Humor & Viral

Genius marketing! It started with the Superbowl ad you probably saw:

Another ad was added to YouTube a few weeks ago:

Now this week, they started responding to select fans on various social media sites with customized video responses from the Old Spice Guy himself. The real kicker – they’re posting the videos to YouTube within hours of the tweet they’re responding to. So once they pick a tweet to respond to, they have to write a witty response script, film a single-shot take they’re happy with, and upload it to YouTube. See the timestamps below – they had a ‘conversation’ with 3 video responses to @Alyssa_Milano in 1 day – with videos about 1 1/2 hour apart; And think about this – that includes the time it took her to tweet back in between. Impressive!

It seems to be working out pretty well for Old Spice. They’re the #1 most viewed channel on YouTube this week, and 2nd for the month. And I don’t know about you, but the more I see that guy man, the more I actually think he smells really, really good; and the more I think, maybe, just maybe, I *do* want to smell like him!

Jul 13, 11:45 AM: On Twitter, Alyssa_Milano wrote “GENIUS. Shirtless Old Spice guy replies on Twitter w/ hilarious personalized videos”

Jul 13 1:22 PM: On Twitter, Alyssa_Milano wrote “My coffee went up my nose. @oldspice guy made a video reply to my tweet!!”

Jul 13, 2:57 PM: On Twitter, Alyssa_Milano wrote “Are you flirting with me, @oldspice guy…”

Jul 14, 12:04 PM: On Twitter, @Alyssa_Milano wrote “Ummm — Are you sitting down??? Sit down. Ready? The @oldspice guy sent me roses!”

On Twitter, @rosemcgowan wrote “I like it too! @Oldspice I told my husband I have a crush on you. Oddly, he started using the oldspice deodorant. (via @Alyssa_Milano)”

Kevin Rose (Digg founder)
On Twitter, @kevinrose wrote “i’m considering buying old spice body wash just so they keep making these epic commercials – http://bit.ly/K87jz ”

And it’s not just celebrities.

On Twitter, @Jsbeals wrote “@OldSpice Can U Ask my girlfriend to marry me? Her name is Angela A. Hutt-Chamberlin #Johannes S. #Beals”

On Twitter, @GeorgeGSmithJr wrote “@joshmishell I bet you would take me seriously if @oldspice made a video for me! #helpmeoldspiceguyyourmyonlyhope”

On YouTube, 12755JDH wrote “I love these commercials”

On Twitter, @Gillette wrote “@OldSpice what’s up my friend…big fan ”…

Everyone:
[I guess it was just a 3-day thing]

View all Old Spice Guy video responses:

FastCompany has a great writeup and interview with someone from the advertising firm that came up with the campaign.

And now there’s even an Old Spice Man Voicemail Generator that was apparently thrown together mostly by members of Reddit.

Instead of Public Hearings, report to Congress in a “Congressional Confession Cam.”

I love how he does the “Cam” shot ‘live’ – without any time cuts.

After the ads, jump to the 7:00 mark.

The Colbert Report 6/24/2010

Sorry for the ads, and having to try to seek to the 7:00 mark. Blame VIACOM / Comedy Central for only allowing certain clips to be embedded ad-free. Way to make it difficult to spread your show via social media, geniuses.

If I got one of those make-a-wish wishes, I think mine would be to be in Ok Go. These guys are awesome!

And they ditched their label, so when you buy their music, they actually get paid for it!!

ChatRoulette is creepy as hell.. but this Merton guy’s got a great take at it!

Chat Roulette Funny Piano Improv #1 from Merton on Vimeo.

Note: Apparently YouTube has since taken their copy of the video down, because some of the ‘partners’ complained that they didn’t give permission for their faces to be used… because apparently using ChatRoulette to let total strangers see you on your webcam doesn’t constitute permission for more complete strangers to see your face. Lame! At least Vimeo’s still got the original!

Remember the music video with the 4 guys on treadmills? It was by the band OK GO. You didn’t think they could do anything more impressive than that, did you? Well, you were wrong. While not as ‘fun’ to watch, this one’s far more impressive I wonder how many TVs & pianos they went through before they got it right. Judging by their painted overalls, a lot.

Check out this music video from Kiwi Crossing for the song ‘Last Train to Awesome Town” by Parry Gripp.

Lip Dub video for the Flight of the Conchords song “Hiphopopotamus Vs Rhymenoceros,” by Kiwi Crossing.