Smell Like a Sucess

So far, previous posts have been discussing social technology implementation in businesses. However, this post will cover the benefits of Return on Investment (ROI) on the use of social technology. Marketing School (2012) revealed as traditional way of marketing such as print, broadcast, direct mail and telephone has become less attractive to customers, businesses are turning towards social media to communicate with consumers. Surveyed by Hall & Lerner (2009) believed that social media tools help increase the ROI of a company. However, the success of social media tools relies on the business capability to utilise it to achieve the business goals.

In this topic, we will discuss on case study that has an impact on the ROI in their business. I am sure that we all have heard or seen Old Spice campaign that was a big success in 2010. Old Spice is an American product brand focusing on men grooming products and also a part of P&G company product line. In 2010, the company took a new direction in marketing. They launched a video campaign “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” for their body wash product. Instantly, the video became viral and watched by millions of people all around the world. How did they do this?

We need to acknowledge that our society has become more aware of social technology. Old Spice utilise social tools such as YouTube for their main source of campaign. Subsequently, once the video is online, it then becomes the job of viewer to share and distribute the video to their respective social platforms, which include Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and many more. An exact ROI figure can't be shown in regards to the campaign however intangible and tangible benefit of Old Spice can be drawn from events happened after it.  

Here are some of the benefits since the campaign was released:

The company sees a grow of sales up to 55%

One month, the sales was up to 107% with the help of social response from Twitter

The campaign has generated 1.4B impressions

Facebook interaction increased to 800%

Twitter follower increased 2700%

However, the campaign did not go as smoothly as planned for Old Spice. A few articles mentioned that the company suffer a lost of 7% in sales. However, another article such as Forbes magazine (2010) further explained that the lost of sales was only accounted for 1 product line. An overall, Old Spice sees a rise of 8% in sales. Therefore it is crucial to measure the ROI of a company too early, because the impact taken might need to develop for a few months or years. (Zaidi, 2010)

 Reference:

Digital Buzz. (2010). Old Spice social campaign case study video. Digital Buzz. Retrieved from http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/old-spice-social-campaign-case-study-video/

Marketing Schools. (2012). Traditional Marketing. Retrieved from http://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/traditional-marketing.html

Zaidi, A. (2010). Is it too early to analyse ROI from the Old Spice campaign? Econsultancy Achieve Digital Excellence. Retrieved from https://econsultancy.com/blog/6305-is-it-too-early-to-analyse-roi-from-the-old-spice-campaign#i.1d5atso1ajmfhw

Hall, B. H. & Lerner, J. (2009). The financing of R&D and innovation. Handbook of the Economics of Innovation. Retrieved from http://eml.berkeley.edu/~bhhall/papers/HallLerner09_rndfin_chapter_draft.pdf

Bruno, K. (2010). Old Spice mixes social media and web ads. Forbes Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/15/old-spice-youtube-procter-gamble-twitter-facebook-cmo-network-social-media-advertising.html