meant the ad rewarded multiple viewings because audiences tried to spot how the transitions worked. The rewatchability factor was critical for a campaign that needed organic sharing.
The One-Take Production Technique
Multiple scenes were filmed in a single continuous take, requiring precise choreography from Mustafa and the production crew. This constraint forced creative simplicity: every transition needed to be physically achievable. The result felt effortless and magical, which amplified the character’s confidence. The production technique became part of the brand’s brand voice.
The Interactive Response Campaign: 186 Videos in 48 Hours
How They Produced Content at Speed
Three months after the original spot, Wieden+Kennedy launched the interactive response campaign. Over two days in July 2010, Mustafa recorded 186 personalized video responses to questions and comments from Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube. A team of writers, producers, and a production crew operated from a bathroom set in Portland, writing, filming, and uploading each video in approximately seven minutes.
The operation required a writing team generating scripts in real time, a production crew ready to film within minutes, and a social media team monitoring platforms for the highest-value engagement opportunities.
Celebrity and Fan Engagement Strategy
The team strategically responded to celebrities (Alyssa Milano, Demi Moore, George Stephanopoulos), media outlets (BuzzFeed, Digg), and ordinary fans. Celebrity responses generated press coverage. Media responses generated editorial amplification. Fan responses demonstrated that the brand was listening to everyone, not just influencers.
Turning One-Way Broadcast into Two-Way Conversation
This was the campaign’s most significant innovation. Traditional advertising is broadcast: the brand talks, the audience listens. The response campaign inverted this model. The audience talked. The brand listened and responded, personally, in real time, on camera, in character. In 2010, no brand had done this at this scale.
The interactive element generated more earned media than the original TV spot. Media coverage focused not on the ad itself but on the unprecedented brand-audience interaction it demonstrated.
Results That Rewrote the Brand Repositioning Playbook
Sales Data
Old Spice Body Wash sales increased 27% in the six months following the campaign launch. Over the following year, sales increased by 107%. Old Spice became the number one men’s body wash brand in America, surpassing Dove Men+Care and Axe.
1.4 Billion Impressions and 40M YouTube Views
The campaign generated 1.4 billion earned impressions across all media. The original YouTube video accumulated 40 million views within a week of the response campaign. During the response campaign itself, Old Spice’s YouTube channel became the most-viewed channel on the platform.
The earned media value far exceeded the paid media investment. P&G spent a fraction of what a traditional national TV campaign would cost and achieved results that no amount of paid media could have replicated.
From Stagnant to Category Leader
Before the campaign, Old Spice Body Wash held a modest share in a market dominated by Axe. After the campaign, Old Spice held the number one position, a position it maintained through subsequent campaign phases. The brand’s social media following grew by over 2,700% during the campaign period.
What Happened After the Viral Moment
Terry Crews Era and Campaign Evolution
In 2011, Old Spice introduced actor Terry Crews as a second spokesperson, bringing a more explosive, absurdist energy to complement Mustafa’s smooth confidence. The dual-spokesperson approach gave Old Spice two distinct creative lanes while maintaining the jester archetype. Crews’s campaign targeted a slightly younger demographic and pushed the absurdity further.
Sustaining Momentum Beyond a Single Hit
Many viral campaigns produce a single moment of cultural relevance followed by decline. Old Spice avoided this by treating the 2010 campaign as the beginning of a repositioning, not a one-time stunt. Subsequent campaigns (“Smell Like a Man, Man,” “Muscle Music,” “Mom Song”) maintained the jester voice while exploring new creative territories.
The key to sustained momentum was committing to the archetype. Old Spice never reverted to serious masculine advertising. Every subsequent execution reinforced the same brand positioning: Old Spice is confident, funny, self-aware, and desirable.
Old Spice’s Brand Repositioning Framework: What Marketers Can Steal
1. Identify the real decision maker. Old Spice’s breakthrough came from recognizing that the buyer and the user were different people. Audit your purchase data. The person you should target may not be the person who uses your product. Market segmentation based on purchasing behavior, not just usage, reveals hidden opportunities.
2. Choose an archetype and commit. Old Spice chose the jester and never wavered. Every ad, every social post, every response video stayed in character. Half-committed archetypes confuse the audience. Full commitment builds recognition.
3. Make the product secondary to the story. The original ad barely shows the product. It shows a character, a world, and an experience. The product is the entry point, not the subject. When the story is entertaining enough to share, the product rides along.
4. Build for participation, not just viewing. The response campaign turned viewers into participants. Every person who tweeted at Old Spice hoping for a reply became emotionally invested in the brand. Design campaigns that invite response, not just consumption.
5. Launch digital first, broadcast second. Build online momentum before amplifying with traditional media. The internet provides a testing ground, an engagement platform, and an amplification engine. Television provides mass reach. Use them in that order. Our analysis of social media brand awareness covers the digital-first launch strategy in detail.
FAQ
What was Old Spice’s marketing strategy?
Old Spice’s strategy targeted women (who purchase 60% of men’s body wash) with humorous, aspirational advertising featuring the jester brand archetype. The campaign combined a digital-first launch, a Super Bowl TV spot, and an interactive social media response campaign to reposition a 72-year-old brand for younger consumers.
Who created the Old Spice campaign?
Wieden+Kennedy, the Portland-based agency also known for Nike’s “Just Do It,” created the campaign. The creative team included Eric Kallman, Craig Allen, and Jason Bagley. Isaiah Mustafa starred as “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” Director Tom Kuntz filmed the iconic one-take spots.
How much did Old Spice sales increase after the campaign?
Old Spice Body Wash sales increased 27% in the first six months and 107% over the first year. The brand rose from a modest market share to the number one position in men’s body wash in the United States, surpassing both Axe and Dove Men+Care.
What brand archetype does Old Spice use?
Old Spice uses the jester archetype: confident, humorous, self-aware, and entertaining. The archetype allows the brand to be aspirational without being serious, differentiating it from Axe’s seducer positioning and Dove’s caretaker positioning. For a deeper look at how brands use archetypes to build brand equity, see our guide to brand architecture types.
Old Spice’s repositioning remains the definitive case study in turning a legacy brand into a cultural phenomenon. For more brand strategy analyses, explore our Nike SWOT analysis and the evolution of Coca-Cola’s brand identity.
