Social Media is Dead. Long Live Social Media

Last week, Read Write Web covered the story behind how Old Spice campaign became an Internet sensation, attracting a sharp increase in attention for the male deodorant.

Unless you’ve been on vacation or living under a rock, the highly viewed and publicized ad campaign thoroughly incorporated the social media experience from concept, development, production and distribution. The Wieden + Kennedy team, lead by Ian Taint, “seeded various social networks with an invitation to ask questions of Mustafa’s character, a dashing shirtless man with over-the-top humor and bravado. Then all the responses were tracked and users who contributed interesting questions and/or were high-profile people on social networks are being responded to directly and by name in short, funny YouTube videos”

The result has been remarkable. The fully integrated online-broadcast creative really paid off – resulting in a near 180 reversal of downward interest over the last 90 days.

Pivotal Event?

Clearly this campaign wasn’t the typical major-buy-to-website type of user experience we’ve seen for the past ten years. (Google’s Superbowl Ad comes to mind, as a recent example).

It makes us wonder if Iain Tait’s title, Global Interactive Creative Director, isn’t a bit dated. It certainly doesn’t reflect how how more and more of us consume media – across a variety of platforms and delivery devices.

Perhaps we’re seeing a different type of Internet sensation: the birth of a brand new title at marketing and advertising agencies: Integrated Media Creative Director. The example Tait set in this campaign gives us a hint of future creative possibilities using his integrated approach. And, given the success of the campaign, we’ll likely see more agencies and advertisers eager to construct cross-platform dialogs, using all manner of media –social and otherwise.

As for Tait, his star is certainly rising.