by Chris Sisco
on July 14 2010
in Social Media Optimization (SMO)
Look at your internet marketing campaign, now back at Old Spice's, now back to yours, now back to Old Spice's. Sadly…it’s not Old Spice's. But it could socialize like Old Spice's.
Old Spice recently launched a viral campaign that stars Isaiah Mustafa (the original actor from the Old Spice commercial) responding to Twitter tweets, Facebook posts, and YouTube comments. These comments ranged from popular social media YouTube stars such as Sxephil to actress and celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres. What was most interesting was that Old Spice also took the time to reply to users who would not be beneficial due to their lack of influence in comparison to bigger social media stars… or was that the secret to its success?
Here an example of some of the videos
Old Spice's viral campaign has been extremely successful in its social spread with over 2 million views on YouTube. Many have claimed this interactive social media plan is revolutionary and we will see many imitators in the near future. I would argue that this campaign, while brilliant, is not far from what current social media strategists have been recommending all along – engaging social communities in a comical yet informative way. So why is Old Spice the first to do so?
<rant>
Less based on fact and more so on personal opinion, the entire (not so) secret to social media is engagement. However, many companies don’t believe that they have the “time” or “resources” to allocate to social media or internet marketing strategies. They don’t have the “man power” to “engage” loyal customers. This is becoming similar to thinking that "we shouldn’t do marketing or sales either…” because that’s how crucial the internet has become in your over-all marketing strategy. Yes internet marketing can be a full time job, but so can other upstream and downstream processes such as HR, sales, manufacturing, etc. Progressive companies have to stop being resistant to change and realize they will be left behind in the new world of marketing that increases transparency and decreases walls between them and their customers. It is time to let go of company persona and ego. Corporations are just starting to realize that the internet levels the playing field: they are no longer the movers and the shakers because the consumer is on an equal footing. </rant>
But Chris…we really don’t have the resources to launch a campaign like this!
Old Spice's marketing, HR, sales, and other departments are composed of hundreds of employees and follows some pretty basic upstream and downstream business models. If you don’t have as many resources as Old Spice, does this mean you shouldn’t have an HR or sales department? You will more than likely hire a few individuals to take on respective roles and maybe even wear multiple hats until you expand. Similarly, embracing smaller scaled internet marketing projects with fewer employees specializing in these fields should be practiced. I think there’s a huge misconception of internet marketing that’s says “go big or go home”. This is in part due to people believing that all internet marketing happens on the internet. WRONG! Internet marketing should be included in your Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) plan and all advertisements should compliment one another. Just because you created a Twitter account and Facebook account doesn’t mean you are utilizing SOCIAL media.
Fine, but how can I possibly measure the ROI on social media?
When you create a direct marketing campaign, you measure sales based on coupon codes given to certain postal codes/regions. If you create a PR campaign, you measure based on public reception. If you sponsor an event, you measure it based on leads generated. If you create a sales promotion, you measure it on past sales figures and see how much sales increased. The problem is that many marketers are looking at social media as some sort of red headed step child of marketing. It’s just like ANY other marketing effort. Your marketing objectives (increase sales, capture market share, expand product line) and your IMC objectives (increase brand awareness) will determine how you utilize social media and what kind of ROI you should expect.
In a nut shell – business models have had minor changes in the past few decades: we have become comfortably numb in our marketing efforts. The emergence of internet marketing has warranted some justified changes to our models and will require us to open our eyes and arms to an inverted “Brave New World”.