CASE 83 / Old Spice / P&G / 2010
Smell Like a Man, Man and the Response Campaign
A recognizable advertising character became a responsive performer who could answer the audience.
AI-assisted research and analysis for the SNS Creative Fieldbook; published by SNS Media Tech. No named human reviewer is claimed.
Sources reviewed 2026-11-05
Campaign credits belong to the original creators. They did not write or endorse this analysis.
Credits: Wieden+Kennedy Portland for Old Spice. Isaiah Mustafa plays the recurring character. The initial film and the 2010 response activation are treated as one connected campaign family here.
Recognition: 2011 D&AD Yellow Pencil for the Response Campaign, Writing for Advertising / Writing for Film Advertising, in the cited retrospective.
Launch / edition: 2010. Award years: 2011.
The problem. The idea. The experience.
Old Spice wanted body-wash communication to reach both users and the people buying for them. Wieden+Kennedy describes a couples-oriented strategy rather than a men-only media brief.
How the idea came to life
The initial film launched in February 2010. Later, the team produced 186 personalized video replies to comments from fans and celebrities over roughly two and a half days.
How it reached people
The agency describes an initial online release, television shortly afterward and a media buy in shared-viewing contexts. The response videos appeared on YouTube using questions from several social platforms.
Supporting sources: Primary agency case → Primary award archive →
Read the data in context.
The numbers below describe different kinds of outcomes. Their date, scope and reporting source are part of the result.
- Reporting period
- Retrospective published March 2014; exact measurement cutoff unstated
- Scope
- Response work, not unique viewers or purchases
- Evidence
- Agency account in award-organizer retrospective
D&AD’s 2014 retrospective reports more than 65 million views for the response work. Its sales account and Wieden+Kennedy’s account use different figures and product descriptions; they are not combined here.
The creative mechanism.
A consistent character turns audience comments into new entertainment
Build a voice that can generate more than one joke
The strategic asset was a character with a recognizable way of speaking and responding. A strong persona can produce many original executions without changing the brand premise. The useful test is whether the voice remains recognizable when the situation changes, not whether a single script is quotable.
Participation works when the reply is worth watching
A personalized answer can be interesting to people other than its recipient if it contains a performance, useful explanation or fresh joke. Simply adding someone’s name is weaker. Design the public value of the response as carefully as the private thrill of being acknowledged.
Speed depends on a production system
Near-real-time work requires prepared roles, clear approval boundaries and enough craft capacity to finish the response while the conversation is still active. The lesson is not to eliminate review. It is to resolve predictable decisions before the event so unusual questions get appropriate attention.
Paid launch and interactive response are different jobs
The recognizable character existed before the reply format could exploit audience interest. Do not describe the campaign as a spontaneous organic success from a cold start. A small brand should first establish why anyone would ask the character a question.
The intended behavior loop
- 01Recognize the character
- 02Post a question or observe another fan’s reply
- 03Watch a tailored performance
- 04Share the entertaining response
Growth job: Reintroduce a familiar brand → create conversation → deepen participation. This is an interpretation of the mechanism, not an audited attribution model.
A direction to take into the room.
Original editorial interpretation and proposed adaptation. This is a proposed adaptation, not historical campaign execution or a forecast.
The transferable principle
Develop a repeatable voice and make audience participation produce something valuable to the wider audience.
Keep these boundaries
Do not imitate the actor, scripts or gender stereotypes. Avoid promising that fast replies alone will create demand.
Turn the lesson into a test.
Illustrative adaptation, not a historical campaign fact
A small-team experiment
A specialist shop answers volunteered product questions in a consistent, helpful short-video format.
Build the test
- Define the expert’s tone and factual boundaries before recording.
- Invite questions with permission to publish and avoid personal information.
- Produce a small set of original replies that remain useful to viewers who did not ask.
Measure the right thing
Track useful-question submissions, correct understanding and qualified next actions; keep repeat views separate from unique people.
Know when to stop
Stop or revise if speed causes inaccurate advice, disclosures are unclear or the character overwhelms the product explanation.
How this reading fits your brief
Start with the useful part.
Best for: Reintroduce a familiar brand → create conversation → deepen participation
What to adapt: Develop a repeatable voice and make audience participation produce something valuable to the wider audience.
Prerequisites: A recognizable voice or expert; Fast but accountable production; Permission to use audience questions.
Smaller-team route: Start with a small, useful response series. A cold-start brand cannot assume the pre-existing interest that supported Old Spice.
Budget: Not established by the cited sources. No cost-fit claim is made.
Trade-offs and evidence: Read the limits below before choosing a test. There is no guaranteed reach, sales lift or ROAS.
Questions for your next brief
- What specific audience obstacle could a consistent character turns audience comments into new entertainment help address?
- What evidence would distinguish attention from the useful action in this case?
Sources & further reading.
Brand and award-entry results are attributed claims, not independent causal audits. Source links open the original third-party pages.
- Wieden+Kennedy: Smell Like a Man, Man →Primary agency case · Supports: February 2010 launch, buying insight, paid/owned distribution, response production and agency sales account.
- D&AD: Old Spice Response Campaign case study →Primary award archive · Supports: 2011 Yellow Pencil, campaign sequence and retrospective view count.
Independent educational analysis of external campaigns. These are not SNS client projects, endorsements or claims of involvement. Campaign facts and reported outcomes are attributed to their sources. Explanations, adaptations and test plans are original analysis and hypotheses, not proven causal findings.