Last week, the Old Spice Man video marketing campaign was the talk of the Internet. It was timely, original, perfectly executed, and frankly, it was funny as hell.
On Friday, we used our influence-ranking algorithm to find out which Old Spice man videos were the most influential in spreading the brand message. Today, we take a look at some of the bigger-picture lessons that can be learned from the brilliant marketing campaign that went viral and spread like wildfire.
Here are the Top 5 Things for Marketers to Learn from the Old Spice Man:
1. Target influencers
Marketing agency Wieden + Kennedy were very specific to reach out to high-profile Internet celebrities that they knew would spread their personalized video responses to the widest possible audience and that’s exactly what happened. Whether it was Digg’s Kevin Rose, Twitter maven Alyssa Milano, or talk-show queen Ellen DeGeneres, Old Spice knew right away when their invitation to message the Old Spice Man had been received positively, and they knew exactly how to proceed from there. Which leads us to…
2. Speak the language of your customers.
Old Spice made sure to tailor make each video to the personality traits of the person it was meant for. In the case of the denizens of the underground message board 4Chan, they knew enough not to mention them by name and stick with “Anonymous.” Old Spice also knew that a video full of absurd non sequiturs would appeal to their non-conformist sense of humor. In turn, the audience to whom the influencers spread these videos would be sure to like them as well.
3. Be genuine (and funny doesn’t hurt either)
Even knowing that this is all a marketing ploy with an actor and some (very good) writers, the novelty of getting a genuine response from a fictional character like the Old Spice Man was too good for even the most jaded Internet celebrities to ignore. Even if it’s not directed solely at them, a personal touch in any campaign will be perceived as genuine.
If your campaign is genuinely funny, even better. Some ads can go viral for merely being self-reflexive and funny. You can get away with murder as long as you deliver it with a self-knowing wink and a smile. It’s almost like its not even an ad at all.
4. Use a call to action
This is about the finest example of engaging your audience that we’ve seen lately. Think of how many people were out there tweeting questions for Old Spice Man on the small chance that he’d reply. Every tweet is a brand reinforcement.
You can do this a number of ways. It doesn’t have to be a fictional character interacting directly with people via almost real-time videos — it could be as simple as asking customers for advice or opinions about a topic related to your business. (Don’t forget to have #2 taken care of before you start this.) Think of things that others would like to spread to their friends via social media: Start a contest or giveaway!
5. Make your content easy to share
Not only did they keep the videos short, which makes them very easy for even the most casual viewer to watch, but Old Spice used YouTube, the most familiar and widespread video site around, as a launching pad. YouTube has a whole host of sharing options built in and its owned by Google — which means it dominates the top of any video results page on the hugely influential search engine. Anyone who typed in “old spice” during the company’s two-day video-making blitz was sure to get a direct link to one of the response videos on YouTube.
Make sure that your audience is only one click away from spreading your message to all of their networks.
