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What do Stormy Simon and Old Spice Man both have in common? They're both viral sensations. You may remember the Old Spice whirlwind -- he came in like a tornado, hitting us hard with suave sarcasm and silly jokes. He's been a constant face for Old Spice, but his most recent campaign really took it over the edge.
Stormy Simon is somewhat of a new sensation -- she's been one of the main faces in the Ultimate Red Sox Experience videos on Overstock.com -- promoting a contest for tickets to see the Red Sox play the Yankees and videos involving two vice presidents "switching jobs" apprentice style.
So what's the difference with these two campaigns? Why are both successful?
Well for one, Old Spice Man has been building up his character for a long time. He's handsome, sarcastic, always has good things to say, and of course, he smells like a man.
In his commercials, he's always doing something noticeably different and awkward, while making the point that he smells really good and, as a result of this, he's usually boasting about his good looks and manliness.
You may have noticed his most recent campaign, which was done pretty amazingly: he made video after video, addressing Twitter users who tweeted at him, depending on their level of influence. There were people there monitoring social networks and identifying the top influencers, so Old Spice Man could reply to users who had the best chances of helping the video and campaign get passed along through social channels.
Another important thing to note for this campaign is that they extended their reach to different venues in full. For instance, instead of just half-heartedly pushing something out on Twitter, they crossed all the bounds from YouTube, to Twitter, to actually engaging and pulling in their fans' questions. Not only this, but they whipped up videos that stayed within the character of Old Spice Man.
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Stormy Simon takes a different approach. She does webisodes involving herself and a Red Sox Nation regular, Rob. Currently, there are four webisodes, along with some hilarious outtake videos. The virality of this ones lies more within the close knit community that the Red Sox fans have. Sports lovers are usually enthusiastic about anything involving their teams. (Not to mention pretty cutthroat when it comes to nonsense!)
Since the campaign was launched with the underlying contest, and it involved the Yankees, it's easy to see why it has become so popular, so fast.
This is an example where using informative and fun videos and representing different brands, can pull in different viewers and end up spreading. Being clever and using an already existing idea ("The Apprentice") and shifting it toward sports and Overstock.com was a great idea. All put together with the nifty little banner above. You've got yourself a winner.
Viral campaigns don't always have to have shock value and craziness to them. A good, simple strategy can often times make for the best viral campaign.
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