Swan Dive Into The Viral Marketing Campaign Of Your Life

I began monitoring Old Spice's online media presence back in February and ever since then I have noticed a consistent influx in popularity.  As mentioned in my last blog, Old Spice took the internet by storm last February with their campaign “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” Ever since then Old Spice has maintained a strong online presence. This past June, Old Spice and spokesperson Isaiah Mustafa took over social media again with their personal YouTube commercials that were addressed to individual Twitter followers and Facebook fans. After this marketing stunt, Old Spice gained even more fans. However, since June Old Spice and Isaiah Mustafa lied low. It was not until this past month that they released a new series of commercials for their new Fresh Collection. Since the release of their latest commercial “Scent Vacation,” buzz is growing once again for Old Spice. This being said, “Scent Vacation” has not yet transformed into the viral sensation that Old Spice’s original commercials were.


Changes In Online Presence 
 When I first reported Old Spice’s internet presence the commercial had only been online for about a month, it was not very prominent on television so anyone that knew about it had probably searched for or was already friends with Old Spice or Isaiah Mustafa. Throughout the social media project I checked Social Mention five different times between February 15^th and March 23^rd. The image below shows all five snapshots. The online buzz surrounding Old Spice has been slowly, yet steadily increasing since the start of the new Fresh Collection campaign. In the last two weeks, the Old Spice reach has drastically increased alongside the passion.

Information found on SocialMention.com

After watching the new commercials for the Fresh Collection, I personally still believe that Old Spice are still hilarious and incredibly effective. I believe one of the reasons why this campaign has not taken off as quickly is due to the lack of engagement Old Spice had with their fans between campaigns. Since the personalized YouTube videos back in July, Old Spice and Isaiah Mustafa have not done much, thus decreasing any buzz that they originally had cultivated. This is apparent in the graph from Google Insights.

Graph found on www.google.com/insights/search/#

As the graph shows, their online campaign this past summer was incredibly effective, however rather than riding that hype Old Spice let the buzz promptly die. I believe that the goal for Old Spice is to continue their campaign as well as to try and get back the popularity that they had in 2010.

Goals for Twitter and Facebook
There are a number of routes that Old Spice could take since they already have a strong fan base on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. The first thing I noticed about their Facebook and Twitter page is that other than the personal YouTube messages, they do not comment or tweet their fans and followers back. However, Isaiah Mustafa does tweet back occasionally. Although Old Spice’s tweets are hilarious, they need to do more than just tweet random hilarities. If they consistently tweet people back that will definitely increase their notoriety. This will also increase their online fan base since it will get out that Old Spice responds to as many of their fans as possible.

Furthermore, in regards to the periodic personalized messages on YouTube, while well received, the number one complaint is that the majority of responses were to celebrities and other well known persons. While targeting celebrities helps get the Old Spice message out since celebrities have thousands of followers, they also are simultaneously sending out a message to all their non-celebrity fans that their voice and opinion does not matter. If they included more videos to their “average” fans this would help reassure the public that Old Spice and Isaiah Mustafa care about them just as much as their celebrity counterparts.

Another thing I noticed when looking at some of the negative comments is that people still refer to the smell of Old Spice as smelling like old man. Although the commercials they currently have address how good their products smell, if they addressed the old man smell that would be a highly effective way to beat the negative press to the punch. The writers are highly talented at random, witty humor and I think that if done in the right way, having Isaiah Mustafa make a joke about the old man smell could not only help put an end to this criticism as well as maintain the viral popularity of their commercials.

One last recommendation I would have is to offer competitions for the “manliest man.” This could entail people tweeting or posting the most epic thing that they have done in the style of the Old Spice Guy. The winner could receive their own personalized YouTube video and Old Spice products.

Old Spice has started an internet campaign that is unlike any others. Now that they have so many people following them, it is time for them to keep the momentum going and really begin talking with their customers not just at them.        

On that note, I will leave you all with one of the newest commercials for the Old Spice Fresh Collection.

New Media for Old Spice

I have decided to monitor Old Spice for the media monitoring project. This idea came to me an hour into watching spokesman Isaiah Mustafa's hilarious Old Spice commercials. If a company that sells deodorant could keep me entertained and engaged for hours, they had to be doing something right! In order to monitor Old Spice, I used a number of sources thus far. My primary source has been Addict-O-Matic, followed by Ice Rocket , Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

 

Old Spice

In case you are unaware, Old Spice is a company focusing on male hygiene. They sell a variety of antiperspirant, deodorant, body wash, body spray and men's fragrances. While Old Spice has been around since 1938, the brand really started to become a household name when Proctor & Gamble bought it 1990. However, up until recently, Old Spice was associated with older men. Personally, I know my Grandpa always used Old Spice, and my father uses Old Spice as well. While this demographic is important, Old Spice's competitor Axe which was established in 1983 has been focusing on young men between the ages of 16-30. In a (successful) attempt to capture this target market while maintaining their older market as well, Old Spice introduced new commercials featuring Isaiah Mustafa. These commercials were and still are a hit, they also went viral, propelling Old Spice into the groundswell. 

Commercials

The following is the first commercial featuring Isaiah Mustafa. It was released on television about a year ago.

Not only was it a hit with television viewers, it also exploded on the internet. As of Tuesday, March 15 the video already has 30,533, 560 views on YouTube. This is incredible for a television commercial, especially one advertising something as mundane and necessary as deodorant. With this commercial, Old Spice and spokesperson Isaiah Mustafa launched themselves into the groundswell, with people wanting to communicate with the Old Spice Man, and demanding more commercials. 

These commercials focused on women, but in a way unlike that of Axe. Old Spice presents itself as both a woman's man and a man's man product. It shows that by using Old Spice not only will women be attracted to you but that men will envy you as well. Furthermore, it does not portray women in a demeaning, sexist way. 

Old Spice's newest commercials focus on their new line of products for their Fresh Collection. Here is there latest commercial:

This commercial was released February 1st, 2011 and it already has 3, 977, 641 views as of Tuesday, March 15th. 

Since the release of these commercials, fans have been wondering how they are filmed. Rather than tweeting and Facebook commenting each question, Old Spice created a short behind the scenes YouTube video in response.

Twitter and YouTube

Twitter has been a valuable asset to the Old Spice campaign. As of the first week of March, Old Spice had over 120,000 followers on Twitter whereas AXE had little over 1,500 followers. Furthermore, the Old Spice Man Isaiah Mustafa is a huge force on twitter as well, having over 52,000 followers.

 Since the Old Spice commercials were such a hit, Old Spice created a Twitter campaign where Isaiah Mustafa would address fans' tweets through a YouTube video. This was better than a reply. Not only was Old Spice listening and talking with their fans, they were making personalized commercials for them as well.

Here are a few examples:

Summary

What I've found so far in my research is that people are talking about Old Spice. They are on Twitter and Facebook talking directly with Old Spice and Isaiah Mustafa, but even more impressively they are talking about Old Spice on their own. There are countless tweets and Facebook comments as well as blog entries that mention feeling manlier now that they use Old Spice or women saying that they wish they could buy Old Spice but since they can't they buy it for their boyfriends and husbands instead. By harnessing humor, creativity and the internet, Old Spice has created an unstoppable media presence that can only go up from here!