The latest social media campaign to create buzz in the online world came from the most unlikely of sources.  Old Spice, the fragrance synonymous with the fathers and grandfathers of the world produced a great piece of interactive social media in an attempt to reinvent the brand in the public eye.  Using a combination of YouTube and Twitter Old Spice produced videos in direct response to Twitter messages they received and posted them on their YouTube channel which rapidly became the most viewed in the video networks history with over 5.2m views.

Using a towel clad ex-American Football player Isaiah Mustafa as the face of their campaign, they pushed the masculine message and took a dig at the more feminine fragrances in the market, telling the public to “smell like a man, man.”

There is no doubt this was a truly engaging approach to social media and Old Spice must have really bought into the channel(s) to put so much effort in.  I can’t help wondering however whether this is a worthwhile activity for such a brand.  Sure, a lot of buzz was generated by the campaign, but was that buzz generated in the right areas?  Are people actually going to go out and buy Old Spice as a result of the campaign?

Their target audience was clearly the youth market as they try and remove their “old man” tag.  To this end YouTube and Twitter are appropriate channels.  But the whole thing feels a little gimmicky, and I am definitely not going to rush out and buy Old Spice as a result of it.

I’m not one who think that social media always needs an ROI, far from it.  Buy maybe a branding, logo and packaging overhaul would have been more appropriate if they wanted to increase appeal to the youth audience?  Time will tell I suppose as to whether they can turn their buzz into sales, if they back it up with another campaign of similar impact, it could work out. For now, let’s enjoy the campaign sign off.