Connecting with fans - like the Old Spice Guy
With the enormous viral success of the Old Spice campaign, Ajinty, a social media advertising start up from San Francisco launches Viral Spice, a platform to enable brands to connect with followers via personalized messages.
Online, July 20, 2010 (Newswire.com) - San Francisco July 20, 2010 - With the Old Spice videos acquiring millions of views in a matter of days, it is hard to question the effectiveness of the branding ad campaign. Instead of being forced to watch ads, people are voluntarily watching and sharing these videos with their friends. Reason being - these ads are funny and personal.
Leveraging the same principles, Viral Spice (http://www.getviralspice.com/) is providing a platform that enables other brands and celebrities to connect with their followers through personalized messages. The technology behind Viral Spice allows advertisers to discover their most influential followers on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. By interacting directly with their most influential followers, brands get a reach of a much larger audience then they would ordinarily have.
According to Patrick Pichette, CFO at Google, personalized ad campaigns such as this are the future of online advertising and Andrew Shamess, VP Marketing at ViralSpice couldn't agree more. According to Mr. Shamess, personalized ads like these give big companies a chance to act small again. He says this type of communication fosters trust and "promotes communication that has never been previously possible."
Mr. Shamess argues that conventional types of advertising are simply not working and people have learned to "tune them out". He doesn't seem to be the only one as Rance Crain, editor-in-chief of trade magazine Advertising Age, adds that current advertising campaigns are "desensitizing people to the message." With the success of the Old Spice campaigns and popularity of social media, however, Mr. Shamess believes there is an opportunity for brand marketers.
With regards to people's reaction to Viral Spice, Andrew couldn't be happier. He says, "within days of ViralSpice launching, the 100 invites were gone and the waiting list has been growing ever since". He is also in talks with some "multinational advertising giants" regarding potential campaigns.
Andrew believes that the secret sauce behind ViralSpice is the way brands and celebrities can measure the success of their brands. He asserts, "Being able to measure brand engagement, recall and track conversations real time is a brand marketers dream".
With the rise of social networks and the success of Old Spice type campaigns, it is certain that personalized ads are the future of online advertising. Viral Spice plans to be the technology that powers this new kind of advertising.