360PR Blog

I am positively giddy with excitement about the implications of the command social media performance this week by the super-suave Isaiah Mustafa and the Old Spice digital and creative team. They produced 160 personalized videos in 48 hours as the viral online extension of their award-winning manmercials. As a result, Old Spice’s Twitter account acquired tens of thousands of new followers and The Old Spice YouTube channels have been viewed over 58 million times. Without a doubt, the Old Spice social media invasion was not only brave, but has seriously raised the bar on what it now means to create buzz and human-time engagement on the web.

What came off as an easy and breezy, dare I say organic execution on social media was undoubtedly a vast and deliberate production, orchestrated by dozens of Wieden + Kennedy writers, art directors, producers, editors and social media strategists, not to mention the camera and lighting crew, teleprompter worker person, etc. I can imagine the studio in Portland might have resembled Cape Canaveral when NASA readies to launch a shuttle into space.

The team averaged around 7 minutes to make each video, and released several videos per hour, responding in what felt like real-time to fans, stars and internet celebrities from Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, blogs and more. Check out the top 10 hottest videos here. Beyond the sheer creative talent at Weiden + Kennedy, there also had to be a sizeable creative and digital budget to support the production of so many well-lit commercials, not including Mustafa’s compensation (he is so handsome and clever he should ask for a raise anyway).

In an interview, the head of Digital for Weiden + Kennedy said that the digital push began with the notion of the character responding to people about the TV commercials. He said, “We knew there was a massive love for this guy and what people wanted was to be in the shower with him. So that’s where we started from.” The agency decided to really center the push around YouTube and Twitter. YouTube hosted the videos, while Twitter provided the bulk of the distribution.

The team made savvy moves. They activated influencers by pre-producing videos for people such as Perez Hilton, 4chan, and AdFreak, posting them on their blogs and @replying to them on Twitter. They also activated communities such as DIGG and Reddit. For example, they knew that Digg Founder Kevin Rose was sick so they made a get-well video for him and posted it on Digg with the title “Get Well, Kevin Rose! The video became the top content on Digg with over 5,000 Diggs. They even created a call for comments on Reddit and posted a time-stamped picture of Isaiah saying Hi to Reddit. And they bought a Twitter ad campaign to feature the push as a trending topic.

All of these tactics combined helped the Old Spice brand activate large communities and drum up buzz before they had even rolled out 10 videos. The social media team then scoured the Web for comments related to the campaign and fed the ones that were either funny or from interesting sources to the creatives, who determined which would make good fodder for the videos. It was clearly all a big commercial, but kudos to the creatives for being tongue-in-cheek and for talking about the use of Old Spice in a way that felt light hearted and fun. Mustafa’s baritone voice and convoluted wordplay made for such entertaining delivery. He even made us laugh and cry with this video to his daughter who posed a question to him on Twitter.

I don’t know if this campaign will help sell more Old Spice, but I do know that I no longer think of Old Spice as a Fuddy-Duddy brand. Smells like success to me!

Thank you, Old Spice and Wieden + Kennedy, for spicing up the viral marketing landscape.

Filed under: Consumer Marketing, Digital PR, Internet, PR Industry, Social Marketing, Social Media, advertising by Admin - 2 Comments →

A week after Lebron James (@kingjames) put on what many are calling a self-promoting, egotistical spectacle to announce his decision to join the Miami Heat, there are a number of things that I am still not quite sure of from a publicist’s perspective.

1) Was it his idea or his representation’s to have the TV special?

It seems that there would have been much less controversy surrounding his decision had he simply put out a statement to the press saying that after much thought, he had selected Miami. If he had done this, people would have had their say and then moved on.  Did his PR team actually recommend that he go on have a TV special dedicated to his free agency?  It was not the decision that bothered most people; it was the way he did it.

2) Why join Twitter?

In the midst of all of the talk about where Lebron was going to end up, he joined Twitter.  Not to take questions; not to defend his decision; he joined Twitter, he says, simply because he was convinced by friend and New Orleans Hornets PG Chris Paul.  It could have been his management who suggested it to create additional buzz about his decision, but he certainly isn’t replying to any of his fans/enemies on Twitter.  And there is a LOT being said (trust me or search replies to @kingjames).

Cavaliers Fans Feel Burnt By James

3) Was this ultimately a good or a bad move for Lebron’s brand image?

Sellout.  Traitor.  These are a couple of the milder names he has been called over the past week.  But at the same time, his name and face are everywhere.  We all know the saying ‘there’s no such thing as bad PR,’ but is this true for Lebron?  The response to his decision seems overwhelmingly negative (unless you live in Miami, where I am sure they have not stopped partying), and many people have said that even if he wins an NBA Championship this year he will not be up there with the all-time greats.  If that ends up being the case and his image is forever damaged, I think it is fair to say that this is one publicity stunt gone wrong.

What do you think?  Did the “Lebron Show” help or hurt King James?

Filed under: Uncategorized by Admin - No Comments →

With another wildly successful 360 “Tweet and Eat” lunch under our belts, we are not only a few pounds heavier, but are also fully up to speed on recent hits and misses of digital marketing and PR.  Some of the case studies shared during lunch were so great we just couldn’t keep them to ourselves!  Here are a few of the highlights:

Vitamin Water and Eclipse (movie) Facebook Contest - Surrounding the release of the third Twilight movie, Eclipse, Vitamin Water launched a new Vampire-like drink. To promote it, they launched an Eclipse contest on their Facebook page where fans could win tickets to see the movie and unlock exclusive Eclipse posters! For such a fan-brand, this campaign is smart and engaging for the user. A no brainer!

Denny’s Menu Misprint = FAIL! - An older example, but one worth mentioning is from earlier this year when Denny’s misprinted the company’s Twitter handle on menus that were distributed to 1,500 Denny’s locations across the country. The menus asked customers to “join the conversation” by checking out the Twitter.com/dennys handle, which does not actually belong to Denny’s. Moral of the story? Pay closer attention to the details. More details in this CNET article.

Orbit Gum Web Shorts – In June, Orbit Gum launched a series of HILARIOUS web video shorts staring comedien/actors Jason Bateman and Will Arnet. This must have cost Wrigley’s a fortune, but it seems to be doing really well so far. The first video, Prom Date, has recieved over 220K views on YouTube!

And, it’s not really a case study, but for fans of “The Office,” character Ryan started his own social network called “Woof.” Check it out for a good Friday afternoon laugh.

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Digital PR, FaceBook, Social Media by EliciaBasoli - No Comments →