New Tricks from Old Spice on Social Media

So you’d like to know how to create a viral campaign to increase your brand’s visibility?  Well, besides how to smell like a real man, you could learn a few things from the Old Spice guy. 

• 122+ million total upload views (and growing) on YouTube
• The #1 most viewed channel this month
• The #2 most subscribed sponsor channel of all time
• 747,000+ Facebook Page “likes”
• 2,550% growth in Twitter followers (+ 85,272) in just 6 days

In true Old Spice style they took the bull by the horns and rode off on a raging campaign.

It was truly genius on so many levels:

• the writing
• the acting
• the “real-time” turn-around time
• the way they prioritized who they responded to based on their level of influence
• the simple (yet unprecedented) idea to create video responses to the wall posts and @mentions on Facebook and Twitter.

Brands have been interacting with and responding to their fans on Facebook and Twitter for awhile now.  So there is nothing new there.  But Old Spice really brought a new interpretation to the use of social media, including:

• engaging and communicating with brand enthusiasts
• encouraging influential supporters to spread their message
• increasing brand exposure and recognition
• creating brand loyalty

If I received a video from the Old Spice guy directed at me, I would HAVE to tell everyone I know about it.  So it is no coincidence that the marketing team chose to respond to celebrities and influential people with large friend followings.  For each of the 180+ videos that were specifically made for someone, that someone turned around and shared with their networks of hundreds, thousands, and (in some cases) millions of people.  You don’t even need to do the math to know that = viral = massive exposure.

How Did They Do It?

It all took place over the course of 48 hours and with a small team including:

• Social media experts
• Comedic script writers
• Technical team including filming and editing crew
• Actor Isaiah Mustafa
• A handful of props for reoccurring use to keep the messaging on-point and consistent

Prior to the filming day, the social media experts initiated the conversation by prompting their followers on various social networks to ask the Old Spice guy questions.  They also set up a system to pull in a stream of real-time comments from across the internet so they could quickly monitor and evaluate which comments created the most opportunity for response.  Below is a graphic showing the work flow.

How Successful Was It?

The campaign was obviously successful in its reach, but did that translate to sales?

While it’s been only 2 1/2 weeks since the viral campaign, sales have risen 107% in this past month, as reported by Brandweek based on data from Nielson.  Prior to that, sales had risen 55% over the past three month, most likely the influence of the original TV ad.  Proctor & Gamble also reports Old Spice to be #1 in both sales and volume for body wash and deodorant.

Now the question will be whether the product can sustain it’s market share over time.