Facebook and Twitter have been flooded for the past few weeks, with videos from the new Old Spice marketing campaign. Featuring a muscular, shirtless, macho man with the brovado of Ron Bergandy and the wit of Stephen Fry, they are utterly hilarious and have kept me and many others intrigued enough to go back for more again and again!
Marketing rules say that you can’t create a viral marketing campaign – it’s something that either happens or doesn’t – well I think that Old Spice have cracked the formula. The brand is never forefront in any of the videos, they’re just fun and brilliantly executed, and yet internet searches for Old Spice have increased massively over past weeks.
The real genius of this campaign is that they invited people to comment, then set up a camera and some props and responded to a huge number of comments. Not only is this marketing genius – everyone is sifting through these looking for a gem – but the actor involved, Isaiah Mustafa, absolutely shines… See below for one of my favourite responses!
Thanks for your comment Heather – it’s very interesting that such a successful viral campaign hasn’t lead to increased sales – many people I have spoken to have said that the videos make them want to buy Old Spice, but that they are resisting that urge because they don’t want to be a victim of marketing – could it be that viral marketing is so blatant that it makes people want to igonore it, as opposed to falling for subliminal marketing and thinking that you’re actually making an informed choice…? Who knows… perhaps it’s too early to call for the Old Spice campaign, but I will be very interested to see how it goes…