Hello Ladies.
OK, me typing it is not the same as the Old Spice Guy saying it, but those two words have worked their way into our vocabulary quickly.
A lot of us in the viral marketing world are struck with Old Spice Guy envy right now. And I don't mean just over his abs.
Some are calling the campaign the most successful viral campaign ever. Why? Well in just a few short weeks the campaign can claim
- Nearly 90,000 followers on Twitter, including a host of celebrities.
- 100 million views and 100,000 subscribers on YouTube
- 666,000 fans on Facebook
A great campaign? By the above measures, absolutely.
Then today, news breaks that Old Spice sales have dropped 7% since the campaign started and critics are out in force talking about how viral marketing doesn't equate to sales.
Having worked with more than 100 clients over the last 4 years, we've learned what the first question, last and middle question should be when sitting down with a client:
What is the goal of this campaign?
Initially most companies will tell you that it's all about revenue, they need to show an ROI. We love to hear that, and as an agency, we love to focus on that, but allow me to play devil's advocate:
- Sometimes driving ROI may mean messaging is inconsistent with your brand. If we say you sell "cheap laptops" we can sell a lot of laptops. But that phrase may make your skin crawl. It may drive qualified visitors via search, it may convert incredibly well from your ads, it may bring in hundreds or thousands of buyers via social media. If your goal is to sell stuff, there will be some aspects of your brand you will have to let go.
- Understand the value of keeping something cool out of the hands of competitors. Is some marketing manager at Dove or Dial or Lever getting screamed at right now for NOT coming up with the Old Spice Guy campaign? You bet. About a year ago we presented a status update on a viral marketing program. I went on and on about the site's activity, membership growth and media attention. At the end, the VP of Marketing looked at me and said, "That's all great, but the biggest value of this campaign is that our competitor DOESN'T have it."
- ROI isn't always the sexy stuff. There have been times when a client has insisted that ROI is all that matters in a campaign. We do the research and identify where busy mom's in Chicago gather, we determine their top health concerns, we put together a program to reach them. We build the projections demonstrating an ROI of 30% when we reach the top influencers with a sampling program. The client looks at the plan and says, "We were thinking more Twitter." The fact is, the highest ROI campaigns may not use Twitter, Facebook or videos of monkeys.
Does this mean that ROI campaigns can't be true to your brand and sexy? Of course not. But my best advice is to have clear goals in order before you start a campaign. If the Old Spice folks defined upfront that they wanted a campaign to increase the online buzz around Old Spice by 100x, gain thousands of media pickups, build a network of fans and advocates and reach a new audience with its product, while being absolutely hilarious and immensely entertaining, this program was an overwhelming success. If the goal was to increase sales by 10%, the program failed. Having the goals defined upfront keeps all stakeholders on the same page and allows for a very clear call on the success of a campaign.
Now look back at me.





