Old Spice Doubles Sales
My recent post about Old Spice and their recent marketing campaign’s lessons for the financial service industry led to some great comments through twitter (thanks!). Over the past month, much of the buzz about the campaign itself came from social channel proponents who, like me, were commenting on the great success of the campaign and its unique blend of social interaction to target a key market (younger generations who may not have normally connected with this ‘old’ brand).
Some of the articles and posts I read over the past month took the view that it is unlikely that the buzz will result in sales. Well, the campaign was pretty successful in selling some old spice. And then some.
Quoting the Wired article (link below), “During the four weeks ending June 13, market research firm SymphonyIRI (cited by Ad Age) found that sales of the product were 106 percent higher than during the same period last year.” Additional sources showed the sales increase ranged from 104-107%.
That’s a lot of Old Spice.
It also provides many lessons for those of us that are using, or plan to use, social channels to create buzz, build relationship, and translate that into some sales.
Some of the things we should note about the campaign:
1. Clever works. Clever is engaging. Clever gets clicks.
2. Pick a good spokesperson for your product or service – this choice was one of genius.
3. Starting off in traditional media and pairing with a (hopefully) viral social campaign can translate into big $$$.
4. Engage. Engage. Engage. Social components need to entice users to react, respond, and click/view.
5. Interact with a large number of influencers and everyday people to start the viral waterfall.
What did you learn from the campaign?
Hats off to Wieden + Kennedy and to the folks at Old Spice. Thanks for reminding us that clever and fun can work, even for ‘older’ brands. W + K
Additional References
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bradley Leimer is a dedicated senior marketer with experience in brand development, online / offline marketing, database marketing, web development, and online banking / mobile financial applications. Connect / Follow via linkedin.com/in/leimer and twitter.com/leimer (@leimer).
