This is seriously an epic campaign that took on a whole life of it’s own over the past week. I’m sure that you have already heard all about it, but if you didn’t, they were essentially creating real-time YouTube video replies to tweets from “influential people” like Kevin Rose, Biz Stone, Guy Kawasaki, G4TV, Gizmodo, Starbucks, Ellen DeGeneres, Demi Moore, Christina Applegate, Alyssa Milano, and even the Chicago Blackhawks.
BUT they didn’t only respond to celebrities, they also replied to fans, randoms and prominent bloggers; making over 180 videos in total with 5.9 million views combined. (as of Tuesday - according to Mashable)
In addition to coming up with a brand icon that rivals Apple’s PC & Mac characters, Old Spice and W+K have also done a great job at letting people in on the creative process. Last year Craig and Eric did an interview with Twit.tv explaining how they shot the original ad, then this year the actor Isaiah Mustafa (wicked name BTW) did an interview with G4’s Attack of the Show explaining the new spot. And most recently W+K gave a great behind the scenes look about how they were conducting their social media takeover. Brilliant.
Wieden + Kennedy and more specifically Craig Allen (copywriter) & Eric Kallman (art director) are insanely creative and have done an amazing job creating the campaign for Old Spice. The two were also teamed up at TBWA/Chiat/Day New York where they created those amazing/hilarious skittles ads: Touch, Leak, Pinata, Transplant and Beard. They then left TBWA in 2008 after then Creative Director Gerry Graf defected to become chief creative officer at Publicis Groupe’s Saatchi & Saatchi. So far they have already won a Grand Prix at the 2010 Cannes Lions, and I’m sure they will get a slew of digital/social awards for this stunt. Well done.
“Adbroad called it “a move that seems destined to reshape the way brands interact with consumers” , Adfreak reminds us that it all “wouldn’t have meant much without the more traditional element—a brilliant character written by Wieden + Kennedy and performed hilariously by Mustafa”. The Financial post called it a “social media tour de force” - even 4chan (yes,they went there) were amused. When Old Spice stopped working, the internet took over with Reddit users putting together Old an Spice Voicemail generator.”
(via It’s official: Old Spice wins teh intarwebs. | Adland.tv)
Via FuckYeahAds: Condomerie recruited a woman to sit semi-naked in front of a webcam and use Chatroulette. She covered her breasts with a sign that was illegible when she was holding it close to her chest. Once she had got her fellow chatter’s attention, she would move the sign closer to the webcam so that they could read the message: “Bingo! You are now in touch with an HIV infected person. Don’t play Russian roulette in real life.” The sign also included, of course, the condom store’s web address, condomerie.com.
Such a smart, innovative use of the platform—so much so that it seems almost tailor-made for this campaign (and the numerous naked people on ChatRoulette help). But this is a great example of a company being proactive to use a new platform/technology to market their product. And they’re getting great coverage on social media and marketing trade blogs too.
Advertising on the Social Web
I talk often about how important it is to engage with social media as a marketing tactic, and most often I’m referring to using social platforms to communicate with users. I’m a strong believer in the power of communities and word-of-mouth marketing, not least because I’ve seen DailyLit’s userbase grow through these channels and know other people, like June Publishing Point speaker Gail Horwood, EVP of digital at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, have seen success that way too.
However, recently I heard David Kidder of Clickable speak, and he discussed another important element of social media strategy: social advertising. Here’s some of the statistics he shared (via the Clickable blog):
- Of $22.7 billion total U.S. online ad spend in 2009, 50% went to search advertising and 35% went to display (source)
- From display’s $8 billion in spend, an estimated $800 million went to Facebook and MySpace (source)
- Americans received 1.1 trillion display ads in Q1 2010, a 15% bump versus year-ago, led by Facebook (source)
- Facebook now is the largest publisher of ad impressions (source)
- Time spent each month on search engines: 1 hour (source)
- Time spent each month on social networking sites: 6 hours (source)
Compelling numbers, made even more so when you remember that Facebook ads can be targeted by demographics, location, and more. And given how much time users are spending on social sites vs. search sites, these display ads offer very valuable real estate indeed (and six hours is definitely lowballing it, at least in some demographics.)
Engaging with social media gives you a lot of face time and influence with your customers and targeted potential customers. I’ve said before that it’s critical to think about your social media presence as part of your overall marketing strategy (i.e. don’t just create a Facebook page and wait for something to happen), and it’s worth thinking about how user engagement and social media advertising fit into your plan.
Who’s In Charge Here?
Upon hearing news that agency Ogilvy & Mather is prepping to name Lars Bastholm, an insider with digital chops, as the chief creative officer of its New York office, Ad Age asks: Is putting digital experts in the top creative spots the right thing?
I’m not an expert on ad agencies, but haven’t creative directors always needed to have a robust understanding of the media their messages use? Creativity can’t exist in a vacuum, right?
This question reminds me of one of the most (in)famous quotes from last week’s BookExpo America. Speaking on a panel of CEOs discussing the value of a book, Esther Newberg, executive VP of International Creative Management, remarked that one of the nice things about getting old was not having to worry about the resolution of all these arguments—you know, discussions about ebook value, royalties, digital editions, piracy. Shouldn’t those be the very issues that our leaders most aggressively tackle?
Publishing is often referred to as a sinking ship. If that ship is to be righted, we can’t afford to have disengaged people at the helm. As Kassia Kroszer wrote in her recap of the BEA panel, change must begin at home.
My answer to Ad Age’s question, then, is yes. The best leaders are creative thinkers who know their industry inside out—and in media and advertising, that means having serious digital chops.
Continuations: Privacy and the Internet
Continuing the thoughts on privacy/Facebook, here’s a post from Albert Wenger:
I woke up this morning thinking that I should write a post on privacy, having read Fred’s post and danah boyd’s two posts over the weekend and Charlie’s post this morning. Then I realized, I should probably check what I have written about privacy here before, since it seems to be a …
Seconded! Great talk by Seth Godin to The Publishing Point.
If you are in book publishing, PLEASE watch this video of Seth Godin (via @qotdblog ). I can’t believe I just discovered this. Going back to watch the rest now.
Continuations: Facebook and the Net
Couldn’t agree more with Albert Wenger of USV: one social network just doesn’t make sense. I use different services for different purposes and don’t want those boundaries to be crossed without my explicit consent. Think of Google Buzz—just because I email certain people does not mean I want to socially network with them, nor do I want them to see information about me (including whom I email most often). Besides, everything I was doing in Buzz I was already doing elsewhere, and with more features, so I quickly stopped using it.
Hats off to Mark Zuckerberg and the entire team at Facebook. They are managing that most impressive feat of innovating at scale. They are also incredibly ambitious in what they want to accomplish. The goal seems nothing short of one identity and one graph to “rule them all.” With over 400 million users worldwide and a sign on system that is being widely adopted this ambition doesn’t seem crazy. Especially when you layer on top of this the possibility that soon many of these users might have Facebook currency that could be used by sites to implement 1-click purchasing (and by venues to enable RFID based payments via Facebook presence).
But I see at least one flaw with this plan for domination. I simply don’t believe that there is a single social graph that makes sense. I may very well follow someone’s booksmarks on del.icio.us that I don’t want to have any other relationship with. Or take the group of people that I feel comfortable sharing my foursquare checkins with — these are all people I trust and would enjoy if they showed up right there and then. That group in turn is different from the people I work with on Google docs for various projects which is why I would be nervous about using the Microsoft docs connected to Facebook. Trying to shoe-horn all of these into a single graph is unlikely to work well.
SXSWi: What is it good for?
Absolutely everything! This was my first year at SXSW Interactive and I can say it’s the most valuable conference I’ve had the opportunity to attend. I heard interesting speakers and panels, got great new ideas, and met Twitter friends and (former) strangers. It was informative and valuable and inspiring and fun, all the things a good conference should be.
I’ll post some highlights here over the next few days—once I catch up on my work and sleep—but I owe a big thanks to DailyLit for sending me to the conference. What a weekend!
