Friday Quick Hits: Marketing Never Smelled So Good

Unless you were completely living under a rock this week – you probably noticed everyone swooning over the Old Spice Social Media/Youtube campaign. Which was, in a word, brilliant.

Old Spice took over the Youtube and Social Media airwaves as ‘the man’ Isiah Mustafa responded to comments from Twitter, Facebook, etc in real-time resulting in over 100 different personalized video responses. The result? Massive global awareness and millions of people viewing, commenting, and sharing around the web.

Other companies *must* take note of what Old Spice accomplished. They, in short, captured the essence of the three key factors of Social Media:

Timeliness

The effectiveness of this campaign starts and ends with the timeliness of their approach. Video responses were added in real time, which got people talking, asking their one questions, revisiting the Youtube account over and over hoping that the OldSpice guy would answer them…this campaign is a perfect example of being in the right place at the right time, listening to your audience and saying “Hey, we hear you”.

Engagement

The core of any marketing plan, especially one that takes place on the web, is engagement. Every business must ask, “Are we engaging our customers?” – It’s up to you to find out who you’re trying to target, and taking a proactive approach that gets people interacting not only with you and  your brand, but amongst each other.

Personalization.

Old Spice proved that even a big-name brand can make things personal. They showed, in an extremely entertaining way, that even the little guy, you and I, are an important part of their success. They relied on their customers to spread their message and in short, it worked like a charm. All it takes it showing that you give a damn – maybe creating brand evangelists is easier than you think.

Old Spice wins ‘cool thing’ of the week. Now go catch up on some of these great reads…

• 5 Awesome (Free) Tools for Every Webpreneur | MattChevy
• Life Without Pants: An Interview with Matt Cheuvront | Rowdy Kittens
• Future of Web Design Conference in NYC (mostly posting this because I wish I could go)
• Twitter Handles: My Name or Nickname? | FADS
• 12 Lessons Learned From Year One of Jobless Freedom | Far Beyond the Stars
• Full length trailer for “The Social Network” (looks frickin’ AWESOME!)

Share some of the wealth. What good things came your way this week?