The New Old Spice Guy

Old Spice is at it again, and this time there seems to be nothing holding them back.

I think it's fair to say that Old Spice is credited for having the first truly successful, somewhat measurable, certainly rabidly contagious social media campaign with man's man Isaiah Mustafa (great name by the way) last year.  So you can imagine my sheer delight as a marketer to see a new campaign with a New Old Spice guy over the weekend.

But Fabio?  I didn't get it, at least not at first.

So I started clicking around to follow the campaign.  All the elements are there again, including television advertising, a YouTube campaign, Twitter, and Facebook.  Of course the big thing to come back is the attitude and the banter.  I also discovered a YouTube event scheduled for today (July 26) at Noon EST.  A duel between the New Old Spice Guy and the original Old Spice Guy.  It's called "Mano a Mao in el Bano".  Brilliant.

It's all so incredibly cheesy, and even more cheesy than the first time because it's not as fresh anymore.  And at first I totally questioned the choice of Fabio because he's so over exposed and certainly not a man's man.  There's a little bit of an ick factor going on here.

But then I go it.  Buzz.  The goal here is buzz and page views and video hits and posts.  And of course ultimately sales for sure.  Using Fabio is generating controversy and conversation.  It's getting people like me to write about it and hundreds of thousands of others to post and tweet.  It's re-igniting an ownable campaign that set the record books at the time, and is most likely ready to shatter them a year later.

And it's taking someone that people kind of love to love (Mustafa) and putting him up against someone that people love to well, turn their heads (Fabio) -- in a YouTube event to promote a classic CPG.  I'm tuning in!

It's using multi-media, multi-channel, integrated marketing to its current extreme -- rolling out at lightening speed.  This is thought leadership in action, and it's impressive.  Even if it's totally cheesy.  I think that's the point, Fabio and all.

What's your experience?  Jim.

Jim Joseph
President of Lippe Taylor
Author of The Experience Effect