Tag Archives: Old Spice

Brand partnership is the best thing about the Old Spice videos

No sooner do I write about the importance of brand’s speaking in a distinctive, clear, concise, and complete voice does Old Spice hit us with a continuation of their latest (great) campaign.  I’m not going to talk much about the campaign as I’m sure you’ve seen the personalized video responses that I’m talking about.  If you haven’t seen the YouTube videos, surely you’ve seen the commercials – the ones with the shirtless guy doing things like riding backwards on a horse on a beach.  I don’t want to break the campaign down.  It’s great.  I will say this, though –

They’ve clearly found their voice.  This character enables them to have a certain attitude.  Through the attitude comes the voice.  They can then take this into other channels and utilize the voice in the best way according to the channel.  If you listen to any one of these personalized responses, the words are different, but the voice is the same.  And it is a perfect use of this medium and this channel.

It’s fascinating to read about the production of these videos.  A team from W&K were basically sitting in room all day monitoring social media sites for questions, writing responses, filming them, and then loading and posting them up in as real time as they could.  The teamwork within the agency is remarkable, but isn’t surprising.

But probably the most fascinating aspect of this whole “hit” has been the “partnership” that the Old Spice brand team and W&K share.  There is a level a trust there that enables the brand to say, “yes, we are going to go out on a limb and do this and trust our agency to represent us in this space as we would represent ourselves.”  This right here – this level of trust – is what we strive for everyday with our clients, as any agency should.  It makes partners and great work.  It loosens the strings, so to speak.  And allows things like this to happen.  It’s brilliant.