That’s right. You’ve stumbled upon yet another blog post about the Old Spice campaign. But that, my friends, is the point. The “Man your man could smell like” campaign started with a commercial. Then another. Then “Old Spice guy” went online in the form of a twitter account and 180+ YouTube video responses to celebrities, twitter followers, and random folks alike. That combination of an incredibly entertaining (and aesthetically pleasing) character plus the possibility of direct connectivity proved to be a potent one. Bloggers, tweeters, and facebookers went nuts.

On my part, after reading about the campaign on Joe Pulizzi’s blog, I eagerly sought out the videos, rewatched both commercials, and scoured the blogosphere for more coverage. By the end of the day I had not only further publicized the campaign via facebook and twitter; I had physically told at least three people about it. That’s right, actual word of mouth!

But while the blogosphere, twitterverse, and facebookalaxy (too much?) were all buzzing about Old Spice, one burning question plagued every marketer. Will this actually translate to sales? Well, ladies and gentleman, the numbers are in.

Since the campaign launched in February, Old Spice sales have been on the rise. Brandweek reported that Old Spice sales rose 55% over the past three months, and 107% in the last month alone (stats published by Nielsen). Though it can only officially be called a correlation, I think it’s safe to consider this campaign a triumph in social media marketing. Mashable’s Stan Schroeder went as far as calling it “the archetype of a successful social media campaign,” and that was before any sales figures were released.

Will anyone be able to replicate this lightning-in-a-bottle campaign? Probably not.  There is a huge novelty element to this strategy that can’t be undervalued.  Old Spice was the first brand to tap into its social network in such a direct and, let’s face it, hilarious way. How then, can Old Spice’s success apply to you and your company? How can you translate it into your own content marketing efforts? First of all: don’t copy it. A lot of people are going to try and copy this campaign, and the public will know exactly what you’re up to.

Old Spice Guy is just one man, albeit an incredibly handsome one. He couldn’t possibly address more than a small fraction of Old Spice’s ever-increasing followers on twitter. But the mere possibility that he might led thousands of web users to jump on board and tweet their little hearts out.  In the same vein as the Creators Project, which continues to draw in hundreds of facebook fans daily, Old Spice offered the mere possibility of something great. In this case, being personally addressed before millions of online viewers… by an incredibly handsome man in a bath towel.

That is a tactic you can use. Provide the possibility of something incredible, but keep it limited. Make a demand for it. If you don’t know where to start in terms of devising that inspired must-have reward, why not ask your customers? What do THEY want? Tap into them as a resource, and then implement their ideas so they know they’re being listened to. Whatever plan of action you take, it should single out customers/readers/etc as individuals that are uniquely valued. It can be done at random, or maybe as a reward for loyal followers.

And if you can think of an angle that is really appropriate for your customers, why not create something that they will actually enjoy? Your marketing content should provide useful information for your clients, but you can also have a bit of fun with it. If you’re not sure you can pull it off,  consider hiring writers to create the kind of smart, punchy content that just might get your social network buzzing. After all, who doesn’t need a bit of light, funny, engaging fluff now and again?

Nicola Fairhead is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments. WriterAccess is powered by ideaLaunch, a full service content marketing agency serving hundreds of clients and thousands of writers since 2000.

Image courtesy of http://www.shoppingblog.com/blog/3291015

Tags: content marketing

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at 2:47 pm and is filed under Content Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.