The Company Your Company Could Tweet Like

Earlier this week, the Man Your Man Could Smell Like (whom his fans affectionately refer to as "Old Spice Guy," and who seems to have a mysterious connection via a parallel universe to actor and former NFL player Isaiah Mustafa) spent two days personally responding to Tweets and Facebook posts addressed to him.

Old Spice Guy is not the first to converse with Facebook fans and Twitter followers on behalf of the company he represents. However, he is the first to carry on that conversation through over 150 YouTube videos recorded and posted over two days while in a bathroom, wrapped in a towel. Here's a sample:



In other response videos, Old Spice Guy answers fans' questions, gives shout-outs to celebrities, offers manly wisdom, sweetly reassures skeptics, and even proposes to a man's girlfriend for him. But you'll have to find those videos yourself.

As of this writing, each video has received between 33,000 and 1.9 million views. Most of the videos have received a few hundred comments each. And a few received comments like, "I went out and bought Old Spice TODAY because of this video!"

The Old Spice brand image has come a long way in a few short years. Not too long ago, Old Spice seemed...old. My grandfather used Old Spice. My guy friends did not.

But now, Old Spice seems young. Strong. Robust. Adventurous. Manly. Daring. Thanks in large part to a well-executed campaign surrounding Old Spice Guy, making the claim that wearing Old Spice can help men to smell like a "ridiculously handsome" man who rides horses and whales with equal ease, uses wolverines to apply body wash, bakes gourmet cakes in a kitchen built with his own hands, and wins medals for exotic car-throwing.

Old Spice has created a new image for itself with clever videos that make hilariously absurd boasts of manly strength. Because it has created content that people enjoy watching, it has been able to reach audiences and start converting viewers into fans. And now its amazingly funny personalized video responses have furthered those fan relationships.

I'm not saying that your company needs to start conversing with customers via individual YouTube videos of a man in a towel. In fact, you probably shouldn't. But you should look for ways to connect with customers in an enjoyable way that surpasses expectations and aligns with the brand reputation that you want to have.

If personalized video response tweets is the way for your company to do that, then go for it.

How Clever Is Too Clever?

Marketers like to be clever in their communication.

When they develop brand messaging, or an advertising campaign, or a product name, they want to create something that (1) attracts attention, (2) reinforces the desired "personality" of their brand, and (3) sticks in peoples' minds.

Sometimes marketers muster all of their cleverness and creativity to produce marketing communications that truly get noticed, and truly stick, and truly remind people of the brand. When I think of successful marketing efforts, I think of brands and campaigns and slogans like these:

• Twizzlers. "Makes mouths happy."
  Did this slogan leave us with any doubt that Twizzlers were a delightful thing to eat?


• Fuddruckers.
  The name itself is so funny to say - and the selection of burgers and toppings so fun and delicious (ostrich burger with peanut butter, anyone?) - that this restaurant chain is pretty unforgettable.


• GEICO. "15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance."
  After seeing that random, Australian-sounding gecko and hearing that slogan over and over and over again, who could forget that GEICO can save you money on car insurance?

When these brands and campaigns delight consumers and stay in their brains, the cleverness and creativity of their marketing teams has paid off.

But sometimes, cleverness actually sabotages the marketers' goals. A few examples:

• The Oneders.
  This was the original name of the band for whom Tom Hanks' character served as manager in the 1996 movie That Thing You Do. The band members tried to be clever with their name by replacing the "won" in "wonder" with the number "one." Unfortunately, their audiences didn't get it, pronouncing the name as "The Oh-NEED-ers" instead of as "The ONE-ders." Later in the movie, the band dropped the clever spelling and renamed themselves simply "The Wonders."


• The Brew.Net Internet Cafe
  This is the name of a coffee house in my town - a rather good one, actually - that offers free wi-fi (hence the allusions to both coffee and Internet in the name). But customers - and potential customers - never seem quite sure how to pronounce the name. Is it "The Brew Net" (sounds like "brunette")? Or "The Brew DOT Net" (sounds like a web URL)? Here again, cleverness obstructs customers' pronunciation. And if they can't pronounce it, how can they tell their friends about it?


• Super Bowl commercials - generally speaking.
  How many times do we see brilliant, extreme, hilarious Super Bowl commercials - ones that we share with our friends and laugh about for weeks - but which leave us with absolutely no recollection of which brand the commercial was promoting. Was that a Hyundai ad or a Nissan? Sprite or Sierra Mist? If the viewers can't remember the brand name, it doesn't matter how much they loved and laughed at the ad.

In marketing, clever can be good. Clever can make your brand surprising and remarkable and memorable. Or it can make your brand get lost in the confusion or hilarity of your messaging.

If you must be clever, make sure that your cleverness reinforces your brand, rather than distracting from it. A clever ad that leaves viewers without a clue about your brand is much less worthwhile and effective than a non-clever ad that clearly tells viewers who you are.