He is the guy that has us women looking at our boyfriends and thinking again. The old spice guy is the “it” man. He has tickets to “that thing” you want to see, and, yes, he’s on a horse. Actor Isaiah Mustafa made it big with the Old Spice commercials, which are revolutionizing viral marketing. For the last two days, the Old Spice guy has been answering questions about everything. Questions were being posted on Twitter, and the most popular ones were answered in video clips on YouTube. This ad is being considered the most popular viral ad of all time, but is it really true?
Well, I cannot think of any other ads that have been as talked about. One viral marketing plan I can actually remember is the Dove campaign for real beauty. I think everyone found it astonishing to see a normal woman transformed onto a billboard was a wake up for many, and the video drew in well over 11,000,000 viewers. But this does not even compare to Old Spice’s YouTube channel, which has over 150 videos and thousands of viewers for each. I say Old Spice is dominating the viral marketing right now. But, what makes this ad so different from other viral ads in the past?
I feel like the key component to this ad’s success is the way it talks to the audience. In the commercials, he is talking directly to the audience, saying, if you want your guy to be like me, have him wear Old Spice. Usually with ads, they advise you to buy something to achieve a look. With the Old Spice commercials, it’s giving the audience a humorous false promise of all the things you could want in a man if they wear Old Spice. When I heard that he would be talking directly to the audience members through YouTube videos, I did not think it was a far stretch; he was already talking to us in the commercials.
What is even more clever about the Old Spice campaign is that they made sure to utilize Twitter as well. With this campaign alone, they used two very popular websites simultaneously while doing massive advertisement on TV. Just this morning, the Old Spice guy was on the Today Show. It is very true that this character has become larger than life, and overnight on top of that.
One thing that Old Spice must be careful of is that, while the character is popular, it does not guarantee more sales for Old Spice. There is such as thing as too good of an advertisement, and, at the end of the day, it is about making sales. Since Isaiah Mustafa’s nick name is now “The Old Spice guy,” it makes it a little difficult to forget the brand.
References
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=OldSpice#p/u/184/uLTIowBF0kE
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2366477,00.asp
