Old Spice - Stop trying

Old Spice have created another ad, as seen below.
To state the obvious the ad has no purpose, does not make sense and cannot possibly reclaim the fame of bygone ads. Are Wieden+Kennedy losing their touch?
Enough said.

Here's is their latest one, rather than working on something good they are just churning them out

Seriously Old Spice, stop trying too hard.

The return of the Old Spice Man

Ok so I like Will Arnett...most of the time and I can understand times are a bit tough with some of his recent ventures not doing all that great, but when I see an ad where you have a smart, wise-cracking guy telling you what to do I only think of one thing and that's the Old Spice Man. To be fair this may not be intended, either that or Old Spice did just so well that it is has been ingrained in my sub-conscious, in fact they did so well they can't live up to it themselves!
But coming back on track...When i saw this ad for AT&T all I could do was compare it to Old Spice (sorry AT&T).

But on the bright side Isaiah Mustafa is back!! Even if it's only for a Christmas campaign :-D
Are Old Spice in need of so much help that they had to bring him back? I'm not complaining, being an obvious fan, but it might help do the brand some good after their last couple of failures, would it be too much to hope that they actually keep him this time?

Puss in Boots & Successful Branding

I have blogged a lot about the Old Spice guy and my total adoration for the concept and the ads, just to be clear the ones featuring Isiah Mustafa. So when Puss in Boots spoofed the idea to promote the movie, how could I not just love it??
Puss and Old Spice guy have so much in common, the cockiness, the attitude and the fact that most women just adore them. The idea is simple promote the character without actually promoting the movie, the spoof 'trailer' sells itself.
It's one of the few copies of the concept that have actually been successful, it's simple and sticks to the main selling point isn't that what branding is all about?

Ads: What were they thinking?!

Ok so when I saw these ads i was literally like what were people thinking?!

The first one was for LG's new oven which is to be 6 times hotter... so the ad depicts a cow being slaughtered by lil demons I think possibly in hell...and I get what they are trying to go with here about the efficiency of the oven, with 'hell' being a metaphor for the oven etc. but all I can think about is poor cow...i mean honestly what the cow do right? Even though it may be an artistic representation the cow definitely does not look happy, so it kind of detracts from the ad's effectiveness.

The second one is a Nissan ad in Brazil and it has ponies....yes that's right ponies, which look like right out of 'My Little Pony & Friends', and while for most of the ad I was like aww I could see where they were coming from and what they wanted to accomplish. The reason why this ad gets the WTF?! is because of the ending... it leaves you a bit dazed. People who are familiar with YouTube virals would find a striking similarity to the 'Nyan Cat'viral which got an insane number of hits, and I'm not quite why...so were Nissan planning to re-creating the success? I'm not sure but I don't think it hit the mark.

And finally I have to give a special mention to Old Spice. Their latest efforts involved a sailor who smelt surprisingly very good. Maybe it's just me but their ads are beginning to look a  little cliche. A word of advice stop trying to copy yourselves and come up with something original, the "Man your man could smell like" was great, but it's time to move on to newer and possibly better things. 

The new face of Old Spice

Here's the story Old Spice wanted to recruit a new face for their Old Spice campaign, they tried and failed.\

Why? Isaiah Mustafa was simply amazing! he had looks, charm, charisma and style, how can anyone top that?

And it's not like P&G haven't tried...twice! the latest venture being with Fabio as the new face, of course is the "duel"or "face-off" between the two models, Fabio lost, no surprises there. I'm not quite sure what the point of it was, maybe just a publicity stunt to maximize their use of Mustafa before he moves on to other things. Of course P&G would need a new face but why try the same campaign? A new one would be much better and more successful rather than just replacing a face. It would be new, fresh and exciting and does not give people a comparison base such as Mustafa which would be hard to beat. 

Copycat Branding

Pepsi has been in the news for its latest part in the cola wars, the Pay-it-Forward vending machine. The concept and technology behind it is quite novel and could possibly be the first in a long line of socially networked and interactive vending machines. The way it works is simple, you can choose a beverage, put in the contact details of a friend and they are notified of a drink redeemable at a vending machine of their convenience. It's about spreading the love and getting real people to act voluntarily as brand ambassadors..plus who would want to pass up on a free drink?? This campaign would involve a large expense on behalf of Pepsi, but overall is reminiscent of Coca-Cola's happiness campaign and their Happiness machines whose main aim is to encourage social interaction and bonding over the drink. This has been a long running aspect of their campaign and the happiness machine is a logical extension of it, but it would be interesting to watch how Pepsi develops their campaign further and the success rate of the machines, and how will Coca-Cola retaliate?

Pushing the boundaries of imitation is the new commercial of Edge shaving gel, and its eerie likeness to the Old Spice Isiah Mustafa campaign. It's hard to find a good video of it and this is the best i could do.

But it's one thing to seek inspiration and another to blatantly copy...what does a brand achieve out of that? The goals, ideology and style are completely different, even if the product may be similar the budget would have been better spent on developing the brand further and in creating a unique identity..enough said.

Lately it seems to me, most car brands have been adopting the word 'innovation' into their advertising, with Citroen - "celebrating innovation" following closely behind, Nissan's - "Innovation for all". If all brands are innovative..isn't that just the norm then?

Brand Essence in Advertising

The message a brand tries to convey is the essence of what the brand is all about. I recently saw a Pampers ad which reflected the current position of the company. Initially, their advertising centered on a functional positioning, the new ad 'For every little miracle' tugs on your heart strings and has a decided emotional appeal which reflects the evolution of the brand especially in a very competitive market where you got to have more than just a functional edge, combined with Pampers well recognized name within the industry it would help in getting a leg up in the market.

Another advert which captured the brand essence beautifully was the new ad for the new VW beetle, 'Black  Beetle'. Its zippy, fast, kinda cute, and overall quite appealing, just like the new 2012 Beetle.

A great example of this is the Old Spice campaign. I have talked about it before, and the sheer loveliness of it, their new ad, with a new spokesman, while similar is just not quite the same. Somehow I feel that by copying it and trying to be similar the magic of it is missing, are they trying too hard?? is it too much to say bring back Isaiah Mustafa!

What is refreshing to see is a brand actually being critical of itself and its efforts to be environmentally responsible. I am talking about Starbucks and their critique of themselves for Earth Day. Through their advertising they hope to encourage their customers in participating with their recycling initiatives, in a win - win situation. 

A good way to measure up on how committed a brand is to the environment, would be to read the article "The 7 stage evolution of a socially responsible brand" by Simon Mainwaring, in which he highlights the seven stages a brand goes through to become socially responsible. Its a good tool to be used in measuring where on the ladder of responsibility a brand is. 

On a related note, the Nissan Leaf seems to be having some supply issues. Besides the States, the car is also available in Japan and Europe, but unfortunately production has not been able to keep up. Ideally it would have made more sense to launch the car in one country at a time, establish a strong base, satisfy demand, while steadily increasing promotion in other countries, or at least have a strong production base before having to face such issues, which only reflects poorly on the brand. This combined with increasing competition from the Volt and other brands, the Leaf is going to find itself in a tight spot.