Yesterday, one of the most talked-about campaigns in recent history, Old Spice’s ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’ (or TMYMCSL , as we have seen it ‘abbreviated’ to) took on a new dimension – simultaneously delighting millions of fans and setting a new bar for social media engagement by brands.
Having already racked up millions of views on YouTube for their TV ads and been awarded the Cannes Lions Grand Prix a few weeks ago, the campaign was already a viral hit. Then yesterday, the agency behind the campaign, Wieden & Kennedy led by Ian Tait (recently of Poke, London), took it to another level by using Twitter and YouTube to create and broadcast over 100 videos in real-time, with ‘TMYMCSL’ (actor and former sports star Isaiah Mustafa) fronting videos responding to tweets to the @oldspice Twitter account. Initially using sponsored tweets and sponsored Twitter trends, within hours the word had spread and everyone from Ellen DeGeneres to Perez Hilton to regular fans were getting in on the act.
These days, anyone can shoot a video and instantly put it online, but what’s exceptional in this case is the quality of the writing & performance – and the sheer volume of the content produced in such a short time scale. Hats off to the team at Old Spice and Wieden & Kennedy, and check out Read Write Web’s insight into how the videos were being made, which documents the process from the initial gathering of tweets, to seeding the finished video responses back online.
Whatever your take on the TV ads (which have only aired in the US, but been seen by millions worldwide on YouTube), this is a truly innovative and hugely enjoyable extension of the creative idea using social media. Using Twitter offered everyone the chance to get directly involved and be a part of a campaign that otherwise might have remained a much-loved, but ultimately abstract concept.
As of midnight last night, US time, production came to an end on this mammoth effort, but you can check out the 100+ videos on the Old Spice YouTube channel and read wearesocial’s synopsis of the buzz generated so far via Twitter.
Expect this one to run and run… with no doubt more awards to follow.
