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What To Take Away From the 'Old Spice Guy' Social Network Marketing Campaign
On February 4th, 2010, a charismatic manly man star was born. His name, Isaiah Mustafa, a 36 year old former Seattle Seahawks receiver, who would launch into international fame just after Super Bowl Sunday, as the half naked, towel wearing, ladies man, becoming the new Old Spice Guy. His first commercial "Feb 4th, 2010 - Old Spice: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" would rack up 3.5 million YouTube views in 2 weeks, and now present day, has over 15 million views.
"I just tried to create this lovable, oblivious [buffoon], who's a little bit smug," said Mustafa in a February interview with the LA Times. (Noting the LA times says he didn't really use the word "buffoon")
The first Old Spice video with Mustafa was shot in just 3 days, with 57 takes, and minimal special effects, by a team of 35 people, who worked 12 hours a day on the set.
Months later, following a plug from Oprah, and in the weeks leading up to the July 14th blitz, the Old Spice marketing team fabulously architected what would become a three-day social networking campaign effort that would excite social media fans, celebrities, and bloggers alike, launching Mustafa (pitching his manly Old Spice Red Zone After Hours Body Wash) into becoming a bona fide viral internet sensation.
From a marketing perspective, the Old Spice campaign, produced by Wieden + Kennedy for Proctor & Gamble, not only worked to re-ignite Old Spice brand awareness with an instantaneous appeal, but the execution of the campaign created a rapid social network buzz, as celebrities and everyday people began talking it up, while inspiring bloggers to cover the story, leading to a perfect storm of viral media coverage and publicity.
Although there is some debate about how impactful the three-day video campaign (combined with five months of post Super Bowl publicity) really was to lift Old Spice brand sales, just over a week since the Old Spice Guy filmed his YouTube goodbye, Mustafa's interactive Old Spice Guy video blitz is now considered to be one of the most successful viral video campaigns ever made.
Now marketers everywhere are thinking about how to duplicate the social network strategy for their own brands. With minimal costs to produce the episodic response videos, while utilizing the free leverage of millions of social networking eyes, Old Spice hit a grand slam.
The three-day Old Spice viral campaign numbers tell an impressive story. Between July 14th to July 16th, the Old Spice Guy marketing team filmed and uploaded over 180 video responses to YouTube. All together, the campaign has now resulted in an astounding 36+ million YouTube views, while Old Spice now boasts 91,000 followers on Twitter, and over 680,000 Facebook fans.
Even the U.S. government took note of the Old Spice viral campaign success, and has worked to identify the campaign's formula for success. A Washington Post blog "Adapting Old Spice Success to Government" cites four criteria government agencies can learn from the ads, which include: Speed, Planning, Talent and Trust.
After the hype fades, and we can easily reference over 180 Old Spice Guy videos on the Old Spice YouTube Channel for years to come, referencing images and soundbites that may last a lifetime, what can marketing savvy companies learn from the Old Spice Guy campaign? And, how can companies implement similar social network viral marketing techniques to grow their own business?
Well, there is much to learn, but here's the down and dirty.
The Old Spice videos quickly demonstrated to the marketing world how a creative, personable, and clever episodic video content marketing campaign, starring a charismatic, good looking, and confident sweet talker, interacting with multiple social networks in real time, could ignite a major internet sensation.
Yet, the Old Spice marketing team took the production and creative process several steps further, by capitalizing on the instantaneous wave of thousands of social media comments, from people who were quickly responding to the Old Spice Guy videos. Combined with marketing talent and writers on the set, working to quickly craft scripts for the video responses, the filming of new Old Spice Guy responses averaged 7 minutes for each video.
All said and done, the goal of such an impressive marketing effort is to of course, drive product sales. So just how did Old Spice product sales do? According to Time, "Red Zone After Hours body wash sales have fallen seven percent, despite the ads". But as Brand Channel points out, Media too Quick to Label Old Spice Man a Failure, "the 7% decline is taken out of context", and Old Spice body wash sales are up 55% in the last three months, and the "brand's products" are up a whopping 107% in the last month alone.
Whatever the true sales impact of the Old Spice Guy viral campaign turn out to be (and it will become clear soon enough), all good things come to and end, but will often live on in memory. Even though Mustafa's July 16th goodbye video has received over 3.2 million views so far, the Old Spice Guy campaign is still widely talked about, written about, and of course, watched, re-watched, and analyzed. And it will likely be for years to come.
Post internet viral success, Isaiah Mustafa, the handsome swagger talking Old Spice Guy has signed on to secure a talent deal with NBC, and is likely headed for even more success. Meanwhile, 36 million YouTube views later, Old Spice, the iconic 73-year-old product brand, may turn out to be just as timely and relevant as ever, while the 2010 Old Spice Guy campaign will now go down in history, being remembered as pioneering, and legendary.
