The Old Spice guy advertising campaign has all the signs of being a real success, at least to this marketing consultant. And, lots of good lessons for small business: its message is on-target; its message is simple; it pounds away at the message; it’s funny/clever/interesting, but not so much that the message gets lost; and it engages its target audience in a new, interesting way.
First, the TV commercial and the message: “the ladies” will like you if you use Old Spice. This is THE message of personal care products; use it and the opposite sex will like you. And it does it in a fun, light, understandable way. Good for them.
Next, see below, start engaging people who are talking about your product with 30-second “commercials” (YouTube videos) that are replies to actual Tweets (on Twitter, for you digitally challenged folks). The more they respond, the more chatter Old Spice produces. The Old Spice YouTube Channel has over 6 million views at this writing. Not too shabby. . .
Check these out:
And there are many more on their Channel.
Here’s an interview with their interactive agency which talks about some of the rationale behind the campaign. They are cranking out lots of YouTube videos and are responding to Tweets from a variety of people, from celebrities to average people. Can you imagine how many people you’d connect with to show a YouTube video that’s a direct response to you?! If you can’t, well, uh, you’re probably not Old Spice’s target demo. Trust me, you’d get it to EVERYBODY.
They are doing coupons in the newspaper. Good, you have to make it easy AND incent that first trial purchase. You can’t forget the back end stuff. I don’t go to the grocery store much so I don’t know if they have the product visible.
The question, ultimately, are the people you want to buy Old Spice body wash buying it? And more importantly, do they buy it a second time? Which means you have a customer not just a bump in sales. That jury is still out.
How can I be so sure the campaign is a “real success?”
When you get these (parodies!):
