It’s not everyday that one ad campaign or agency dominates AdAge’s Viral Video Chart. In fact, until last week they’ve never seen it happen– that is of course before the Old Spice Campaign made history with “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.”

In a report on ClickZ, Jack Marshall writes, “The campaign – created by agency Wieden + Kennedy – ran for just three days, with the first videos published on Monday, and the final message posted Wednesday evening. In just seven days since it launched, it’s achieved the following: 35.7 million individual video views, final video reply addressed to everyone has already received 2.5 million views and over 5,800 comments, Old Spice YouTube Channel was the most viewed channel on YouTube last week, and Twitter followers reached 32,000. The campaign has also been making use of Facebook encouraging users to pose questions, and posting the video responses on its official Facebook page.”

What contributed to making the Old Spice campaign a viral phenomenon?

1) Highly Personal & Social: To start with, the towel-clad Isaiah Mustafa responded to blogger and twitter user comments, even proposing to a woman on behalf of one of the Old Spice Twitter followers, then tweeting it back @the follower.

2) Level of Engagement: Noted for “engaging celebrities, influencers and common folk” with 183 video responses.

3) Unique User Responses: In one case, Singer Alyssa Milano responded to the Old Spice Campaign by making her own video asking Mustafa to “make a donation of $100,000 so that they could take their ‘relationship to the next level’ by supporting the National Wildlife Federations Gulf Oil Spill Restoration Fund. And if you’re wondering, she too was draped in a white towel!

4) Quick Turnaround & Timeframe: The campaign was created using a team of approximately 35 people working 12 hours a day for its three day duration.

Even though Isaiah Mustafa bid us farewell in the July 14th YouTube video, Old Spice and Wieden + Kennedy made history– some have suggested the campaign was the perfect blending of social media and social networking. Others have declared that its changed advertising and marketing by setting a new bar of expectations and results.

Like all great things the Old Spice video campaign must end. Even so, have we witnessed the future of video advertising in three short days? What do you think?

Tags: Facebook, Old Spice, Twitter, viral video campaign, Wieden + Kennedy, YouTube

About the author: Debbie Hemley

Debbie is a Social Media Manager with a unique combination of web marketing and content creation experience that span the last 15 years. She blogs about writing and social media. You can contact Debbie through her LinkedIn profile.

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