The Old Spice Guy campaign, one of the most popular viral ad campaigns in history, has set the bar for how other companies and agencies can approach viral advertising, by focusing on the fans first. Old Spice has struck a perfect balance of content and advertising. The key to their video marketing campaign success is;
Put the focus on short, snappy video content.
A recent online video study shows that 82 percent of Internet users watch online video at an average of 5.6 hours a week. And if you have a video that wants to be seen, the best possible platform, according to comScore, is YouTube.
It’s generally a good idea to keep things short on YouTube, people don’t want to sit through long productions.
The vast majority of Old Spice’s videos average at slightly less than a minute per video. Unless they are inspiration- or premise-driven videos, most ads and promotions uploaded to YouTube should hit this sweet spot between a minute and 90 seconds.
When you put videos on YouTube, you’re competing against every other YouTube video. It’s not like there’s a special category for commercials.
In summary, keep it short, keep it simple. If the marketing campaign doesn’t involve video—not sure why not, in this day and age—the ad should still be succinct and concise.
Shorter ads are easier to follow, digest, and on the development side, create.