Ads Review - Old Spice Product Personas
When you think of household names in the advertising game, Old Spice is top of mind. Even people who don’t like ads know and love the original The Man Your Man Could Smell Like ad. It was a cultural phenomenon.
I wanted to see what Old Spice was up to with their social ads, so I dove into their Facebook Ads Library. Today, I’ll break down a set of social ads they’re running, and show you how they employ different personas for their products to connect their broad brand with niche audiences.
Why this works
Diversity of brand
Old Spice doesn’t just stick to its classic red and white cursive branding for all their products. They bring strong diversity to their brand by employing these different product personas. They know that a smell is hard to sell to the average customer. Most people wouldn’t relate to one smell over another in a blind test. But by using these product personas–a fireman for one and a race car driver for another–they connect their scents to aspirational lifestyles for many people.
But how does a consumer soap and deodorant brand bring such diversity to its products while still remaining united in brand? With killer design.
Killer design
Hipsters can say what they will about big brands like Starbucks, Target, Old Spice–but they can’t deny their package design. Old Spice breathes life into arbitrary scents with amazing graphic and package design to connect with customers across multiple niches. With the clean, undeniably Old Spice brand template, each scent fills in the gaps with great names, illustrations, type faces, and colors. Peruse their product line for a moment. You’ll see that most of the products look exactly the same on the edges. But in the middle, each product persona shines.
Ideas for improvement
Old Spice knows its voice. They’ve committed to sounding like a confident renaissance man, with as much masculinity as flamboyancy. They’re not afraid to be a little extra, just so long as it’s completely on purpose.
My ideas for improvement would be to include more copy on their website and in their ads. It might be overkill, but Old Spice has developed a solid fan base as one of the leading soap brands in America. This is in large part to The Man Your Man Could Smell Like ad. So keeping these fans takes a commitment to and generosity with the brand that everyone knows and loves. I could see Old Spice fading into obscurity as the next generation of consumers gains real buying power. But I could also see Old Spice keeping its current customers, and adopting the new generation as well.
All they would have do is pass $1 million each year to a copywriting + publishing team to maintain a lifestyle blog that creates content marketing for each of their main niches. Hit me up, Old Spice.
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