Rejuvenating a stagnated brand the P&G way - Old Spice

Today I had the great privilege of attending the DLF event 'Innovation & Successful Product Launches' held at Rival hotel in Stockholm. I must say that I was very impressed by the quality and variety of the presentations held during the day - so great work DLF team!

One particular fun part was the 'Old Spice' story told by Tony Durham of P&G. So why not sharing it with you? For me it's a fantastic story of how to use insights to rejuvenate a rather stale and boring old brand, that many consumers had forgotten about. P&G follow a first class innovation process of identifying great insights, and then acting on those. In the case of 'Old Spice' their insight was that "women buy female scented shower gels for their husbands" i.e. most guys walk around smelling of female fragrance... This insight was utilised as a startpoint for a new brand and communication platform for 'Old Spice' and the result was this creative communication featuring the 'Old Spice man'.


The focus on the communication was viral. Apparently the ad was placed on Youtube and via twitter and youtube it was spread with a speed that is nothing but incredibly impressive. I'm not sure I believe this figures myself... but Tony did say that the ad had 23m views within 26hours, and 200m views today on Youtube. Incredible! I'm an awe.... Of course the activities were linked to an Old Spice website and instore activities.

The 'Old Spice Man' since became a real cult and a persona was developed who interacts with its followers. A fun way of interacting was by creating 'Personal adverts' to respond to consumer questions or requests. A particularly fun request was the 'Marriage Proposal' request that Tony also shared during his speech. See this one below as well.


This P&G example is a creative and innovative way of breaking the rules and using insight to rejuvenate a brand that has somewhat become stale been forgotten. I hope you enjoyed this story.

Clever awareness building and product trial tactics - Mutti tomatoketchup

Just yesterday I wrote about the Middagsfrid offer, and me for the first time trialing their offer of (hopefully) stress free mid-week dinner solutions. The load of groceries and recipes arrived today and I was delighted not to have to think up anything to have for dinner this week. What a saviour!

A thing that surprised me though was the Mutti tomatoketchup in the load... I scanned the recipes to see where it ketchup was needed but saw nothing...Well, when turning the recipe page there was a short little notice of 'This weeks Bonus product'. This was of course the Mutti ketchup. There we had the answer, and a clever trick of Mutti and other brands to reach the Middagsfrid target group of time-starved city folks. Great way to reach out to new users through a tactic that will delight and surprise. I already look forward to receive the next 'Bonus'.

The Swedish version of online food shopping - Dinner Solution Shopping

When I lived in the UK I was a keen online grocery shopper with Sainsburys. It was great to be able to avoid the crowds in the supermarket for a mere 5 pounds delivery charge per week. Online food shopping saved me a lot of time and frustration. Online grocery shopping in Sweden is not as developed as in the UK, so these days I'm spending a few frustrated hours in the grocery store most weekends. However, in Sweden another food service solution is growing strongly. 'Dinner solutions deliveries' are all you need one per week pack of ingredients and recipes (for 5 or 3 dinners per week) delivered to your door through the likes of Middagsfrid and Linas Matkasse.

These companies sell pre-planned dinner solutions for time-starved Swedes. This has been a recipe of success so far as customers only popped up just a few years ago, but now have thousands of customers across the big city regions of Sweden. The customer benefit is dinner planning and dinner shopping in a very simple way. And the solution also offers healthy and new taste experiences on the dinner table, also during weekdays when most people don't have the time or the energy to plan their dinners in detail.

I've finally signed up as a customer of Middagsfrid and from next week I look forward to trying their offer of dinner solutions. The only problem for me is that I still have to cook... I'm not the most enthusiastic cook during the week when I'm tired after a long day at work. But what I do look forward to experience are new kinds of taste experiences, new inspiration and new kinds of food on the dinner table.

I'm convinced that the need for ready food solutions, ready dinner-kits and simple food solutions are going to grow more and more in Sweden. And look forward to following the service innovations within this field over the coming years, whilst hopefully trying many of them personally as well.

Snickers satisfies - strong new communication platform anchored in target group and need state

 It was my hubby who first commented on the greatness of this commercial. It's not often that he says 'loved that!' about ads so this time it really made me reflect on the greatness of the new Snickers communication concept. What is it that makes it so great and spot on? I would like to point to three things:

1. Snickers knows its target group
The bulls-eye communications target of Snickers is clearly men aged something around 25-35 years old. Guys who are adults but still non committed. Active guys who enjoy sports and a having a banter with their mates.

Snickers have clearly done their homework and anchored the brand to a target group. This is good, sophisticated marketing practice.

2. Snickers have anchored the brand to a consumer need - satisfying hunger, filling you up
The recent ads from Snickers are so spot on because they are relevant. We all recognise the situations when our blood sugar levels are low and we need to fill up with something to keep us going and avoid getting grumpy or irritated. Identifying the needstate where there's potential to anchor a brand like Snickers have done give you potential to gather fantastic and deep emotive insights onto which one can then build strong communication concepts. The team behind Snickers have done their homework well.

3. Turning insights into Action - strengthened positioning and powerful Marcom concept
Last but not least. It takes a lot of work to turn insight into action and it takes a lot of creative skill to turn brand strategy and insights into great creative. The team behind Snickers deserve a bow. From a quick google search it appears to be top agency TBWA who should be proud of themselves. As well as the Snickers brand team of course.

My conclusion? Well, I do think that this work is some of the most spot on brand, insight and communication work I've seen in a long time. And I do think that this work will have a positive effect on global Snickers sales. I'm fairly sure my hubby will chew down a few...