Final Fantasy... Finally

So, I'm sure by now many of you have seen the newest Old Spice commercial "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" and if you haven't then you kind of just missed that huge video above this sentence and you might want to just give up at life... Okay maybe that's mean. I apologize, but anyways moving on... Now what makes this commercial blog worthy is that not only was it hilarious (we've seen that before, think Bud Light); not only was it brand effective (and not just some funny ad); but the firm that made the ad and is in charge of the account, Wieden+Kennedy, was actually forward thinking enough to create an entire campaign around this concept.

Other than the two "I'm on a horse" commercials, they've create a promo that I've seen not only on their website's front page (the video takes a few seconds to start) but also as a banner ad on Youtube. The promo, in addition to being pretty funny, offers us not only the ability to check out "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" but also a service called "My Perpetual Love". The service is supposed to be "guaranteed" to impress your woman; it has you fill out both your name & email and your lover's name & email and then sends ridiculous "sweet nothings" to her (by old spice) from your email. This online service all the while is just one more way to keep Old Spice relevant and top of mind to its customers. An example of one of those sweet nothings is, "I like you so much that just thinking about you makes my heart beat at a dangerously high rate that endangers my life."

Now I'd like to spotlight not just the creativity of this campaign, but also it's media planners and buyers. You literally can't escape this commercial; either from the old spice campaign itself, from the media coverage of it, or from your friends/people you know who love this ad and push it at every opportunity they get (that'd be me). Now the last two reasons are both unexpected touch points. But Wieden+Kennedy has been brilliant in reaching potential customers via their media planning and buying; they first bought space for the NBA All Star weekend (12.4 million total viewers), then continued buying space for the Winter Olympics (which at least 167 million Americans have already seen and has continued to average at least 20 million viewers a night), and then they pair that buying with spots bought on networks that cover the Olympics (such as ESPN). Not only have they had a huge television presence but they've also purchased banner ads on youtube, facebook, and who knows how many other websites. One would have a strong case for arguing that the media planners and buyers made the campaign even more than the creative people who made the hilariously funny commercial.

Wieden+Kennedy in my opinion executed the best integrated marketing campaign that I've seen. I doubt that Old Spice will be able to consistently execute their campaigns on a level consistent with this, but what I do know is that for at least the near future I will be smelling like Jet Fighters and punching instead of butterflies and salt taffy. And that's my final fantasy, until next time... I'm on a horse.