David Hallerman, a senior analyst at eMarketer writes today in AdAge about what made the Old Spice campaign such an earth-shattering success. David starts with probably the most important factor: »It is creative”, he says, and points out that »making advertising videos that consumers want to watch is, in truth, very, very difficult.«
Mind you, these are words from an analyst, not a creative.
While some say that this is an optimal case study in viral marketing, David delivers a more matter-of-fact explanation. He reminds us that »Procter & Gamble division figured out how to effectively blend ingredients from the three marketing media — paid, owned and earned — to reach its target audience.« And here’s how P&G and Wieden + Kennedy launched the campaign:
The marketing feat got its start from traditional TV commercials, supplemented by cinema ads (paid). Then the campaign migrated to an interactive mix of brand microsite with Facebook and Twitter pages (owned), and continued its momentum through consumer interaction and word-of-mouth on social sites and beyond (earned). Finally, the campaign gets continued lift from additional online advertising — both banner and video ads — which drives traffic back to the brand’s site and social-media pages.«
I believe this is not only true, but it’s also probably the best route to go these days, since a) we’re not living in the sixties anymore (traditional media), and b) we’re not living in a futuristic world either (where social media is everything).
You can read the whole piece here.
A brilliant analysis, if you ask me.
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On top of all this they probably used something like http://www.unrulymedia.com/ to ‘get viral’