What do Old Spice and the maritime sector have in common?

The Old Spice man owned the Internet in July. What? You don't know what we are talking about? Just take a look at the viral videos that went wild last month.

Old Spice upped their game. The product, known mostly as our father's fragrance, became relevant and edgy again (shucks, for the first time ever). So what does this have to do with shipping or Amver? Quite a bit really.

Take a look at Shipserv. These folks promote the maritime sector. They offer a range of services and even have resources for other maritime marketers. Ryan Skinner has written about an upcoming Lloyd's List project to help raise the image of shipping. Lloyd's List even launched their own "blog" encouraging mariners to write in and share their stories. We even took a stab at trying to raise the view of shipping with an I Amver video project (which was wildly unsuccessful).

Can the maritime sector launch a campaign that raises the game, goes viral, or tells the story of the maritime sector that resonates with the general population? It's hard to say. The gCaptain forums is certainly very successful, as is the Maritime Executive LinkedIn group that Brett Keil started within the last several years. One of the most successful maritime related Internet pieces was Mario Vittone's blog post about drowning which has crossed from the maritime sector to almost every other niche on the Internet. It was so popular the gCaptain servers crashed!

So what do Old Spice and the shipping sector have in common? They are both established brands, arguably somewhat stale (more so the maritime sector now that Old Spice has raised the bar in advertising). Can we come up with something catchy, viral, and fun that is still professional and will show the rest of the world what the maritime sector is all about?

You tell us.

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