Old Spice Man Makes a Social Media Impact with YouTube Responses

By Joe Pulizzi | Published: July 14, 2010

My friend Mike Balzano shot me a note this morning that I had to check out what Old Spice was doing on its Twitter account.

Then, thirty minutes and about 20 videos later, I started writing this post. And, I actually feel like buying some Old Spice now (okay, I’m now officially my dad).

That’s how amazing Old Spice’s social media is. Here’s some background. Playing off the popular TV commercials, muscular Old Spice man is responding personally to comments on Facebook, YouTube and mostly those on Twitter. As of writing this post, the Old Spice YouTube channel is #1 in the US for total views. Pretty powerful stuff.

TechCrunch reported yesterday about Old Spice man’s response to Digg founder Kevin Rose, who tweeted out that he was sick. Here’s the response:

Kevin then responded to his over 1 million followers:

HOLY SH*T, best get well video EVER from the old spice man!:http://bit.ly/dpSeOs

How about this hysterical reply to Alysa Milano? And, it’s not just celebs that are getting the more than 100 personalized video responses. Check out this response to Mason Vail:

It needs to be noted that the writing is utter genius. I’m literally cracking up after each one of these.

What do we know so far?

Thousands of online mentions, including big wigs like The Huffington Post, Starbucks and The Ellen Show.
Over 60,000 tweets and 600 blog mentions on July 13th alone.
1000% increase in Twitter followers.

But three main questions keep coming up:

How long can Old Spice man keep this up?
How about the writing team?
Will this, in the end, sell more Old Spice?

If Old Spice can show an impact, ultimately, in sales, you can bet we’ll see a flood of brands move even more into this area. Hats off to Old Spice for trying something new, especially the smart integration between traditional and social media.

Hey Old Spice man, if you’re listening, here’s my question – “Does wearing the color orange AND Old Spice make you even more of a man?”

Below is a sample of the original TV commercial.

http://www.samuraiwriter.com/blog/from-goggle-box-to-google Mark McClure

Old Spice Man is displaying an engaging mix of warm humor, gentle self-parody and a strong self-confidence in his appearance (thx to you know what!)
Is this a US-only promotion?
My memories of Old Spice in the UK are of women buying it for men at Xmas. Old Spice was one of the holy trinity of male presents – socks, underwear, after shave lotions!
They’ve come a long way since! And yes, great writing. That process would make an interesting content creation post…
Shodam Nuff

well..it still smells like old mice BUT if Axe can peddle their nasty crap and get teen tards to swim in it, then I’ll guess Old Spice can swing an uptick in market share to the ladies giving an unwanted present to the men in their lives.
http://blog.junta42.com Joe Pulizzi

Mark, Shodam…good points. I guess we’ll have to see what the sales look like. And, the actor got a movie deal out of it. Go figure.
http://www.4th-e.com Nick Wright

The campaign is certainly engaging and entertaining but the true art of social media is being able to develop that one-to-one earned relationship with the consumer. There’s little point in having 50 million Facebook fans or 30 million YouTube views if your relationship with the consumer stops as soon as the laptop is closed. In this regard, Old Spice still has the tough part of the job to do – converting those fans into loyal, brand evangelists and keeping that individual communication going.
Social media, like any other type of media, requires a solid, long-term strategy if it is going to be successful.
Read more about this campaign here: http://tinyurl.com/23jtk54
http://moreconfidentnow.com Sally

I thought Old Spice was dead and buried before this campaign. It received some wide coverage here in Australia on the satirical advertising show The Gruen Transfer and the panel of advertising executives were all blown away by the script and production itself. However, being ever so slightly blinkered to the power of social media over here, they believed the publicity on You Tube was more a spin off of a truly great ad than a marketing ploy itself.