
Old Spice on Twitter - oneplusone
http://twitter.com/oldspice
======
lbrandy
He's currently answering (tons of) questions, in video form, from "the
internet"... youtube comments, reddit, twitter, including other celebs (with
shows)... EW, Ellen Degeneres, etc. They are pumping these out extremely
quickly, and in large volume.

reddit thread:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/entertainment/comments/cp190/the_old...](http://www.reddit.com/r/entertainment/comments/cp190/the_old_spice_man_responds_to_the_internet/)

It's maybe the best guerilla/viral/web2.0 marketing job I've ever seen. It
helps, greatly, that this guy, and his team, are apparently comedic geniuses.

e.g: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHrXKg2Fk5k>

~~~
sliverstorm
I'm pretty sure half of what makes these ads so awesome and popular with my
friends is just how in touch Old Spice seems to be with the culture of their
target audience. It's amazing to see a real corporation move like that.

"The tickets are now DIAMONDS!"

Perfect example. They hit a home run with that line, especially with their
target audience.

~~~
reader5000
They are created by Tim and Eric of Awesome Show fame on adult swim. They also
created this commercial which is distilled genius:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p0QtJMKt1s>

~~~
generalk
Tim and Eric did do some commercials for Old Spice, but none of these. All of
the ones with Isaiah Mustafa are from Wieden+Kennedy.

Source: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wieden%2BKennedy>

~~~
subwindow
Here's a link to a compilation of Tim and Eric's Old Spice commercials:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7PD4f5uTOU>

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rrhyne
I just chatted with a friend at the agency working on this. They are writing
the responses on the fly and the actor gets them in 2 takes.

~~~
c1sc0
That's awesome. It's amazing how well-connected the hacker news crowd is, I
always thought some kind of referral system at HN would be of great value.

~~~
thafman
completely seconded

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b-e-p
I'd have thought an upvote could replace this comment.

~~~
baxter
Completely seconded.

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huhtenberg
Good campaign, but not enough to offset Neal Stephenson's take on it:

    
    
      Oh, they used to argue over times, many corporate driver-years lost to it: 
      homeowners, red-faced and sweaty with their own lies, stinking of Old Spice 
      and job-related stress, standing in their glowing yellow doorways brandishing 
      their Seikos and waving at the clock over the kitchen sink, I swear, can't 
      you guys tell time?
    

:)

~~~
sliverstorm
Everything good can and has been bad at some point in history.

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senthil_rajasek
Yesterday shaving made it to the front page at YC, today after-shave follows
up with its own front page appearance ...

Cool coincidence !?

~~~
NickDouglas
Tomorrow, the whole front page will be about feeling your face sting and going
"Ow! Ow! Ow!" in front of your bathroom mirror.

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winternett
Its great because too many companies have forgotten the value of random humor
in their commercials... It signifies a company taking a risk on a marketing
campaign which makes it great, and its also great because of the diversity of
characters they use in their commercials.

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iamwil
Actually, this reminds me of StrongBad answering emails.

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decadentcactus
I like Old Spice's ads and marketing. Pretty much searched it out when I was
at the shops but didn't really like the smell. </slight-offtopic>

~~~
steveklabnik
I use the Original Scent body wash, and I always crack up at "If your
grandfather hadn't worn this, you wouldn't be here" line.

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javajones
OMG these are genius and an idea whose time has come. Marketing to a
generation of people who have been marketed to tears, breath of fresh air.

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WarTheatre
It seems to me that people like the marketing without actually liking the
product itself. Are there any sales numbers for Old Spice?

~~~
sliverstorm
The point of ads is to get you thinking about and talking about a product you
wouldn't have otherwise. It's nice if they improve your perception of the
product, but that's not as important as just getting yourself into people's
heads. e.g., "there's no such thing as bad press"

~~~
exit
there is such a thing as return on investment though

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jfager
Are twitter, reddit, or youtube making any money off this at all?

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Timothee
Twitter is (in a way) because Old Spice has coordinated this with a promoted
trending topic and a promoted tweet.

YouTube is (in a way) as well since Old Spice is probably paying for their
channel.

Reddit, maybe, if Old Spice became a Gold Member.

~~~
reader5000
You think they could at least buy a reddit ad.

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davidw
What, no Bruce Campbell? Doh.

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979s
I wonder when this showed up in the idea creation. It all depends on a very
actively audience engaged with the regular ads (in order to respond to
comments via video response). Did they see the popularity and have an idea on
how to use social tools to mid-campaign or was it in the works all along?
Either way, genius.

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javanix
One of the best things about this is they've made the videos unlisted (at
least some of them - the one's I've browsed anyway) on YouTube.

Relatively pure, realtime feedback on their ads has to be pretty fantastic for
the team.

~~~
mkramlich
if you read Reddit, they appear to be getting lots of realtime feedback on
their _abs_ as well

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Aaronontheweb
Am I the only one waiting for Twitter to find a way to screw this up like how
Facebook did with the BK Friend Sacrifice a couple of years ago?

~~~
apu
Well I don't know if Twitter is screwing this up or if the account's been
hacked somehow, but the twitter page is currently showing raw JSON instead of
a formatted page...

<http://i.imgur.com/Mmm8t.png> <http://twitter.com/OldSpice>

~~~
pcarmichael
I saw the same thing. Add a trailing slash and you'll get the HTML page.

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bosch
This is awesome! I'm just scared some C level guy over 50 will find out about
it and not understand it and then kill it...

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mkramlich
the Reddit threads about this are hilarious as usual, and the Old Spice man
appears to be answering comments from some of the users there. for those who
want to read more...

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yanowitz
This has got to be computer generated, right?

~~~
hugh3
They need:

1\. An actor

2\. A shower

3\. A writer

4\. A camera and computer

I assume they'll do it for one day and people will talk about it for weeks.
Pretty good return on investment.

~~~
edge17
it's done in one take without any cuts

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dotBen
I'm reminded of the new-old adage: "you can't polish a turd".

However 'in touch' Old Spice might be with the online generation (as someone
wrote elsewhere in this thread), the product still smells like what someone's
grandpa would wear.

How does this relate to startups? No matter how great your marketing might be,
you gotta always be able to proposition the product right. Old Spice can't
pivot and iterate their product because then it would no longer be Old Spice.
Let's be thankful we can pivot with internet startups to find continued market
fit.

~~~
axod
I'd be _VERY_ surprised if they're not selling a _ton_ more old spice now. My
wife is planning to buy me some just because she loves the ads.

~~~
dotBen
This is why I hate marketing. Wouldn't you prefer it if your wife bought the
best product rather than the best marketed product?

In this instance perhaps the fragrance she preferred the smell of the best?

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axod
I can't really smell much difference between any bathroom products. Whichever
she wants to buy is fine by me.

Using old spice will remind me of some of the awesome lines from the adverts,
which will be a good start to the day.

As long as it smells "good/clean", that's fine I'd say...

