Viral Old Spice Commercials by Weiden Kennedy Drove Sales Down by 7 Percent. Here’s Why (race discussed)

Hello ladies, how are you?

Well, It’s official. The Old Spice Viral Campaign by Weiden Kennedy actually drove sales down. The drop was an immediate 7 percent according to Warc, an industry research group.

The reasons are obvious if you were raised on off the teet of the web (oft called net-natives). The web user culture is totally different from the newspaper reader culture of yester-year. Weiden + Kennedy was culturally out of touch. Ironically, if David Ogilvy was at the helm, I doubt this would have happened – even though he is a 1960′s ad man.

1. Stay Loyal to Your Core (warning: race discussion ahead)
If you have any market share at all, build on it.

Old Spice under Weiden + Kennedy created betrayal. Many of you are going to think the following words are nonsense but those who do aren’t in my client demographic anyways so I’ll spill the beans. Do you know what P&G Old Spice’s Demographics are? I do. If you’ve been in any University Club, LA Fitness, or Equinox men’s locker room with a bunch of naked dudes, it’ll be obvious to you.

It’s mostly 50′s and 60′s white guys with some military background. “Mustafa” didn’t offend many of them. But let’s, for the sake of arguement say only 3.5% of them were uncomfortable with “Mustafa”. Then, from my subjective, non scientific analysis, these men are people who take themselves seriously. They range from old school executives to unionized blue collar workers. If the comical tone of the Weiden + Kennedy’s ad only offended another 3.5% of their core, well, that would account for why Old Spice sales went down 7%.

Personally, I have guy friends who are successful corporate African-Americans too. I know for a fact that a few of them use Old Spice. But after that silly messaging of a masculine product, I have a hunch they’d be as reluctant to walk through a checkout line with Old Spice as they would with a box of tampons.

How would the cash register boy react as one of my African American buddies tried to pay for his Old Spice? If you think I’m being silly, as a Korean American, my experience in the checkout line is slightly different depending on whether I’m purchasing bread or rice. True story.

The ad campaign made buying a regular brand embarrassing.

2. If You Target Another Demographic, Rebrand
You buy products because they are exclusive to your psychography. Guys who wear Ed Hardy shirts will not wear Polo.

I can’t think of any situation where the only way to increase your market share is to betray your existing base. If you want to bolt on a totally different demographic, you do so by totally rebranding. Nissan created Infinity because they didn’t want to lose their core and make Nissans feel inferior. Honda created Acura. Toyota created Lexus. McDonalds created Chipotle.

You’ll lose your core if you diffuse your marketing – even more so with a viral campaign. If you insist on keeping one brand while going after two demographics, at least do what Verizon Wireless and Subway did. Get a race-agnostic spokesperson.

3. W+K was so concerned with the medium that they forgot their message
The medium is just a medium. Whether you’re on a street corner or in Carnegie Hall, the medium is just a medium. Focus on the message. Don’t get distracted by the bells and whistles of the medium. W+K was in such a hurry to prove that their old-school culture was hip and relevant to “the parlance of our times” that they lost grasp of their message.

After a cursory review of any of their viral videos, it becomes clear that even their front line ad copy writers were confused as to who their target was. Mustafa generally begins his pitch, “Ladies.” But the tagline is, “smell like a man, man.”

Before you launch your next advertising or marketing initiative, let’s talk. We might do well putting our heads together. Call 310 598 1606 or email bob.wan.kim@gmail.com

Posted via email from Social Media Marketing Strategies for the Closet Revolutionary