What Marketers Can Learn From Old Spice

Old Spice rolled out a series of videos on YouTube where their spokesperson directly responded to people's Twitter updates in short, funny clips. This marketing program spread like wildfire on the web, and to me, it seemed to be an incredibly important example of how the web is changing marketing and how businesses connect with customers. Instead of the top-down one-to-many approach, Old Spice tried the opposite. They tried one-to-one. In a single day, the marketing team behind the Old Spice campaign produced 89 videos. That's crazy. And most of them were really offbeat and engaging.


When many businesses try to leverage the web to create an "innovative' marketing program, they focus too much on the technology, and not enough on the people. They create complicated systems where customers earn 'points,' and ask customers to give before they can receive. (eg: opt-in, log in or sign up). But what often works best are things that are simple. Things that engage real people in basic ways. And that's what Old Spice did. These are the lessons from it:

• Get Closer to Customers
• Be Nimble
• Target Influencers
• Target the Little Guy
• Don't Worry About Owning the Platform
• Real-Time is a Powerful Engagement Factor
• Have Fun

Does your marketing program have these elements?