Social Media Campaigns – The Good and Not So Good
July 28th, 2010 by Anthony Triana. Posted in Entertainment, Industry Expertise
With the proliferation of social media, more and more organizations are realizing its value as a marketing and public relations tool. As such, we now have a multitude of examples that provide lessons on what to do and not to do when it comes to social media campaign planning and execution. We’ve recently seen two great examples of both.
Old Spice launched a campaign in Februrary around the Old Spice Guy with a television ad themed, “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” This initial ad campaign recently climaxed this month with a flurry of 180 YouTube videos personalized for fans and celebrities alike. The original ad attracted 19 million views, with this latest “Old Spice Responses” campaign resulting in 5.9 million views and 22,500 comments, all since the middle of July.
What’s great about the campaign is how Old Spice and marketing agency Wieden + Kennedy used viewers to go viral, noting that brands don’t make viral videos, users do. To achieve viral success, they not only sent customized video responses to random individuals, but also to celebrities like Alyssa Milano and Ellen DeGeneres. The campaign also took a positive approach, offering valuable, but funny advice, as opposed to a shocking or over-the-top attitude to help the content go viral. This approach made people want to be a part of the experience.
On the other hand, in an effort to be seen as edgy and youthful, Dr. Pepper launched a Facebook campaign in the U.K. with ad agency Lean Mean Fighting Machine (LMFM) that used Chat Roulette as part of April Fool’s jokes by “punking” users, showing them a cheerleader to get their attention then switching her out for someone less desirable. Later, LMFM led a campaign that gave consumers a chance to win £1,000 if they allowed the brand to take control of their status updates on Facebook. This campaign eventually offended a 14-year-old girl (and her parents) with an inappropriate message.
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