Cait Hurley, Everything Everywhere www.charitycomms.org.uk/events

1. Integrated “free media”
Where it really works: Old Spice
Where it really doesn‟t: 1010 viral
Presented by Cait Hurley, Oct 2010

2. Old Spice
From seventies surfer to the man your man could smell
like:
“Wieden + Kennedy have set a standard marketing experts will admire
and follow in the years to come. This is the future of marketing“
-Mashable

3. The ad
(“I’m on a horse” now a widely used phrase in SN status
conversations for humorous one upmanship)

4. TV ad campaign started the new
branding exercise
• Rebrand handled by Weiden + Kennedy
• “I‟m on a horse” ad shown on TV and online
• Original ad garnered 20 million hits on YouTube
• Then suddenly, two months in to the campaign it all went
a bit viral…

5. YouTube campaign
• Twitter account voiced in „authentic‟ Old Spice man‟s
voice started posting YouTube URL‟s
• Over the 2 days, 187 short „reply‟ virals recorded
• Each video replying to a comment to „Old Spice man‟
• Reply videos have garnered 79 million hits

6. Geeks adored it
• YouTube‟s traditionally awful, juvenile comments
brimmed over with glee
• Cynical geeks 4Chan were won over
• A “Reddit” user asked OldSpice man to record an
answerphone message – he did, and a „fan site‟ was
created to download OldSpice man for your own
answerphone. W+K did nothing technical/financial to
facilitate this

7. immediate results of the campaign:
• Top of Digg
• Top of Reddit
• Trending topic on Twitter
• Inventor of Twitter tweets it
• @Coverage in mainstream news / tech news / industry
news (we‟re now in the Times of India, the Sydney
Morning Herald and the Guardian and Metro in the UK).
• Twitter followers multiplied by 10

8. Market effects of whole campaign
• "Old Spice is now the number one male body
wash and deodorant in both dollar and volume
share," (July)
– Old Spice spokesperson
• Total sales for Old Spice body wash (excluding
Wal-Mart) were up 16.7%
• Sales increased 107% in the month of the
social media campaign
– SymphonyIRI Group
• “Our business is on fire,” : Old Spice Brand
Manager James Moorehead

9. Free media elements used
• Ultra cool TV ads garnering comment online. For 1 st
video responses, major comment sites trawled to write
funny reposts to commentary
• Twitter/ Facebook updates used to spread word of new
virals – high „hookability‟
• Actively sought to charm key communities:
• After initial responses, follow ups were written on the fly
to comments as they came in

10. After 186 videos…

11. How not to do it
• 1010: video “No Pressure” written by Richard Curtis
• Released 30th September on to YouTube
• Removed 30th September from YouTube
• Oh dear.
• Since then:
– Video was recorded and re-loaded in to youTube within minutes
– 600+k views since then
– 6000 comments on YouTube
– Countless blog articles, relentlessly negative
– Official apologies from head of 1010 campaign
– Sony removed all 1010 logos from their websites and withdrew
from the campaign

12. Not for the fainthearted:
This is a schoolchild being blown up by his teacher

13. They really didn‟t know
“What a fantastically bonkers time we had on the film
shoot for our very own Richard Curtis-penned mini-
movie last week. First we dressed up a load of friendly
10:10 volunteers as office workers and blew them up in
West London. Then we took over Camden School for
Girls (see article in local rag) and blew up some
schoolchildren. Then we headed down to Tottenham
Hotspurs' training ground and blew up some footballers
(including even-taller-in-real-life Peter Crouch). And
finally we went to a sound studio in Soho and blew up
Gillian Anderson”
Email sent 21st September written by 1010 campaign
figurehead, Franny Armstrong

14. Breakdown of the free media used
• Email hit 1 week before video released, to signed up
supporters of 1010
• Tweets from 1010 in the run up to release
• Plugging on 1010 Facebook page
• … the end result was that it certainly was a global hit, but
not one they could control

15. Takeouts from these two events
• Viral videos are potentially incredibly expensive, in cash
and reputation terms but also have that „pot of gold‟
excitement which should be tempered by rationalism!
• Regardless of which media you choose, you are not only
addressing your core audience, but a global one, of
potential supporters (it will include detractors)
• Tone is vital. What are you trying to achieve?
• Could the same effect be achieved using cheaper
media? Would a personal approach work better?

16. Quick workshop
• Group one • Group two
You have £5k You have £5
to spend on an million to spend
integrated on the
media not-for- integrated
profit campaign media rebrand
of your choice of Clarks
Shoes
1. Use your Top trump cards as a reference to create a coherent integrated
campaign
2. The Social Media Consultant from “Agency X” is available for advice – for
a fee!