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Case Study: Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" Campaign

  • Writer: Evangel Oputa
    Evangel Oputa
  • Feb 23
  • 6 min read

In 2010, Old Spice turned a legacy brand into a viral sensation producing 186 personalized video responses in 2.5 days, driving unit sales up 125% by July, and winning the Cannes Grand Prix for Film and a Primetime Emmy.


Table of Content

  1. Summary

  2. Background

  3. Problem Identification

  4. Objectives

  5. Strategy

  6. Technology Integration

  7. Implementation

  8. User Experience

  9. Results

  10. Challenges and Solutions

  11. Key Takeaways



Old Spice campaign case study: 186 videos in 2.5 days, 125% sales growth, 40M views in first week. Red and white theme, bold text.

Summary

On February 4, 2010, Old Spice (a Procter & Gamble brand) launched "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" a surreal, single-take commercial starring former football player Isaiah Mustafa that addressed women directly as the primary purchasers of men's body wash. Created by Wieden+Kennedy Portland, the campaign generated 40 million YouTube views in its first week and became the most viewed branded content on the platform at the time. Five months later, the team produced 186 personalized video responses to real social media comments in 2.5 days a real-time content operation that redefined brand engagement. By July 2010, Old Spice Red Zone body wash sales had surged 125% year-over-year (Nielsen data), and the brand had become the #1 selling men's body wash in the United States.



Background

Old Spice had been a fixture in American men's grooming for decades, but by the late 2000s, the brand skewed older and stale. Competitors like AXE (Unilever) had captured the younger male demographic with provocative, youth-oriented marketing, while Old Spice was associated with fathers and grandfathers. The brand needed a complete repositioning not just to attract younger men, but to address a critical insight: women purchased the majority of men's body wash. The existing marketing approach was talking to the wrong audience with the wrong message.



Problem Identification

  1. Brand perception was stuck in the past Old Spice was "your grandfather's brand" in the AXE era

  2. Women purchased the majority of men's body wash, but all marketing targeted men

  3. The body wash category was increasingly competitive, with AXE dominating youth culture

  4. Old Spice needed to drive immediate sales lift, not just awareness the brand's relevance was declining measurably



Objectives

  1. Reposition Old Spice as a culturally relevant, aspirational brand for younger consumers

  2. Address women as the actual purchase decision-makers in the men's body wash category

  3. Drive immediate, measurable sales increases the internal target was a 15% lift

  4. Create a campaign that could sustain conversation beyond the initial broadcast, extending reach through social media



Strategy

Wieden+Kennedy Portland developed a strategy that subverted category conventions:

  1. Address Women Directly: Rather than marketing to men about what they should smell like, talk to women about what their men could smell like flipping the category's target audience

  2. Surreal Humor: Create a character so absurdly confident and over-the-top that the commercial transcended advertising and became entertainment people actively wanted to share

  3. Single-Take Technical Mastery: Film the ad in one continuous shot with elaborate set transitions a technical achievement that rewarded rewatching and demonstrated production craftsmanship

  4. Real-Time Response Phase: Follow the broadcast campaign with an unprecedented real-time engagement operation personalized video responses to actual social media comments

  5. Platform-Native Execution: Design the response campaign specifically for YouTube and Twitter, meeting audiences where they already were rather than driving them to owned channels



Technology Integration

  1. Rapid Content Studio: Built a full production setup camera, lighting, teleprompter, editing, and upload infrastructure capable of turning a social media comment into a finished, posted video in 10-15 minutes

  2. Multi-Platform Social Monitoring: Custom software pulled real-time comments from YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and Digg simultaneously, surfacing high-influence and high-creative-potential comments for response

  3. YouTube and Twitter Orchestration: Optimized video uploads for YouTube's discovery algorithm while using Twitter for real-time conversation and amplification

  4. Teleprompter Integration: Scripts written by the creative team were fed directly to a teleprompter for Isaiah Mustafa, enabling rapid performance without memorization delays

For brands looking to build real-time content operations, Descript provides rapid video editing with AI-powered features, InVideo enables fast video production, and Synthesia offers AI video generation for scaling personalized content.



Implementation

The campaign unfolded in two distinct phases:

Phase 1: Broadcast Launch

  1. Online Debut (February 4, 2010): Released the commercial on YouTube and Facebook ahead of the television premiere

  2. TV Premiere (February 8, 2010): Aired during American Idol, Lost, and the 2010 Winter Olympics high-viewership programming targeting both men and women

  3. Organic Viral Growth: The ad's humor and technical execution drove massive organic sharing, reaching 40 million YouTube views in the first week


Phase 2: Real-Time Response Campaign (July 14-16, 2010)

4. Production Setup: Assembled a full production team in a Portland studio Isaiah Mustafa, four writers (three writing simultaneously, one directing), community managers monitoring social platforms, camera crew, and post-production editors

5. Comment Selection: Community managers (Josh Millrod, Dean McBeth, Cody Corona) selected high-influence and creatively promising comments from multiple platforms

6. Rapid Script Writing: Writers (Craig Baldwin, Eric Kallman, Craig Allen, Bagley) crafted personalized scripts in real-time, refining each other's work for comedic timing

7. Filming and Upload: Mustafa performed responses on camera, videos were edited immediately, and finished content was posted within 10-15 minutes of the original comment 8. 186 Videos in 2.5 Days: The team produced 186 unique personalized responses, including replies to Alyssa Milano, Ashton Kutcher, and other high-profile accounts



User Experience

  1. Viewers first encountered the original commercial through TV broadcast or social media sharing the humor made it something people actively sent to friends

  2. The real-time response campaign created an interactive experience: post a comment, and Isaiah Mustafa might personally reply with a video addressed directly to you

  3. Watching other people's personalized responses became entertainment in itself 8 of the top 11 most-viewed YouTube videos on Day 2 of the response campaign were Old Spice replies

  4. The parasocial relationship with the character made consumers feel personally connected to the brand, not just amused by it

  5. The campaign turned passive viewers into active participants, rewarding engagement with personalized attention



Results

The campaign exceeded every objective by dramatic margins:

  1. Sales Impact: Unit sales of Old Spice Red Zone body wash up 60% by May 2010; up 125% by July 2010 (Nielsen data) against an internal target of 15%

  2. Market Position: Old Spice became the #1 selling brand of men's body wash in the United States by the end of 2010

  3. YouTube Performance: 40 million views in the first week; 80+ million views from response videos; became the most-viewed branded channel on YouTube

  4. Social Media Growth: Twitter followers up 2,700%; Facebook fans up 800% (from 500,000 to 800,000); YouTube subscribers more than doubled (65,000 to 150,000)

  5. Website Traffic: 300% increase in website visits during the campaign period

  6. Earned Media: Over 2 billion earned media impressions; 75% of all online conversations in the category during Q1 2010 (over 50% driven by women sharing)

  7. Awards: Cannes Grand Prix for Film; Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Commercial; D&AD Awards recognition




Challenges and Solutions

  1. Sustaining Post-Viral Momentum: Viral campaigns often spike and fade. Old Spice addressed this by phasing the response campaign five months after the original launch, creating a second wave of attention that reignited and deepened engagement

  2. Production Speed vs. Quality: Creating 186 videos in 2.5 days risked sacrificing quality for speed. The four-writer team structure with writers simultaneously crafting and refining each other's work maintained comedic quality while meeting the aggressive pace

  3. Celebrity Backlash Risk: Responding to high-profile accounts (celebrities, media figures) carried reputational risk if the humor missed. The writing team ensured each response was generous and clever rather than aggressive, maintaining broad appeal

  4. Character Sustainability: Isaiah Mustafa's character needed to remain fresh across 186 responses without becoming repetitive. The variety of prompts from celebrities to ordinary users to rival brands provided enough diversity to sustain interest

For brands building video-first engagement strategies, Hippo Video enables personalized video at scale for sales and marketing, Dubb provides a video sales platform for customer engagement, and Colossyan offers AI-powered video creation for producing content at volume.



Key Takeaways

  1. Speed plus interactivity turns ads into events: The response campaign wasn't just content it was a live performance. The real-time nature created urgency, unpredictability, and FOMO that pre-produced content never could

  2. Address the actual buyer, not the assumed buyer: By talking to women the real purchase decision-makers Old Spice reached the audience that mattered most. The surreal, confident humor appealed to both genders, but the direct address to women was the strategic breakthrough

  3. 10-15 minutes from comment to upload is the new standard: Old Spice proved that personalized brand responses at speed and quality were possible. This set a benchmark that influenced how every major brand approached social media engagement for the next decade

  4. Exceed your own targets by 8x: The internal goal was 15% sales lift. They achieved 125%. Setting ambitious but achievable targets and then building creative that could massively over-deliver is the hallmark of breakthrough campaigns

  5. This works if you can produce replies at scale: The model requires a production team, a charismatic performer, and writers who can maintain quality at speed. Not every brand can replicate this, but any brand that can build this infrastructure has a massive competitive advantage in engagement


To build your own video engagement and content creation infrastructure, consider ElevenLabs for AI voice generation, Syllaby for AI-powered content planning, and CloudTalk for AI-powered customer engagement at scale.



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