Knocked It Out of the Park
By now everyone has heard about the Old Spice commercials. The Old Spice Guy has been around for awhile as a kind of hit sensation that people love to watch, but Proctor and Gamble took it to a whole new level this week. If you’ve been trying to figure out a way to make social media work for you, or wondering how it could work for anyone, well, look no further than Old Spice.
Last week, ex-football player Isaiah Mustafa appeared in videos on youtube aimed at specific users. He would create a video in answer to someone’s question on line.
“The Old Spice strategy makes brilliant use of social media,” said Augie Ray, an analyst with market research firm Forrester. “The response has been terrific. Social networks are buzzing. Video resharing has been very high, and the Old Spice YouTube channel now has 75 million total upload views. And this effort shows evidence of going even more viral.”
Basically this creative account demonstrated how to make viral videos. They should be whimsical, funny, short, and incorporate the ideas of your fanbase. Most of the videos actually didn’t display the product at all. They were stemmed from a successful ad campaign that was developed over time. A viral video doesn’t go viral on day 1. It takes a little bit of time to work its way into the public eye, and then it needs to be followed up on. In this case they created these videos and put out there that all you had to do, was have an interesting question for this leading man in a towel.
These videos utilized a number of video experts to produce 150 questions over the course of two days. This meant that a lot of control had to be given up by the powers that be in order for creativity to remain the most important aspect. Fans noticed this, and appreciated the effort and made it a successful campaign. Take note!
