“I’m on a horse.” Many of you thought this Old Spice commercial, specifically designed for the ADD generation that aired during this past year’s Superbowl, was brilliant. And many of you don’t understand why people find it funny at all.
But the real lesson we’re learning from this campaign is that the advertising team behind Old Spice absolutely understands social media and online viral success.
Isaiah Mustafa, the oft-shirtless Old Spice man, has recently reprised his role and caused a social media stir. On Tuesday, Mustafa took questions from social media channels Twitter and Facebook, and a team from Old Spice compiled the questions and created personalized video/commercial responses which they then posted on YouTube. Those responses were immediately emailed and re-tweeted, flooding the Internet and receiving tremendous feedback.
In fact, there are currently over 200 video responses right now. Professionally created personalized video-commercials in direct response to user feedback. Now, included in these responses are videos directed toward celebrities, including Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore and a brilliant response to Alyssa Milano, ripe with “Who’s the Boss?” parody. So these have more viral appeal than videos created in direct response to feedback from the common man.
But all of them are smart. They’re funny. They’re tremendously entertaining. They’re ultra-personal. And each one builds the brand. This is a wonderful lesson in “positive” interruptions. People don’t want to be bothered to hear your shpeel. But they’ll gladly be bothered if the interruption is as, or even more entertainingly than what they’re looking for. And Old Spice has figured this out.