Good morning, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.
Today I had to show you four videos. You know when someone has a great idea how everyone decides to copy it, but often theirs bombs. The first video below is the video that started off the Old Spice Campaign in February this year it was all about how to “smell like a man”, and has had over 21 MILLION views since then. The campaign grew sales by 55% a month for the three months since launch, plus it turned the “old spice man” into a star – not bad hey? The campaign revolved around people tweeting in questions to the Old Spice man who then answered them in a video message, according to Mashable over 180 videos were made answering questions.
Of course whenever something works others try to copy it, but does that work? There were copies from Conan who invited viewers to ask him questions, however the video around it was pretty lame. Then we have Cisco…. now Cisco does not have the most exciting products in the market, well if you are into techy stuff perhaps I’m wrong, but for us regular people it is not as sexy as aftershave or body wash. Cisco decided to create a character called “Ted from Accounting”, who again you could send in questions to, and he would answer them on video for you, now Ted from Accounting’s first video had a massive 10,413 views so far (and no I haven’t missed off any 00s). The video is below and Mashable covered the story behind it here.
Finally we come to what has to be my absolute favourite so far in the Old Spice take offs…. Grover from Sesame St, yes Grover. Grover talks about the word “on”, how to “smell like a monster” and takes off the Old Spice video – it is worth watching and is hilarious! Grover’s video came out on October 7th and has had over 4.4 million views already, plus there is a video where someone has inserted the Grover “smell like a monster” video into the Old Spice “smell like a man” video so that you can see them both at the same time. Grover’s video is below…
Finally the fourth contender is Blendtec, known for doing crazy blending stunts such as blending iPhone 4′s etc to show the power of their blender’s – a strategy that has worked exceptionally well for them in the past. This time they blend a bottle of Old Spice and take off the Old Spice Man, the video came out on October 12th and has had 295,000 views so far. What makes this video standout and be remembered? They are embracing popular culture, doing what they usually do (blend crazy stuff) and catching the crest of the wave. Check out the video below.
So why did the original Old Spice video work, but Ted from accounting bombed, Blendtec was funny and Grover looks set to take over the world?
The team behind Old Spice did something original, different and unique that stood out, plus they coordinated all of their social media to come together, rather than just using YouTube they also used Twitter and other social media to get the campaign going, knowing that not everyone uses the same social network – clever!
Ted from accounting bombed because it was so far from the Cisco brand, yes they were trying to keep up with the cool kids and embrace popular culture, but it just wasn’t them. It would have worked far better if they had taken more of a Blendtec approach, ie followed their core message and incorporated it into that.
Now I come to Grover, who I think is awesome, and as some have commented has better pecs than the Old Spice man! Sesame St is a very very well known tv series by both adults and children alike, they are known for doing funny things, such as Elmo’s TV interviews and they have incorporated the other characters from Sesame St (the cow) into the video. Grover here keeps to the core Sesame St message by saying that he is talking about the word “on” and embraces popular culture.
So the moral to this tale?
- Keep true to your core brand message
- Embrace popular culture
- Be timely
So I wonder who is going to be next Old Spicing it up? Will it be you? What do you think of this phenomenon tell me in the comments….
