Last week the folks at our office were passing around links to the commercial above from Old Spice. It’s another manly ad from the brand’s agency, Wieden+Kennedy, and it certainly earned lots of LOLs in our office space. I personally found it amusing but very rushed. Many of the words are said so quickly that I missed them and had to go back. I wondered why the pace was so quick, until I began to recall sitting in an editing suite reviewing commercials with my then-agency when I used to be a brand manager at P&G. It came together for me when I looked down at the total time of the video on the corner of the screen and saw :30. Yep, this was a TV commercial also uploaded to YouTube.
Now, let me begin by saying that I don’t have an incredibly strong opinion on this case. Regular readers know that I usually come down hard one way or the other in these blog posts. But in this situation I have more of a working theory to air—and I’m not soft-pedaling just because Old Spice is a brand from one of our big clients, Procter & Gamble, and one of my long-time friends works on the brand.
My working theory is that starting with the 30-second ad is no longer the right way to do branded video. Note first that I am talking “branded video” instead of “commercials.” I think a lot of smart marketers and agencies are starting to reset how they think about “sight, sound, and motion” and are defining their success by whether or not people are choosing to view and share their marketing, rather than the number of impressions that can be bought.
My point is this: In a world in which it is more important for people to choose to engage with video, you can work without the confines of a 30-second box. One of the best early examples is BMW films, which became a DVD series. Other examples range from Will It Blend to the recent Coca-Cola Happiness Factory that I blogged about a few days ago. In these cases the focus is on creating video that people enjoy viewing. With this freedom, filmmakers can go to two minutes and far beyond. Remember, 30 seconds is no magical measure of the ideal consumer attention span—but rather a number that worked for TV networks to slam in multiple messages between content breaks.
So it feels to me that Old Spice and its agency started with the 30-second hole to fill and fought to push its funny content into the box, rather than making the most fun video possible, posting that online, and then, perhaps, placing an edited version onto the TV screen. Then again, people have chosen to view the Old Spice video on YouTube about 1.5 million times (and counting). I might be wrong. What do you think?
There is something to be said about having a fast pace. Yes, the video does feel rushed, but the rapid fire adds to the humor. It reminds me of the pace on 30 Rock. So many times I miss a joke by laughing at the one right before. But that pace makes it more compelling to watch again, which people have been doing with this commercial.
Normally, I would agree with your point. These commercials have a rushed feel and don’t engage viewers in anything beyond a few laughs. But then again, I started getting the youtube links sent to me by a few friends, family and coworkers. This might prove to be an exception to the rule.
By the way, here a link to an interview that was done with the campaign’s creators: http://www.kgw.com/thesquare/Im-on-a-horse-The-brains-behind-Old-Spices-latest-ad-84825922.html.
Although I agree with your point, I do also have to give kudos to Old Spice for using new media to energize their brand. I can’t tell you how many companies I consult with who don’t have a Youtube account (gasp…I know…) but it’s true. Old Spice will get with it – they’ve made the first steps. If they take your advice and turn the approach around a bit, they will be better off. Now, if I could just get past the fact that any man who uses it will smell like my father (yikes…not a turn on) then, I’d be ok.