Old Spice is 'the future of marketing' says Mashable

Couldn't resist republishing part of just one more article on Wieden + Kennedy PDX/NY's Old Spice campaign. This one from Mashable.

Old Spice: The Archetype Of a Successful Social Media Campaign

By Stan Schroeder

The social media onslaught, in which the Old Spice guy – as actor Isaiah Mustafa, which starred in most of Old Spice’s recent commercials, has come to be known on the Internet– has ended today. In his final tweet and video, Mustafa says that “like all great things this too must end.”

And then he catches a giant fish that falls from nowhere.

In this amazingly well-run campaign, the team behind it managed to engage half of the Internet, and provoke almost unequivocally positive results from social media sites such as Reddit and Twitter. Hell, even the comments on YouTube were overwhelmingly positive – and that never happens. The Old Spice Twitter account accumulated tens of thousands of new followers; the YouTube videos amassed hundreds of thousands of views.

Old Spice did it by doing everything perfectly. The Old Spice guy recorded his video responses in rapid succession, an amazing feat in itself which cannot be truly appreciated if you’ve never been in front of a camera. His answers were a perfect mix of coolness and the stuff internet memes are made of. The actual brand – Old Spice – was never shoved into viewers’ throats. Most importantly, all of it was incredibly fun to watch.

The team behind the campaign took great care to engage celebrities, influencers, common folks and popular social media sites in equal amount. And it knew exactly how to talk to them. In his penultimate video, the Old Spice guy talks directly to his daughter, explaining that until recently, he was just a struggling actor no one has ever heard of. When was the last time a marketing campaign spoke directly to you in such a frank way, making you laugh and cry at the same time?

Wieden + Kennedy have set the standards all marketing experts will worship and follow in the years to come. This is the future of marketing.

I’m on a horse.