Wieden and Kennedy's most recent YouTube response videos for Old Spice will likely be called the most successful social media campaign for a while. And it is well-deserved - over three days, the team at W+K and actor Isaiah Mustafa produced over 180 video responses to bloggers, influencers, and other commenters on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, Yahoo and other social networks. While the execution is certainly innovative, they started off the same as other campaigns - with great content.
It seems to us that The Man Your Man Could Smell Like started off as an evolution of other W+K characters for Old Spice. He started off in a spot called Different Scents.
There are several noticeable parallels between these ads. First, the language is very similar among the two ads - these men are confident and powerful, sportsmen and lovers. Second, the structure and sets of the ads both feature the main character pass from set to set without disruption. It's as if the scenery is moving around these powerful characters.
The next ads that appeared were the Odor Blocker ads created by W+K and Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim of the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job.
These ads star President Camacho, er, Terry Crews and illustrate Old Spice's odor blocking qualities in true Tim and Eric farcical style. I love these ads, but I can see how they might be a bit over the top for some viewers. They got a lot of buzz though, and each ad has between one to five million views on YouTube.
However, W+K and Old Spice finally hit platinum with The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.
The first video has almost fourteen million views on YouTube as of July 16 - I'm sure in the coming weeks it will far surpass that number. How is this video different to make it more successful than the others? This was the first ad that appeared to speak to women. Mustafa starts the ad with "Hello Ladies," then speaks to them for the rest of the ad. Is the ad targeted at women though? Not necessarily, but in Mustafa, W+K seems to have found the perfect "men want to be him, women want to be with him" type of guy. He is perfect mix of bravado and romance.
Once W+K had a hugely successful hit on their hands, they kept the formula. They expanded their social media activities and launched a hugely successful, cross-platform social media campaign from July 12th to the 14th. They had the advantage of starting with widely recognized, well-received content, so they're potential to go viral really depended on how wide of a net they cast. They reached out to a wide variety of bloggers, celebrities, and technophiles. He even helped a guy out with his marriage proposal (she said yes). They made viral video in real time.
W+K has set the bar for social media. They fused viral content with the real time web, and had amazing results. The only question left to ask is what's next?
