Mustafa's Spiciness: Social Media and the Advertising Industry

One of the most fascinating cases I've seen of an advertiser using social media to not only create a buzz about their product but to also interact with their audience in a new and entertaining way has been the Old Spice campaign with athlete/spokesperson Isiah Mustafa, whose role as a handsome, witty and wildly self-aggrandizing guy-in-a-towel-or-on-a-horse has been played to perfection.

Officially titled the "Smell Like a Man, Man" campaign by ad agency Wieden + Kennedy, Mustafa's engaging and tongue-in-cheek ads first aired on television. The ads "went viral" and became pop culture attractions in their own right.



Then, as if just a really hot ad campaign were not enough, Wieden + Kennedy took an entirely new approach to social media. As explained in a Forbes article, the ad agency decided to utilize Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to create a series of 150 short videos featuring Mustafa in a shower (with a towel covering only a bit of his buff physique) responding wittily to questions that had been tweeted to him. It was like an extra bonus to feed the hunger of the fans of the ad campaign.

“This campaign really is a perfect storm of viralty — not only does it target specific bloggers (who are then more likely to cover the whole thing), it also reaches out to less prominent individuals who can be made more aware of Old Spice. Moreover, they become personally invested in the brand because they have actually become a part of the world it has created. We’re not sure if this marathon of videos will lead to more Old Spice products sold — but it definitely creates a brand identity that people will be interested and excited to engage with,” a Mashable blog says.



In August, Wieden + Kennedy released the video case study (above) of their Old Spice social media campaign, calling it "the fastest-growing and most popular interactive campaign in history"; they noted:

• More people watched its videos in 24 hours than those who watched Obama’s presidential victory speech
• Total video views reached 40 million in a week.
• Campaign impressions: 1.4 billion.
• Since the campaign launched, Old Spice Bodywash sales are up 27%; in the last three months up 55%; and in the last month (July to August) up 107%

The agency also won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Commercial in late August, 2010.

In today's news, Mustafa and his towel are back!