Branded Entertainment is a prevalent form of communication in the US, although it has been underutilized in sports culture, particularly when it comes to the NFL; The NFL continues to be the the number one sports property in the US with over 200 million unique viewers during the 2014 season. Old Spice saw the opportunity to drive deeper brand engagement with the NFL fanbase, creating content that would be a part of sports culture.

Following the launch of our Smell like a man from head to toes TV campaign, which introduced Old Spice’s highly intelligent and equally awkward Robot, we released 4th and Touchdown – a sports talk show web series hosted by the Old Spice Robot in partnership with the NFL. Knowing that young guys seek out football-related content during the NFL season, we created content that would bring the Old Spice brand to football fans to increase brand engagement and brand love, and further convince young guys that when they use Old Spice products together, they can smell great from head to toe.

Each episode of 4th and Touchdown was promoted via Old Spice and NFL owned channels and media properties. We leveraged the social handles of the NFL players that were interviewed in the web series to reach player fans directly via social media and we enabled a conversation between fans and players by facilitating a Reddit AMA (“ask me anything”) forum. By combining a paid and social media approach to targeting guys, we were able to successfully reach and engage NFL fans across the country.

The work amassed over 1.5MM views and got people engage in ways never seen before within the NFL environment. On average, people engaged with the Mandroid’s interviews for 2.4 minutes; which is impressive when you take into account how short people’s attention spans are these days at watching YouTube videos.

What makes this entry distinctive is that Old Spice was able to take a character that was established over the summer via a TV campaign, the Old Spice Robot aka “Mandroid,” and immerse it into football culture over the NFL season by creating branded content that was released on a weekly basis to NFL fans.

Ultimately, Old Spice challenged the traditional fashion of creating and delivering branded messages in order to remain relevant with an easily bored audience. Every week, a new ‘interview’ was uploaded to Youtube and promoted through NFL properties, allowing Old Spice to keep fans engaged and entertained week after week.