Old Spice India Sets Benchmark for Brands by Mastering the Art of Twitter Conversations in #MrMantasticSays

Oct 18, 2013

Old spice has built the equity of its brand around “The Old Spice Man” across geographies including the immensely successful campaign in North America. When Old Spice decided to launch the campaign in India, through a series of television commercials and on Social media, the same essence was needed to be faithfully recreated.

The brand has been creating a 360 degree branding using the #Mantastic Man, represented by the leading male model, Milind Soman. A digital agency ibs, executed the #MrMantasticSays campaign on Twitter for Old Spice India.

Influential Twitter Strategy

Twitter is a key social platform where influencers’ and opinion leaders immediately scatter new happenings. After the Mantastic television ads went viral, many users expressed their opinion regarding the new Old Spice campaign. Usually, news updates about a brand are left ignored and go unanswered.

However, Old Spice had a comeback for every update by every user talking about the advertisement or having an opinion in general. The brand used the hash-tag #MrMantasticSays. The comebacks were full of quirky lines and bold statements made by the brand. An accustomed user to brand ignorance most certainly takes notice of Old Spice when he/she receives a personalized response from the brand.

@ActuallyAisha @tanndell @swatkat24 @zoranaless #MrMantasticSays pic.twitter.com/syRrbJav17

— Old Spice India (@OldSpiceIndia) October 14, 2013

Over and above the people who tagged the handle, it was the general audience who used Twitter like they would always do – to speak their mind. Old Spice wanted to engage with them and given the spontaneity of the platform and the strong sentiment that was evoked, the brand rolled out its strategy on Twitter.

Why good conversations matter

Twitter has a matured audience as we all know and it is time brands moved beyond contests to stir conversations. A good conversation is two way and Old Spice is using #MrMantasticSays to offer an exceptional two way conversation, taking complete advantage of their brand ambassador.

The Old Spice Man cannot afford to disappoint his admirers and critics, so he had to strike up a conversation on Twitter. Of course, Mantastic conversations needed to be backed with a drill down understanding of the subject and a scan of his persona to personalise the response which is the heart of the #Mantastic campaign on Twitter.

For Instance, a parody account of Arnam Goswami, Farzi Arnab with 18K+ followers tweeted and Mantastic replied with a personalized response.

#MrMantasticSays One minute, please. Yeah @justicearnab da!. Welcome to the great indian mantastic pic.twitter.com/XBka9EZ6VG

— Old Spice India (@OldSpiceIndia) October 17, 2013

Getting yourself noticed and heard on Social Media needs extreme personalization which is exactly what the ibs team decoded. They featured state of the art internet surveillance classification and profiling capabilities, using which the team worked upon the creative and copy of each response with due diligence.

The creative leg of the brand strongly relied on social profiling that the research team did as personalization was an important element. All the responses created were crafted in a way where they highlight the personalization of the person they are talking to. The creative worked on elements that the person most relates or likes and the copy worked on highlighting elements of their lives.

Content Curation

The backbone of the campaign can be easily attributed to the originality of the content which is bold in nature. The quirk and the witty responses are for everyone including newsmakers, influencers as well as the general public on Twitter. What is commendable is that Old Spice India did not shy away from being bold even though influencers have a pattern of being sarcastic.

The brand believed that influencers are people at the end of the day that have an opinion and deserve to be heard. The brand believed that the dense funny bone that most influencers showcase is infact an added advantage.

Additionally, when a bold campaign like this is rolled out, what is most important is the response time that is taken amidst the approval processes between the brand and the agency. Old Spice created a parallel approval process and showed unprecedented faith in the capability of their agency to respond in line with the brand tone and in near real time.

Approach

What began as a mere comment by the brand on existing tweets expressing their opinion about Mantastic advertisement has now turned into a steady race of tweets by users craving for Mr. Mantastic to respond to them. I believe this was a fantastic approach by the brand where they played on existing tweets rather than initiating an activity to invite tweets.

Conclusion

Post the campaigning on television, Youtube and Facebook, the response has generated hundereds of likes, comments and shares, positioning the Mantastic campaign viral in just a few days. A cumulative exposure (impressions) of 2.72 million was achieved on Twitter within the first 48 hours.

The Mantastic man is evoking strong sentiments on Social Media not only in response to the Mantastic man himself but also to the television commercials. Responding to these sentiments and offering Mr. Mantastic’s personal attention is a great way to create engagement while the campaign at a larger level reinforces the brand character that is humorous, satirical and witty.

In the coming days, the campaign momentum and reach is only likely to grow even further.