If you were anywhere online last Wednesday you could not possibly have missed the latest evolution in the new Old Spice ad campaign. What began as a series of cheeky Super Bowl Sunday television ads featuring a buff towel-clad man demonstrating the manliness that’s possible for those who use Old Spice, suddenly morphed into a social media phenomenon.
Leveraging YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, Old Spice man began answering questions posed to him on Twitter in short videos posted to YouTube. It caught fire almost instantly. Soon Twitter and Facebook were abuzz with links to the YouTube videos and questions directed to the @oldspice account. Old Spice was a trending topic on Twitter all day.
There are several lessons here for law firm Public Reputation management:
- Using social media for attorneys means taking risks. No, you do not have to put your partners in towels on YouTube, but you do have to think outside the box.
- Innovate or die. Old Spice has reinvigorated a moribund brand with social media and made it, dare we say it, hip to smell like your grandfather.
- Leverage multiple social media platforms. Part of the genius of the Old Spice campaign is that it reached a wide audience regardless of whether they were on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube.
Not every law firm will end up as a trending topic on Twitter because they use social media for attorneys, but that does not mean it’s not worth trying. There are rewards to taking risks.