EVB partnered with Saatchi & Saatchi on this campaign. The TV spot ran during March Madness, in March and April. The goal for the online campaign was to extend the television commercial for Old Spice High Endurance Clear Gel's new fragrance, Pacific Surge -- in a very immersive and engaging way. The last thing that we wanted to do was simply run the same TV spot online.

We were lucky in that we had a very collaborative relationship with the client and traditional agency. Once the TV spot was produced, we found ourselves with loads of extra footage from the shoot.  It seemed natural that we find a way to incorporate all of this great footage into some type of online application.  We developed the "create your own" commercial site, which offers tremendous viral potential, as viewers can send their "commercials" to their friends, and also invite them to develop their own. Traffic to the site was driven by online advertising, but also, in large part, by blogs and word-of-mouth.

We then took the ad to the next level, with the "When you're hot, you stink" microsite. EVB hired an actor to come in and do the parody site; we shot the footage in our own studio. So now audiences could also build their own commercial with the antithesis of the girl dancing. This site was an underground viral campaign.

Traffic to the two sites continues to grow, virally. Blogs have driven coverage, and The San Francisco Chronicle, as well as the Wall Street Journal, have covered the online campaign. The sites have generated more visits than expected.

Old Spice is the number one selling anti-perspirant and deodorant among young men.
-- Daniel Stein, managing director, EVB

Client: Old Spice
Creative Agency: EVB

The Old Spice sites are great. They tie the offline ads together well with the web, creating a nice cohesive effort. The TV ads do a good job of breaking through the clutter with the typical use of sex, but the copy grabs your attention and adds an element of humor that was unexpected. These minisites are excellent as they play off the current trend of consumer generated content by allowing the user to remix the commercials and have a little fun. It allows the target audience, men 18-34, to direct a beautiful girl and a DJ in their own version of a commercial. What guy won’t play with that for a little while? It also does a nice job of reinvigorating the Old Spice brand, which is typically viewed as the scent of my grandfather’s generation. Nice work!
-- Cory R Treffiletti, SVP, managing director, Carat Interactive, SF

 

Love it. Fun. Hot. Simple. Great usability -- solid and classic idea, and I am just talking about whensheshot.com. Then EVB and Old Spice take the campaign to the next level (beyond the hot woman on the dance floor) and give you a smart dose of tongue-in-cheek reality.

 

We have all seen viral mechanics where you can play director with a piece of creative and then share it with your buddies. So when you see another there is an initial reaction of, "here we go again." Though nothing new in structure, this piece gets it right -- "right" in user experience, and "right" in executing the hell out of it.

 

The user experience and interactivity is so spot-on, so simple, so easy; every click and interaction responds the way you expect, and the user interface is so clear and in front of you from the start with no time wasted with splash screens. The other thing that went on with these two pieces is EVB was able to select appropriate footage from the TV footage, and it also shot the footage for the parody site. That sounds simple, but it happens so rarely that I give the Old Spice team great kudos for getting this right.

 

Of course it is all helped by first-rate content, a good director and a good DP -- and some good casting. And lastly I have to give a huge compliment to the brand and agency for lampooning their own piece. Turning When She's Hot into When You Stink is brilliant. It almost hijacks the brand, but in the end it probably builds even greater credibility, and a lot more memorability.

-- Glen Sheehan, creative director, Wunderman