I attended the Social Media Club of Dallas meeting on October 24th to hear Dean McBeth, one of the architects of the hit “Manliest Man” campaign for Old Spice described this best-in-class example of a multi-channel social media campaign. Leveraging Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and other channels, these promotions featured Isaiah Mustafa as the Old Spice Guy. In his entertaining talk to SMC Dallas, McBeth shared his experiences with the challenges, outcomes and learnings of that campaign.
Communicators of all kinds understand that spontaneity is extremely captivating. Off the cuff responses seem funnier, more sincere, and more authentic somehow than canned presentations. Less planning can mean lower production values (and costs) but there is also less preparation for contingencies. This makes them risky from public relations and legal standpoints. As social media practitioners know all too well, that is why so many enterprises are reluctant to support the use of social media on behalf of the corporation. Attempting to mitigate risks, Wieden + Kennedy and another PR agency leveraged social media channels on behalf of Old Spice in “Near Real Time” and McBeth was part of the team. Their goal was to create videos and other social media that could go viral.
The Manliest Man Old Spice Social Media Campaign
Old Spice is a venerable brand of men’s cologne and body products but their market had gone stale; they were anxious to revitalize their brand and attract a younger and broader demographic. Where could that audience be reached? On social media. What will engage them? Something edgier than traditional advertising. Using social rather than advertising channels, the “Manliest Man” campaign markedly increased the visibility of Old Spice and improved their market share.
After reviewing the history of Old Spice promotions since the 1970s, McBeth described some of the experiments M+K conducted to test the waters. As they were preparing for the campaign they realized that Dove, a household name in skincare products for women, was about to initiate a new product line for men. With no time for more testing, and boundaries established by Procter and Gamble, they decided to launch on Super Bowl weekend. Often mistakenly remembered as a Super Bowl commercial, the first video actually went up on YouTube in the Friday before. By leveraging Adwords, in the first few days they received 3.5 million views and Mustafa made appearances on Oprah, Ellen, and national morning shows. Even though the first reviews of the data were disappointing, after 30 days, sales of Old Spice were up by 107% over the previous year.
When the sharing of those videos began to slow down, brainstorming led to the second phase of the campaign. M+K trolled for comments and solicited questions from viewers. Mustafa began appearing in short video responses that were posted in near real time. Now there was even less time for deliberation because videos were up in as little as 12 minutes after they received the question. Team members were trolling for “manly” questions, looking for props, writing copy, and filming on the fly. 186 videos were posted in 2 ½ days with 34 million views in a week and 1.2 billion impressions in a month. This shows remarkable zing for this phase of the campaign.
All of this required a tremendous level of trust between P&G and M+K because it called for the creative process to be flattened and immense collaboration within minutes to minimize turn-around times.
As Phase 2 began to lag, it was time to again revitalize the campaign. Now dubbed “Mano a Mano in El Baño,” the next initiative began when celebrity items were offered on Craig’s List. This attracted a lot of PR traction and rumors began to fly that the Old Spice Guy was to be replaced by Fabio (the “New Old Spice Guy”). Campy online commercials with Fabio usurping the Old Spice Guy appeared. This culminated in a video duel on YouTube with fans voting which spokesman was better. Despite moments when Fabio was ahead in the polls, ultimately Mustafa emerged triumphant. This phase resulted in 40 million unique views, 53,000 comments, and 500,000 votes overall.
Key Learnings about Near Real Time Social Media Promotions
- Garner the love of all the available digital communities. Cast a lot of nets and be responsive in near real time.
- Hire lots of nerds because you need good data to monitor results in real time. (M+K created a proprietary tool to follow social engagement that they called Norad).
- Do great work and trust your gut. Be willing to experiment and fail but maintain established boundaries. This requires building tremendous trust from the brand.
- Be prepared to shift gears when the momentum slows.
- Have a well thought out execution plan that is progressive but adaptable.
Now Group Director of the W2O Group, McBeth also mentioned digital anthropologists, “The Secret” of Isaiah Mustafa, spiders, and polydactyl cats in this highly amusing and thought-provoking presentation. With his video examples and the context he provided, the audience left with new insights about how a social media campaign that goes viral is created.
This post was first published on October 29th on the SMC Dallas blog but I also wanted to share it with you.
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