Comments on: Old Spice vs. Meerkats – Best Viral Campaign Ever?

By: Rocketdog

Rocketdog — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:05:39 +0000

Well, went to school with the old spice guy, am adoptive parent to sanctuary meerkats (get to touch! yay!) — man, that’s a toss-up. At the end of the day… going to have to go with the meerkats. Everybody happy that way

By: MissyE

MissyE — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:33:30 +0000

I love this campaign and love the Old Spice hottie. I can’t bear the scent though.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:22:18 +0000

And yet… sales of Old Spice are actually DOWN seven percent: http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/despite-enormous-popularity-old-spice-guy-not-helping-sales–1403. Fascinating!

By: Paul Martin

Paul Martin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:29:42 +0000

Hi Susan,

I maybe didn’t make it clear the way I worded it. As you say, Old Spice was indeed a popular brand and some could say fashionable. However the point I was trying to make is that in recent times, as a brand, it was dwindling… and badly!

The recent push in advertising and rebranding (including this viral campaign) has really pushed it back up there into the public arena. And while it may still have a long way to go to become fashionable (again), the brand name is being talked out and I’m sure the products may see themselves creeping ever higher up those supermarket shelves just like to good ‘ole days!

By: Susan

Susan — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 02:47:08 +0000

Yes. The new campaign is brilliant. This is not the first time that Old Spice has been popular though, despite your claim that “Old Spice used to be a fairly unfashionable range of male grooming products. Originally launched in 1934, the branding and reputation never altered, and it soon began to reside on the bottom of many supermarket shelves. That was until American creative agency Wieden & Kennedy took over the account.”
Long before it was unfashionable, it was fashionable for at least 30 years. Old Spice was a stalwart entry in the men’s aftershave market. Well into the 60s, it was a standard to put under the Christmas tree for Dads and Granddads. It is the smell that I most associate with my father–and this is so for many people. That doesn’t quite equal “it soon began to reside on the bottom on many supermarket shelves.” It may not have been fashionable recently, but it was very fashionable for a good many years. Be fair.

By: Paul Martin

Paul Martin — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:08:36 +0000

No I haven’t seen that! Brilliant.

It seems that the campaign has now ended. Here is the farewell video – http://youtu.be/nFDqvKtPgZo

We saw marriage proposals (http://youtu.be/_-fLV28SkZ8), political debate (http://youtu.be/J8Bli13rO9A) and even Twitter themselves getting involved (http://youtu.be/lLDxfAt4ZSw). What other viral campaign has had this sort of community involvement?!

My personal favourite was probably the tale of the Pirate vs Ninja (http://youtu.be/oaME8FQYxB8)… because there is nothing more humiliating than being whipped to death with your own shirt.

What was your favourite?

By: Claire

Claire — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:20:27 +0000

I love this guy. How awesome is his voice!

Have you seen this… A guy on Reddit asked for sound bites so that he could make up personalised voicemail greetings – http://youtu.be/-8JsvwUcok0

There is a website that used the sound bites from the video and you can create and download your very own voicemail clip – http://www.oldspicevoicemail.com/