Cory Reeve .com

Wieden + Kennedy

Some of you are smiling right now, knowing exactly where I’m going with this. Some of you knew when you read the title of this blog post. Some of you are still lost. Don’t worry internet friends, I am here to help. To begin the story we have to go back to the Super Bowl this past February. The Colts and the Saints were engaged in an epic battle that only pious guys and wild stallions can engage in. Then, during one of the commercial breaks, we were treated to this:

From this hilarious, if slightly innocuous seeming, commercial a star was born. That star was actor Isaiah Mustafa in the role of what would come to be known as Old Spice Guy. Several more videos were made, but it seemed like nothing more than another serial marketing effort. That is, until the beginning of this week…

If you are the proud owner of an internet connection or know or work for someone who does then you’ve heard of YouTube. Well, the folks at Wieden + Kennedy leveraged the Old Spice channel for all it was worth earlier in the week. A team of writers, social media experts, tech guys and the man with the gift for dead-pan humor from the series got together to respond to Tweets, Facebook status updates, YouTube comments and even the dreaded 4Chan in video format. Over the course of two days, they uploaded nearly 200 personalized video responses. Nearly without exception, the videos were adored and consumed. Even the people at 4Chan; known for reviling everything, and everyone, because they can; got a kick out of it.

But it didn’t stop at video responses. There were two videos (one for men and one for women) that were created specifically so people could slice up the audio from it and create an outgoing voicemail message from it. Soundboards were created, websites devoted to generating them were created, and people were ripping the audio and making their own. I must admit that I created one, and will have it on my voicemail as soon as I can figure out how to get it onto the Droid without it sounding like crap. (So far, attempting to hold the phone near the computer speaker has been unsuccessful.) Alyssa Milano actually responded in a towel, challenging Old Spice Guy to donate money to help animals harmed after the oil spill.

Kudos to Wieden + Kennedy for using Social Media to create an engaging and interesting campaign. Kudos to Proctor and Gamble (Old Spice’s parent company) for having the guts to let them try something that had never been done before. The use of social media outlets, along with technology savvy minds and creative thinking has given us the newest internet phenomenon. And it is a commercial series for Old Spice products.

Swan Dive! Into one of the best and most well executed advertising ideas of the decade.