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Old Spice Viral Campaign Pays Off

By: Turquoise on July 26, 2010

You’ve either heard about the Old Spice Guy or you haven’t. Either way, what amounted to a massive gamble on the power of effective social media last month is already showing signs of paying off for Old Spice.

For three days a team of creatives, social media experts, writers and marketers bombarded the web with adverts for Old Spice featuring a bare-chested brand ambassador in the shape of Isaiah Mustafa as The Old Spice Guy.

The Old Spice Guy was introduced with bombastic aplomb in the ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’ television ad campaign earlier this year:

What has made the online marketing campaign unique, and ultimately successful, is that they were created in real-time as responses to questions and messages posted by users on social media channels like Twitter and Facebook. You can read more about the rapid production turnaround of the ads here.

But apart from being an online viral phenomenon,  sales figures for Old Spice are already showing a substantial increase following the online onslaught. Sales reports indicate an increase of 107% in the past month. When compared to an 11% growth in sales figures over the past year, the impact of the viral campaign becomes shockingly evident.

With Ford also turning to Facebook this week to launch it’s 2011 Explorer we’re taking bets on which brand will be next to throw it’s hat into the social media ring.