Does your man smell like an Old Spice Man? If not, I bet you want him to now after the recent viral campaign explosion! (If my husband didn’t already use Old Spice I may think about buying some…) I got my first glimpse of the new Old Spice man campaign last week while watching the Today Show and was instantly hooked – me, and about 19 million other viewers. Thanks to Mashable, I was able to see just how “hooked” we had all become.
Here are their numbers as of July 15th:
- Number of videos made: 180+
- Number of video views: 5.9 million
- Number of comments: 22,500
That is some crazy viewership! Now, I tend to shy away from things that are trending because I like to “trend” my own pop culture but for whatever reason, I was ready to jump on this bandwagon and tell everyone about it. Maybe it was the fact that the spots themselves were wittily-written, or that I love anything slightly sarcastic or maybe it was just plain different. Consumers can be a fickle group and Old Spice definitely took a chance here. A chance that has paid off obviously.
I’m actually kicking myself for not discovering the YouTube response videos they created last week using the Twitter activity a bit sooner so I could have maybe been one of the chosen few to have a custom response. But even though I wasn’t in the mix, I found myself strangely addicted to watching a large amount of them on the Old Spice YouTube channel. In an online world where spam is the norm and everyone is looking for the next big thing, it’s so refreshing (ha! pun intended!) to see a brand actually listen, engage and respond to their audience. It seems, that when we feel taken care of and that someone is listening to as consumers, our loyalty and commitment will prove strong.
We can also be the best brand ambassadors out there, I obviously am not in the direct target market for this specific product (or am I, as I do buy it for the husband…so smart, Procter & Gamble!) but would not hesitate to pass the good word on. Is their product that much more superior to other mens bodywashes? Probably not, but when it comes down to it, soap is pretty much soap so you have to find a way to set yourself apart, engage your audience and get them to buy.
Or, if they don’t buy, they may create something to add to the viral explosion. Have you heard about the Old Spice Voicemail Generator? Google it, you won’t be disappointed. This wasn’t even created by Old Spice, some awesome tech guys thought it up and fueled the fire. Apparently, if you build it, they will come. We don’t wait for someone else to create it, we do it ourselves! And you’d better believe that if I didn’t use my phone for work purposes, I would totally have a new voicemail and be telling you all to call me so you can hear just how awesome it is.
Are Old Spice sales up? Time will tell. Will we want to see more advertising like this? Maybe for a bit, until we’ve moved on to something else. As Brenna Ehrlich said on Mashable: “Congrats, Old Spice. You’ve set the precedent. Now ready yourself for the deluge of less successful copycats.”
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