Old Spice succeeded by repositioning a tired heritage brand around bold humour, distinctive character led advertising, and a willingness to take creative risks that competitors would not. It paired this with wide distribution, accessible pricing, and consistent brand voice, turning a product once associated with older men into one that younger buyers actively sought out.
Old Spice has been sold since 1937, making it one of the oldest grooming brands still trading today. For decades it was seen as a scent bought by fathers and grandfathers, a brand with little relevance to younger buyers. Then, from the late 2000s onwards, Old Spice reinvented itself through advertising, packaging, and product strategy, becoming one of the most studied marketing turnarounds in modern business. For entrepreneurs and business owners, Old Spice offers a rare example of a legacy brand successfully repositioning itself without losing its identity, using creativity and consistency rather than simply outspending rivals.
Repositioning an old brand for a new audience
By the early 2000s, Old Spice carried a reputation as a brand for older men, something bought as a gift rather than chosen by younger buyers themselves. Rather than launching a new brand to chase a younger audience, Procter and Gamble, which owns Old Spice, chose to reposition the existing brand. This meant new advertising, new product formats, and a tone that deliberately broke from the brand's traditional image, while keeping the name and heritage intact.
How to apply this to your business: Do not assume an ageing or unfashionable brand needs to be replaced. Look at what still has value in your existing name and reputation, then change the tone, packaging, or messaging around it rather than starting from zero. Repositioning is often cheaper and faster than rebuilding trust from scratch.
The Super Bowl launch as a big bang moment
In 2010, Old Spice used the Super Bowl, one of the most watched television events in the United States, to launch its now famous "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" campaign from advertising agency Wieden and Kennedy. Airing during this event guaranteed a huge, concentrated audience for the new creative direction, giving the campaign an immediate cultural footprint rather than a slow build.
How to apply this to your business: You do not need Super Bowl level budgets, but you can apply the same principle by concentrating your marketing spend and effort around one high visibility moment, such as a trade event, seasonal peak, or product launch, rather than spreading it thinly across the year.
Real time engagement that turned advertising into conversation
Following the success of the original campaign, Old Spice and Wieden and Kennedy created a follow up in which actor Isaiah Mustafa filmed short personalised video responses to comments and questions from the public on social media, posted over a short, intense period. This turned a one way advertisement into a two way exchange, with ordinary members of the public, celebrities, and journalists receiving direct video replies.
How to apply this to your business: Respond publicly and personally to customers on social media rather than relying only on scheduled posts. A short, genuine reply to a real comment often builds more goodwill and attention than a polished advert, and it costs nothing beyond time.
A consistent, recognisable brand voice
Since the 2010 relaunch, Old Spice advertising has kept a consistent tone across very different campaigns and years, built on absurdist humour, exaggerated confidence, and a wink to the audience that it is not to be taken too seriously. Whether the campaign features Isaiah Mustafa, Terry Crews, or newer faces, the humour and pacing remain recognisably Old Spice.
How to apply this to your business: Decide on a tone for your brand, whether that is playful, serious, or reassuring, and apply it consistently across every advert, email, and social post. Customers build familiarity and trust through repetition of tone, not just repetition of logo or colour.
Distinctive packaging that stands out on shelf
Old Spice products use bold red and white colouring with clear, simple typography that is easy to spot on a crowded supermarket or drugstore shelf, where dozens of competing deodorants and body washes sit side by side. This visual consistency has been maintained even as the product range and advertising tone have changed considerably.
How to apply this to your business: Choose simple, bold visual cues for your packaging or storefront that remain consistent over time, even as your product range grows. A shopper should be able to recognise your product from a distance without reading the label closely.
Broad distribution and accessible pricing
Old Spice is priced as a mass market product and sold widely through supermarkets, drugstores, and large retailers rather than positioned as a premium or niche brand. This keeps the barrier to trial low, meaning a curious buyer can pick it up on a regular shopping trip without needing to seek out a specialist retailer or pay a premium price.
How to apply this to your business: Match your pricing and distribution to the buying habits of your target customer. If you want high volume, low friction sales, make your product easy to find and simple to justify buying on impulse, rather than restricting it to premium channels.
Naming and expanding the product line
Old Spice built out its range with distinctive scent names such as Swagger, Bearglove, Wolfthorn, and Timber, giving each variant its own identity within the wider brand. This gave customers a reason to try multiple products and talk about favourites, rather than treating the brand as a single, undifferentiated item.
How to apply this to your business: If you sell variations of a core product, give each one a distinct, memorable name rather than a plain numbered or descriptive label. This encourages customers to develop preferences and talk about your products by name, which supports word of mouth.
Character led advertising over generic claims
Rather than focusing adverts purely on product ingredients or functional benefits, Old Spice built campaigns around memorable characters, most notably Isaiah Mustafa in the original viral campaign and Terry Crews in later "Muscle Music" style adverts. These characters became shorthand for the brand itself, discussed and shared independently of the product being sold.
How to apply this to your business: Consider building a recognisable character, presenter, or mascot into your marketing rather than relying solely on product features. A strong character gives journalists, customers, and social media users something memorable to share and reference.
Targeting the actual purchasing decision maker
Much of Old Spice's advertising, including the original "Your Man" campaign, was deliberately written to appeal to women, since research and household buying patterns suggested that women often purchased grooming products for the men in their lives. The campaign addressed this audience directly and knowingly, while still remaining entertaining to the men who would eventually use the product.
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How to apply this to your business: Identify who actually makes the purchasing decision for your product, which is not always the end user. Direct your messaging towards that decision maker specifically, rather than assuming the user and the buyer are always the same person.
Early and confident use of digital and social platforms
Old Spice treated YouTube and emerging social platforms as central to its campaigns rather than an afterthought to television advertising. The response video campaign in particular was built specifically for online distribution and interaction, at a time when many large brands still treated digital as a secondary channel to broadcast advertising.
How to apply this to your business: Treat digital platforms as a primary channel for creative ideas rather than a place to simply repost television style adverts. Test formats that are native to platforms like short video and direct reply, since these often outperform straightforward promotional content.
Sponsorships that reinforce cultural relevance
Old Spice has used sponsorship and partnership arrangements, including associations with major sports such as the NFL, to keep the brand visible within culturally relevant, high attention environments beyond its own advertising. This reinforces the brand's positioning around confidence, humour, and masculinity in a context its audience already pays attention to.
How to apply this to your business: Look for sponsorship or partnership opportunities, even small local ones such as sports clubs or community events, that align with your brand identity and put your name in front of your target audience in a setting they already care about.
Longevity through continual reinvention
Old Spice has existed since 1937 and has been owned by Procter and Gamble since 1990, yet it has avoided becoming irrelevant by repeatedly refreshing its advertising, product range, and tone while keeping its core identity intact. Each generation of campaigns has built on what came before rather than discarding the brand's history entirely.
How to apply this to your business: Review your brand and marketing every few years and be willing to refresh tone, packaging, or messaging as your audience changes, but avoid abandoning what customers already recognise and trust about you. Evolution, not constant reinvention from scratch, tends to protect long term brand equity.
Frequently asked questions
What made the Old Spice Super Bowl campaign so successful?
The campaign combined a large, guaranteed audience from the Super Bowl slot with a sharp change in tone from previous Old Spice advertising, built around confident, absurdist humour and a strong central character. This contrast made it stand out immediately and gave people a clear reason to talk about it and share it online.
Did Old Spice sales actually improve after the rebrand?
Reporting at the time indicated a significant increase in sales following the 2010 campaign and its follow up response videos, with Old Spice cited as one of the standout examples of a traditional brand successfully using digital and social content to drive commercial results, not just awareness.
Why did Old Spice focus advertising on women rather than men?
Household buying research suggested that women were frequently the ones purchasing grooming products for men in their household. By speaking directly to that audience while still entertaining men, Old Spice aimed to influence the actual point of purchase rather than only the end user of the product.
How did Old Spice keep its brand consistent across so many different campaigns?
Despite changing faces, formats, and platforms over the years, Old Spice has kept a consistent tone built on humour, confidence, and a degree of self aware absurdity, along with consistent visual branding on packaging. This consistency of tone and look has allowed the brand to refresh its advertising regularly without losing recognisability.
Can a small business really learn from a campaign backed by a company as large as Procter and Gamble?
The scale of the media spend is not the lesson here. The transferable ideas are repositioning an existing brand rather than starting over, keeping a consistent tone, engaging directly and personally with customers, and making distribution and pricing match how your audience actually shops, all of which are achievable at any budget level.
More marketing case studies
- BrewDog Marketing Strategy: How They Built a Brand That Wins
- Disney Marketing Strategy: How They Built a Brand That Wins
- Calendly Marketing Strategy: How They Built a Brand That Wins
Related reading: Beyond Meat Marketing Strategy: How They Built a Brand That Wins and Starbucks Marketing Strategy: How They Built a Brand That Wins.
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