PR: The Good, Bad and Ugly
Hello, Ladies. Look At This Blog. Now Back At Me.
by Wesley Hyatt
You would be hard pressed to find a more impressive example of the interdependence of traditional and social media than the current campaign with the shirtless Old Spice guy, who many people believe is my twin. But let’s ignore that and focus on the implications of this success for both media forms.
The campaign began with commercials in February on the Super Bowl, the best exposure traditional media can offer by far in America in terms of mass numbers of viewers of one event. Old Spice continued running the commercials on TV and online in its wake, while the star appeared frequently as a guest on many TV talk shows, including Ellen and Oprah.
Then Old Spice went into overdrive this month with a great social media campaign. First, questions for the shirtless Old Spice Guy were solicited via Twitter to use as potential spots. Selected individual responses became videos that answered those tweets and were uploaded to the Old Spice YouTube channel.
Wearing nothing but a white towel in front of a shower set, our star provided more than 100 personalized videos running roughly 15 to 60 seconds responding to everyone from stars such as Demi Moore to a guy who wanted him to ask his girlfriend to marry him. (And she accepted!)
The results of this effort have been flabbergasting. Within the first week, the campaign became the most-viewed sponsored channel on YouTube. According to the most recent social network statistics, the campaign had generated a whopping 35.7 million individual views on YouTube within just a few days.
It’s an ingenious promotion. The featured actor, Isaiah Mustafa, is handsome and smooth, speaking directly to women (who are the majority buyers of body wash for households), but non-threatening to males thanks to his performance’s mock serious self-confidence and bravado that he based on such actors as Adam West in the 1960s campy TV series Batman. His fast delivery of lines and the computer generated special effects virtually demand that you watch the commercials over and over to see what you might have missed the first go-round. Even in the YouTube clips without the special effects, Mustafa’s wonderfully pompous and offbeat humorous individual responses are enough to encourage repeat viewing.
Mustafa is not doing badly himself in both media either. His official Facebook page has more than 16,000 friends, and NBC has signed him to a talent deal.
The lesson from the campaign boils down to this: Traditional media needs social media to flourish, and vice versa. That’s why we at MMI recommend both approaches to use with our clients. Each format has features that the other cannot duplicate. If used together properly, the promotional effect can be overwhelmingly beneficial.
Do you have any comments on this campaign, or suggestions about other joint traditional and social media campaigns that you feel work very well? If so, feel free to share them below.
Permalink | 07/23/2010 |
