Thursday, July 15, 2010

You know you love the Old Spice Guy

Aside from his dashingly good looks and body, suave voice, and egoistic humor, the Old Spice Guy has definitely caught my attention from the Old Spice commercials and the hilariously funny YouTube video responses posted since July 12th. With over 590,000+ Facebook fans, 65,000+ Twitter followers, and 89,000+ YouTube subscribers (and growing fast!), Old Spice has by far created the best social media marketing campaign I have seen. Here's why:

1. Remarkable, creative and funny ads - You know the commercial is fictional and even somewhat ridiculous... and yet your curiosity urges you to watch it! Why?! Because it is unique and entertaining! It's nothing like those typical and boring body wash commercials we've seen before and ignored. Seeing a half naked man walk on water, then swan diving off a waterfall into a jacuzzi, which then bursts and reveals a motorbike is definitely something more interesting to watch. What's more, you can even watch the other commercials on the Old Spice YouTube channel just for kicks.

2. Got the online community talking - Through Facebook and Twitter, Old Spice has sparked so much conversation amongst the online community with lots of people voicing out their questions and ideas to the Old Spice Guy. Even though he is a fictional character, people have been so compelled to interact with him as though he was a real person! Amazing! 

3. Made a human connection through YouTube - Using YouTube to upload response videos to connect with celebrities (ie. Ellen Degeneres, Ashton Kutcher, Alyssa Milano) and answer real questions from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Yahoo was brilliant. Not only were the videos creatively and humorously scripted, it also felt more personal and engaging. It made people feel connected to the Old Spice brand and thus caused the videos to go viral.

With the success that Old Spice is receiving from their amazing marketing campaign, I believe that other innovative companies will follow this new trend as well. People want to feel connected, and the future of marketing rests upon being able to build that connection in a personal yet impersonal way just like Old Spice did. Even though we will no longer see the Old Spice Guy again, I'm sure he will be an icon everyone won't forget. You know you love the Old Spice Guy...

Related articles:
Old Spice Campaign - Could this be the best online campaign ever? | Kherize Five
13 reasons why Old Spice's new social media campaign is pure brilliance | Inkling Media
How the Old Spice videos are being made | Read Write Web

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Why I will miss Ninjavideo

I love watching movies and TV shows online. But on July 1st, I was shocked and saddened by the news that my favorite online video streaming website, Ninjavideo.net, was shut down by the Feds. Apparently, this was a "crackdown" to stop film and TV piracy online. Since 2008, I had been a loyal visitor and fan of Ninjavideo because I was able to watch many of the latest movies and amazing TV shows like Dexter, Scrubs, Nip/Tuck, Chuck, Lost (well I stopped after season 4 because it got too confusing), Smallville (it wasn't that great but I watched it only because of Kristen Kreuk aka Lana Lang), Spartacus, and Mythbusters.

Ninjavideo became my favorite site for four reasons. First, it was FREE! There was no registration required or any other strings attached in order to access the site. Although there were some ads I had to click through before viewing videos at times, that small inconvenience was nothing as long as I was able to watch my TV shows without interruptions. I was also able to save a lot of money by watching movies there instead of in the theaters.

Second, instant high quality (i.e HD, DVD, Blu-ray) online streaming! This feature saved me a ton of gigabytes of hard drive space and saved me a lot of time downloading torrents into my computer. Before Ninjavideo, I would spend hours downloading 350MB episodes and by the time I made it through the whole season, I would have used at least 5GB of space. Multiply that by 3 seasons (average estimate per TV show) and multiply that again by 5 TV shows (average number I would keep before deleting) and after doing the math, you can see how I always ran out of hard drive space. 

Third, well organized and maintained website. Since the TV shows and movies were organized alphabetically and episodes are sorted per season, searching for a specific episode or movie was quick and easy. Also, because of Ninja's dedicated admins, the site was updated frequently and any reported bugs or broken videos were fixed within a reasonable time.

Fourth, the latest movie releases! Most new films would be in cam quality, but as time went by, I was impressed how even DVD and Blu-ray rips were eventually uploaded for maximum quality and entertainment pleasure. Seasonally, it was also fun to see movie theme packages of older movies being uploaded such as zombie movies, war movies, vampire movies, and much more.

So what's going to happen to Ninjavideo? After listening to the Ninjavideo manifesto podcast by Phara, one of the site admins, her words made me realize how capitalism and greed are causing so much social injustice and societal problems in our world today, and unfortunately, that is where piracy originated from. Ninjavideo may have been shutdown for now, but it will never die because its online community still exists all around the world. To listen to the Ninjavideo manifesto podcast click here: Part 1 Part 2.

So this blog post has been dedicated to the team at Ninjavideo. Thank you to all the admins and everyone else involved for contributing your time, money, and effort to making this such a great site... if not the best! Without you, my life wouldn't have been as fun and entertaining. I know we will see you again soon. Long live Ninja!