The Best Marketing Campaign of All Time?
Hey guys, how’s everyone doing? Today’s post is going to be about viral marketing and I’m excited to share with you one of the best, and personally, my favorite marketing campaign!
How many of you know who Isaiah Mustafa is? An American actor and former football athlete, he is better known as the Old Spice man in “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign. The campaign was launched in 2010 and its intention was to appeal to the female demographic and subtlety influence men to buy Old Spice brand products.
The advertisement video received an outpouring of positive reviews and has since reached more than 56 million views on Youtube. The campaign also saw a 300% increase in traffic to the Old Spice website, a 2700% increase in Twitter followers and 1.2 billion media impressions.
With such overwhelmingly successful results, you must be thinking how did they do it? Well, introduced by Professor Jonah Berger, the STEPPS framework has been used to analyse content and why they become contagious. He believes that when it comes to spreading a message virally, the message is the point of centre.
In the framework, there are 6 elements to a successful campaign.
Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, Stories
Social Currency – When the campaign was gaining traction, many people shared their stories and thoughts. They shared instances of when they were reminded of the brand in their everyday lives. This could be observed as an attempt to seek social approval, to groom people’s image of them. They want to get in on the conversation and be an insider.
Triggers – Old Spice generated a lot of marketing interaction between various channels such as social media and television. Even if you have not seen the advertisement on a particular platform, when you come online, you’re exposed to a discussion with a huge community who have. After the release of the advertisement, consumers were encouraged to ask the Old Spice Man questions on social media to have a personalised video response. Here’s an example:
Emotion – In the advertisement, the Old Spice Man’s opening line was “Hello Ladies”. This was a breakthrough for the brand as it has been traditionally been a man’s brand. He then continued to focus his attention on them while taking them on a cruise ride, giving tickets to the thing they like and showing them diamonds. He ended by saying that all of that is possible when their man smells like Old Spice. This encouraged emotional engagement as they are pricked to think of the possibilities with just the switch of a grooming product.
Public – The campaign was posted on very public platforms such as Youtube, Twitter and Facebook. Anyone with access to the Internet can search for it and get involved.
Practical Value & Stories – With the campaign, both male and female demographics are exposed to the brand and they are now informed of the choices that are available to them. They now know, hey I can consider buying Old Spice the next time I’m looking for a body wash etc. Responses or stories surrounding the campaign have been very positive. With accessibility, it spread pretty much like wildfire.
So, that has been Old Spice for you! Do you think that there are any negative aspects to the campaign or perhaps, you can tell me what your favorite advertisement or marketing campaign is? Come share with me in the comments!
The Deserving Truth 
Hi Deborah ! Informative post with a good example ! McDonald’s Singapore has unveiled a campaign called “Don’t Miss Out Again”, in line with the re-launch of Nasi Lemak Burger. The campaign tagline alludes to the Nasi Lemak Burger’s first launch in July 2017, when the locally-inspired Nasi Lemak Burger sold out in just two weeks due to overwhelming demand by Singaporean foodies. It is one of the successful campaigns that I like most as it understands the needs and wants of its audience. However, what is some of the unsuccessful viral campaigns other companies have not done well? Do share with me some of them. 🙂
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Hello Xin Yi, I’m glad you enjoyed the post! Oh yes, I remember the Nasi Lemak burger, it was very clever of Mcdonald’s to make a play on the situation. Hmm, on your question of unsuccessful viral campaigns, I think one of the more recent ones was the #DGLovesChina campaign. The advertisement featured a Chinese model struggling to eat Italian food with a pair of chopsticks. The campaign became controversial, with the international community saying that it was extremely racist of the brand. I’ve actually written a post on the marketing failures of 2018, if you’d like to read more, you can find it here – https://thedeservingtruth.home.blog/2019/09/16/199/
I hope you have a great week!
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Hello!! Great Post! After reading your post i have a better understanding of how a marketing campaign using 6 STEPPS to create viral campaigns. Which are your favourite IMC campaign?
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Hi Bella, I’m glad that you find the post informative 🙂 In my post, I mentioned the Old Spice campaign as one of my favourite campaigns. But here’s another one for you – the very famous ALS Bucket Challenge. I think it’s a wonderful way to generate excitement and discussion about a serious topic and raise money for a good cause. What do you think?
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Hi Deborah!
Another interesting post about viral marketing campaign! I love the advertisement from Old Spice hahaha moving on.
There are many viral marketing campaigns out there, but some firms or brands just overlook one of the elements which sometimes may be detrimental. I love the ‘story’ element of the 6 STEPPS as to me, I feel it’s the most important element of the 6. With stories, your consumers can feel emotions, be it happy, sad or anger. With emotions, consumers feel that they are better connected with the brand or firm. With inspirational stories, there is a higher chance of creating word-of-mouth.
Viral marketing campaigns such as “Korean Spicy Noodle Challenge” has done exceptionally well in their marketing campaign as they created “fear-of-missing-out” element instilled in their consumers. With this, people want to take up the challenge and buy the product.
We must not forget to incorporate other tools, such as Mobile Marketing and influencer marketing in our campaigns to ensure a success of our marketing campaigns. Learning never stops and we must constantly adapt and stay relevant to target our consumers effectively.
Overall, a good read! 😊 Thank you for sharing once again! Looking forward for more!
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Hi JQ, yes Old Spice is the one to beat, isn’t it? Always a fan favourite. I cannot agree more with you when you say “story” is the most element in the STEPPS framework. Emotions are very powerful in building a connection with an audience. Take the #MeToo movement as an example – many individuals, especially women, felt triggered to support positive change; helping the campaign to gain so much momentum in such a short amount of time.
Thanks for taking the time to read my post, I hope to share many more exciting and interesting topics!
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