Posted by

Barry Siskind

Community Manager

It was about fifteen years ago and I was sitting in a cinema waiting for the movie I paid for to start. All of a sudden, on the big screen, an advertisement for a soft drink flashed. I remember the crowd booing and jeering. I overheard people mumble about how inappropriate advertising at a movie theater was. The advertisement we saw was a recycled television ad. So much has changed. Now movie goers are accustomed to seeing advertisements and marketers have figured out how to make these ads work on the big screen.

The same phenomenon is now happening on the Internet. Many marketers are experimenting with online videos posted through such sites as YouTube. For the most part the successes of these efforts have been hit and miss. But that’s all changing.

Until last week the most viewed video on YouTube was United States President Barack Obama’s victory speech. That particular video saw 4.8 million viewers in the first twenty-four hours.

That was last week. This week Old Spice, the popular men’s aftershave cologne, took their viral campaign to the next level.

Old Spice pitchman, Isaiah Mustafa, bare-chested and wearing nothing but a towel, answered questions posed by celebrities and laypeople via various social media sites in real time. The result, in the first twenty-four hours they had 5.9 million viewers.

This ad was a quantum leap in viral marketing by refocusing its efforts from  broadcasting an Old Spice message to letting the public connect, person-to-person to create a sense of intimacy.

As fair organizers we attempt to create powerful brands. We are trying to create a sense of community within our specific industries. Perhaps the Old Spice example marks the beginning of a new wave of viral marketing.

The advertisements I saw for a soft drink fifteen years ago at a movie theater created a powerful lesson for marketers. Perhaps Old Spice is doing the same thing for social media. It’s certainly worth our attention.