axe versus old spice - · pdf fileaxe$versus$oldspice$ acomparativeanalysis,published3/21/13$...
TRANSCRIPT
Axe Versus Old Spice A Comparative Analysis, Published 3/21/13
Steffan Pedersen
Company Contact Information: Axe, Unilever, HQ Rotterdam, Netherlands, 1-‐800-‐450-‐7580 Old Spice, Proctor & Gamble, HQ Cincinnati, Ohio, 1-‐800-‐677-‐7582
1
Table of Contents Executive Summary .................................................................................. 2
Brief Overview and Current States ........................................................... 2
Comparative Evaluation of Social Presence .............................................. 3
Comparative Evaluation by Social Platform ............................................. 4
Comparative Social Media Maturity ......................................................... 6
Conclusion ............................................................................................... 7
2
Executive Summary In the past, executives did not believe in the ROI of social media campaigns. This is very much the opposite today as companies are realizing how necessary, and profitable, it is to have a presence wherever deemed appropriate. Social media marketing builds relationships through driving engagement and utilizing two-‐way communication with the audience. Having a well-‐tailored strategy to match your target market will result in increased awareness and loyalty, being reflected through increased revenue. In this document I plan on proving to you the ways in which Old Spice prevails against its rival, Axe Body Spray, in their social media battle. I will build my argument through observations made on social platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, and through the utilization of tools like SocialMention.com to gauge strength, sentiment, and passion. User comments across the web also proved a significant source of information and will be discussed. Engagement with a target audience is ultimately the goal of a social media campaign, and I aim to illustrate how Old Spice excels in ways that Axe does not.
Brief Overview and Current States Axe, also known as Lynx in the UK/Ireland/Australia/New Zealand, is a consumer goods brand owned by Unilever who created it in 1983. The Axe brand includes their famous body spray deodorants along with various stick deodorants, shampoos, conditioners, facial cleansers, shaving creams, lotions, and body washes. Some may consider Axe a front-‐runner and innovator in the production of their entertaining commercials and brand, but their tricks are now commonly used throughout the market. Currently, Unilever runs more than 400 brands, with approximately 171,000 employees and 2012 revenues of $51.32 billion. This shows Unilever running a larger number of brands than Proctor & Gamble, and with smaller profits, reflecting that maybe Unilever cannot put the same emphasis on Axe that P&G can on Old Spice. Furthermore, the Axe brand has seen some recent setbacks, first being criticized that their marketing tactics were “only about getting girls”, and recently a PR controversy claiming that the sexist and degrading commercials undermine young girls’ healthy development. The Old Spice brand was founded in 1934 by the Shulton Company, but was then purchased in 1990 by Proctor & Gamble. It began as primarily shaving soaps and aftershaves for men but then expanded to similar product mixes we see in Axe. Their staple product has always been the buoy shaped glass bottle of cologne with the trademark sailboat logo on the front. Recently, Old Spice has moved away from glass bottles to plastic, and has become the benchmark for which companies compare their social media marketing tactics. Currently, Proctor & Gamble runs over 300 brands, employing approximately 126,000 people with 2012 revenues around $83.68 billion. These records may show a larger abundance of money from which Old Spice can allocate to advertisements and celebrity endorsements, as
3
compared to Axe. Also, with fewer brands and less employees P&G has the ability to be more specialized and spend more time with each brand. Both Axe and Old Spice have been very responsive in the technological transition to social media marketing. Both have thrown together wildly successful campaigns, and both know exactly to whom they are catering (Axe targeting the younger teenage male demographic and Old Spice just males). Using the website SocialMention.com I will compare and contrast the social metrics that this site compiles. Before I get into the data in the following section I’d like to layout what the terms mean. Strength shows the likelihood that the brand is being talked about on the social web. Sentiment illustrates the ratio of generally positive to generally negative comments on the social web. Passion demonstrates the likelihood that people who talk about the brand online will do so repeatedly. And finally, reach/influence encompasses the number of unique individuals talking about the brand divided by the number of mentions. The metrics were recorded consistently from January 22nd to March 19th and averaged to give the most accurate depictions.
Comparative Evaluation of Social Presence
The numbers above are representative of around two months worth of sampling. Without any explanation, it is already easy to see that Old Spice dominates these metrics. In terms of strength, it is clear that Old Spice is being talked about more frequently online than Axe. Their campaigns reflect this fact, as they curate and create videos/content that must be sought out online. Once a person is online looking at the video, engagement is the easy part as every video instantly has hundreds of comments and conversations flowing. The same cannot be said about Axe, whose older videos were among their most viewed, and new campaigns aren’t catching on as well. Next is sentiment. Old Spice has a high degree of sentiment compared to Axe, receiving generally more than twice as many positive to negative comments. While browsing Social Mention’s comments section I noticed that these numbers hold true to their meaning. Axe generally had comments mimicking its slogans and saying how nasty the sprays are (a frequent “top hashtag” was #justvomitedinmymouth). Opposite this, Old Spice’s comments were typically funny reviews/quotes of videos or statements claiming to be impressed by Old Spice’s creativity and strategy. Old Spice’s campaigns have been so impressive that “Mashablecom” (a name given to the infamous social media blog Mashable) was a consistent “top user” listed on Social Mention’s site. Whether sharing the newest
Axe Old Spice Strength 17% 29% Sentiment 3:1 7:1 Passion 15% 21%
Reach/Influence 48% 73%
4
video uploaded by Old Spice, or discussing tactics that every company should use, the words “old” and “spice” appear everywhere online! The next measure is passion. Old Spice had more passionate publishers, showing that they are more likely to repeatedly talk about the brand online than Axe fans. To me, this correlates as being an “apostle” or loyal customer. It is important to strive for publishers who continue to write about your brand, so this is yet again a category Old Spice wins. The last metrics observed from Social Mention are the brands’ reach/influence. Old Spice has nearly twice the reach/influence of Axe which shows how much more broad of an audience Old Spice has. The reach is nearly twice as large, meaning that the Old Spice brand influences nearly twice as many people. I would like to briefly get into the other valuable information Social Mention had to offer before moving on. In the “top keywords” results that were given, Axe usually had random words that somehow would channel people to the Axe content such as Assassin’s creed, game, body, spray, video, or commercial. Old Spice’s top keywords were much more specific, including Terry, Crews, spice, deodorant, Jennings, Greg, or WolfDog. It seems like people sought after the Old Spice content but just ended up somehow on the Axe content. (Axe promotes some of their content; i.e. on Twitter, Wal-‐Mart had a promoted tweet about buying Axe shaving cream, so this could be how most find their videos.) But I believe the most interesting findings on Social Mention come from the compiled comments and tweets. Here is a table showing the contrast between the two. Axe Old Spice If you smell Axe on your lawyer, you’re going to jail.
You’re messing up if you’re not using Old Spice.
I don’t wear Axe because I’m not a douche.
I feel like I could be that Old Spice model after using their body wash.
Never wear it! Old Spice is getting creative. People still wear that stuff? Grow up and get a real scent!
My life is just like the Old Spice commercials.
It’s a female repellent. The new Mr. WolfDog commercials rock! One remarkable comment I noted was from the influential website Adpressive.com who share impressive ads and viral videos for our browsing pleasure. They blogged that “the Google Hangout with Mr. WolfDog was impressive and worth the 20 minutes”.
Comparative Evaluation by Social Platform I will now go on to compare the two brands on their performance on social websites; we’ll start with Facebook. Facebook has become the world’s largest social site, with over 1.06 billion registered users, so it goes without saying that every brand needs to be on Facebook. How they choose to manage themselves, however, is
5
a different story. Companies can agitate their “fans” through endless request notifications, pointless contests, begging for likes, etc. But if proper engagement is created, the possibilities for ROI on Facebook are endless. Old Spice chose to engage by just pushing information onto the page and letting fans do the talking. Witty comments and comedic posts go along with their pictures and videos and do not beg for any type of interaction. Axe, however, would write “’like this’ if _______” or “what is your favorite YouTube channel?” Also Axe’s comments and captions had insane amounts of CAPS LOCK and exaggeratedddd consonants, which caused it to lose credibility in my opinion. Axe did excel in post ownership and responsiveness over Old Spice however. Each Axe post (also on Twitter and their blog) was published by either “Rocky” or “Law”, and furthermore they replied to every single post on their wall. I was impressed they took the time to create this connection, as nothing of the sort is seen on Old Spice’s page. Here is a table demonstrating some more information regarding the brands’ Facebook campaigns.
Axe Old Spice Frequency/Cadence 1-‐2 posts a day Multiple daily posts,
but also up to 6 days with no posts
Page Likes 3,004,449 2,393,200 Average # of comments/likes
per post Comments: 100-‐
1,600 Likes: 700-‐15,000
Comments: 400-‐1,200 Likes: 500-‐23,000
The next social website I will discuss is Twitter; which houses 500 million total users and growing. Although Twitter is new to most people, it is in some ways more powerful than Facebook. The hashtag has become a revolutionary invention, instantly connecting anyone that just types the same words after a pound symbol. Old Spice (@OldSpice) posts many times a day, but that’s because they connect with their fans here rather than how Axe (@AXE) does it on Facebook. Twitter is a much better handle for answering questions directly and having a flowing conversation. In terms of content published, Old Spice tweets witty remarks and links to pictures/videos, whereas Axe tweets meme pictures and enjoys utilizing trending topics/hashtags. As you can see in the table below, Old Spice dominated in followers, which is incredible given they tweet about a quarter as much. To me, this shows their newly gained popularity (~last 5-‐10 years) in that they have a much greater following over Axe on Twitter compared to Facebook. This may also be because in a Twitter feed you are actively reading and looking forward to seeing what your connections say, whereas on Facebook you may click “like” and care less about what they post. Another interesting note—on Twitter both brands seem to be testing other social sites to see if they will catch on. In particular, Old Spice tweets Pinterest shares and Axe tweets Vine images, and they can both be seen promoting their respected Instagram accounts.
6
Axe Old Spice Tweets 13,976 3,271 Following 321 1,036 Followers 89,944 219,472 The final outlet I will discuss is YouTube, which boasts 800 million users and over 4 billion views per day. So if videos (commercials) are a big part of your advertising, YouTube is the ideal place for your company. Both brands used themes relevant to their current campaigns that also highlight upcoming product lines. For Old Spice this is their “Answer the Smell of the Wild” line that Mr. WolfDog is a part of, and for Axe the theme is “Axe Face Score” showing off their new line of face scrubs/shaving creams. I was impressed by Axe who created interactive videos where you choose which product the main character uses and that takes you to another video showing the results of picking that one. This is engaging and entertaining, to an extent, but I still feel Old Spice’s endless playlists of viral videos are unbeatable. A huge percentage of Old Spice’s videos were in the millions of views, whereas Axe had many videos struggling to reach 100,000. Axe Old Spice Subscribers 20,103 325,105 Page Views 26 million 230 million Most Viewed Video (#) 7.2 million 44 million Date Joined 2005 2006
Comparative Social Media Maturity The comparison in this section is especially interesting to me. In my opinion being able to adapt and evolve your brand is an expertise that proves vital in any business model or campaign. Maturity comes when a brand has mastered its audience and has become a benchmark for other companies. Social media maturity translates into a brand being at the pinnacle of their overall efforts, a spot well deserved. Old Spice has indeed raised the bar en route to their social media maturity. The use of celebrity endorsements has been wisely chosen and carefully dissociated from on their way to a new campaign. Old Spice’s campaigns always leave people asking for more, a tricky concept to implement. Also, after browsing all of their web pages, the integration is shocking. Everything from their personal website, to their Facebook cover picture, to their YouTube theme is integrated seamlessly. Colors, wording, layout, links, videos, etc. are all laid out in a way that is easy to navigate and fun to look at. Furthermore, the trademark Old Spice whistle jingle is the epitome of a successful campaign. Anyone that can get a whistle jingle stuck in my head for days on end is a winner in my book. Now Old Spice is moving on to differentiation and surprising us with the startling characters we see today. A nontraditional YouTube
7
interview with Dr. WolfDog was wildly successful, as well as the Google Hangout. Mel Peck states:
The whole campaign is exactly what we’ve come to expect from the brand: brilliantly tongue in cheek, self-‐referential and full of the kind of viral hooks that the Internet loves. … and as expected there’s a big, integrated social media push behind this ad. … he’s commandeered its official Facebook and Twitter feeds… (thedrum.com)
The WolfDog who took over as Marketing Director for a week is now gone as quickly as he arrived, leaving people anxiously anticipating the next spokesperson. Axe does have integration and consistency across pages, but don’t seem to have the concepts that catch on quite like Old Spice does. I believe Axe is in a stage of post-‐maturity, as they may have had a greater following before Old Spice’s recent successes took over the viral entertainment spot. With today’s generation, however, maturity may be tough to judge as just one campaign, or even one video, can send you skyrocketing back to the top.
Conclusion In conclusion, I believe Old Spice is winning this battle and has a higher maturity level because of their integration, differentiation, and spontaneity. They understand the balance between obnoxious and humorous, and seem to continue publishing viral hooks and phrases that their audience cannot get enough of. The target demographics for Old Spice are flocking to their pages and discussing the videos everywhere; soon enough people will forget Axe even existed if Axe does not step up. Axe is at a critical crossroads and needs to do something to stay competitive. They could catch up by creating more witty and viral commercials, and by changing their style. I don’t think the way Rocky and Law represent Axe on Facebook is effective. If Axe ran a campaign like Dorito’s, asking fans to submit their own viral videos to become a commercial, I believe they could gain ground on Old Spice. Likewise, if Old Spice added a campaign of this sort, I think they could pull away. Finally, if Old Spice added interactive content, like Axe’s YouTube, I believe they may have the ability to pull even further ahead. Overall, I believe Old Spice has more opportunities to pull ahead than Axe does to catch up. Congratulations to Old Spice on this victory. Well deserved.