Readaloo

You know those YouTube videos with that manly Old Spice guy and his hilarious responses to Twitter fans? Of course you do. So does everybody, it seems, because Old Spice body wash sales have increased 107% in the past month in part thanks to that social media marketing campaign.

Already published stats from video analytics company Visible Measures that made it clear that the Old Spice guy was a hugely successful initiative from marketing firm Wieden + Kennedy, achieving millions of viral video views quicker than past hits like Susan Boyle and U.S. President Barack Obama’s election victory speech.

The statistic of the 107% sales increase over the past month comes from Nielsen, which also revealed that sales increased 55% over the past three months. Individual products that were slipping in sales saw spikes after actor Isaiah Mustafa showed them off in the TV and Internet video ads. Those numbers were cited in an article at BrandWeek.

The campaign began with simple TV ads, which then went viral on YouTube. The follow-up program in which Mustafa recorded funny videos in response to fans, bloggers and Twitter influencers hit it out of the park in the zeitgeist. Adweek quotes Visible Measures’ Matt Cutler saying that the total web views for all Old Spice brand videos have reached 110 million, “surpassing the reach of traditional broadcast.”

Adweek also reports that Old Spice is working on a new campaign, but that it’s “unrelated” to the Mustafa videos. That’s a tough act to follow, but we don’t think anyone at Old Spice is complaining today.

Update: Some readers have pointed to news stories saying that sales for Old Spice went down. Not exactly.

The earlier reports of drops in sales referred to the Old Spice product Red Zone After Hours, which experienced a 7% drop. WARC, the source for that story, also acknowledges Nielsen’s data, saying, “Despite reports to the contrary, Nielsen data shows that sales of the Old Spice Body Wash range as a whole rose by 55% over the last three months, and by 107% in the last month alone.”

We will acknowledge the point that there is simply a timeframe correlation between the boosts in Old Spice sales and the ad campaign.

This morning i had a chance to aee the "Old Spice Guy," otherwise known as Isaiah Mustafa, on "GMA." He has been responding to tweets with personalized YouTube videos. Last night I sent a tweet and asked how President Obama can gain back some of the female support he has lost.

Old Spice Guy had these suggestions:

--From now on Obama should only be seen in a towel.
--Obama should begin his State of the Union address with "Hellloo ladies" instead of "My fellow Americans."
--And finally, end the speech with a "presidential ab point."

“I’m setting the example, and it’s going to be puzzled over and studied and followed, from now on.” – John Doe, Seven.

Although Wieden + Kennedy had a very different aim than the homicidal “John Doe” character from David Fincher’s thriller Seven, this is probably what the advertising agency behind Old Spice’s latest marketing campaign must be thinking right now.

The campaign, in which the “Old Spice guy” — as actor Isaiah Mustafa, who starred in most of Old Spice’s recent commercials, has come to be known as on the Internet — ended today. In his final tweet and video, Mustafa says that “like all great things this too must end.”

And then he catches a giant fish that falls from nowhere.

The team behind this amazingly well-run campaign managed to engage half of the Internet, and provoke almost unequivocally positive results from social media sites such as Reddit and Twitter. Hell, even the comments on YouTube were overwhelmingly positive — and that never happens. The Old Spice Twitter account accumulated tens of thousands of new followers and the YouTube videos amassed hundreds of thousands of views.

Everything was run perfectly. The Old Spice guy recorded his video responses in rapid succession, an amazing feat in itself which cannot be truly appreciated if you’ve never been in front of a camera. His answers were a key mix of coolness and the stuff internet memes are made of. The actual brand — Old Spice — was never shoved down viewers’ throats. Most importantly, all of it was incredibly fun to watch.

The team behind the campaign took great care to engage celebrities, influencers, common folk and popular social media sites in balanced quantities. And it knew exactly how to talk to them. In his penultimate video, the Old Spice guy talks directly to his daughter, explaining that until recently, he was just a struggling actor no one has ever heard of. When was the last time a marketing campaign spoke directly to you in such a frank way, making you laugh and cry at the same time?

Wieden + Kennedy have set a standard marketing experts will admire and follow in the years to come. This is the future of marketing.

The Old Spice guy just took his YouTube  campaign to a whole new level by proposing to a woman on behalf of one of his Twitter followers. The fan tweeted within hours that she’d agreed to marry him.

Yesterday, Old Spice started posting YouTube videos featuring the shirtless man from the popular TV commercials delivering personalized messages to fans on Twitter, Facebook and other websites. Regular fans got video responses, but the Old Spice guy also smartly targeted social media-savvy celebrities and bloggers to get the word out and achieve viral status.

A fan named Johannes S. Beals tweeted, “Can U Ask my girlfriend to marry me? Her name is Angela A. Hutt-Chamberlin” to Old Spice. The following video popped up on YouTube within an hour, and Old Spice tweeted it at Beals.

She Said Yes!

Just a few hours later, Beals tweeted at Old Spice: “SHE SAID YES!!!!” Many users congratulated him, but a few questioned whether or not it was legit. To prove it, he uploaded this picture of his new fiancée wearing her diamond ring. Congratulations to the bride and groom to be!

The Long Tradition of Twitter Proposals

While the Old Spice guy is new on the scene, Twitter-based proposals aren’t new at all. When we compiled a list of the top 10 geekiest marriage proposals, we dedicated a section to Twitter proposals, highlighting @garazi’s proposal to @stefsull (probably the first) as well as tech blogger Grant Robertson’s proposal to Christina Warren.

Old Spice Guy Isaiah Mustafa, has been tweeting just-for-you-vids to a bevy of Internet folk all day.

The Old Spice Guy is undoubtedly one of the most beloved commercial characters in recent memory — he’s like The Most Interesting Man in the World, but young and apparently unable to stay fully clothed. He burst on the scene back in February and his videos quickly went viral on YouTube .

Well now he’s apparently taking awesomeness to a new level — or the ad execs behind his campaign are, rather. He seems to have heralded the deluge of vids with a tweet:

He then proceeded to send out vids via Twitter to bloggers who have written about him in the past, YouTube commenters, random folks asking random questions on Yahoo Answers, and various and sundry people who have tweeted at him today. He’s working pretty fast, too. After posting a call for questions on Reddit four hours ago, he responded to a cadre of questions rather rapidly. (In other news, his abs must be ti-red.)

This campaign really is a perfect storm of viralty — not only does it target specific bloggers (who are then more likely to cover the whole thing), it also reaches out to less prominent individuals who can be made more aware of Old Spice. Moreover, they become personally invested in the brand because they have actually become a part of the world it has created. We’re not sure if this marathon of videos will lead to more Old Spice products sold — but it definitely creates a brand identity that people will be interested and excited to engage with.

We’re embedding the Old Spice guy’s personal message to Perez Hilton below — Hilton wrote about a new spot at the end of June. (FYI, we also tweeted at the shirtless wonder, so we’ll update you if he deigns to make us a vid.)

NB: Commenter Liz Pullen also points out that “Old Spice” is a Promoted Trending Topic today. Very clever…

It takes only a quick glance at the most “faved” and retweeted updates to know that tweeters love the funny. A good 140-character quip is a jewel in any Twitter feed, and the network has impacted humor for pros and amateurs alike.

If you tweet with the right crowd, Twitter can be a hilarious non-stop party. And if you follow professional comedians who use Twitter well, you’ve got a free, live, unfiltered stand-up show right in your feed. Many humor pros have used the medium to reignite their careers and reach new fans.

But is Twitter humor different from “traditional” humor? And what happens when the television, publishing, and performance industries are set aside in favor of direct “social” comedy? We spoke with some hilarious tweeters to get their take on these trends, and on what it means to get a laugh in the digital age.

The One-Liner Renaissance

You’ve only got 140 characters to fit the setup, punchline, and some breathing room for retweets. Depending on your comedic style, Twitter might be the perfect medium, or your greatest challenge. In either case, the cap has propagated a culture of “one-liners” or “riffs,” and the funniest of the Twitterati have been hitting them home for some time.

“The people that get a lot of play [on the funniest Twitterers lists] are people who keep it really simple,” said comedian and writer Paul F. Tompkins, who hosted VH1’s Best Week Ever and tweets regularly in between stand-up gigs. “In that arena, it’s so digestible. You get it: This is a joke.”

“Even the longest stories in your act should be succinct,” said stand-up comedian and writer Steve Hofstetter. “Twitter’s focus on the economy of words is a good thing.”

For pros who have been joking in other media, it takes some work to adapt. “I enjoy the challenge of, How can I sound like me in 140 characters?” said Tompkins.

The writers and performers of the 90s cult comedy TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000 have found Twitter to be the perfect channel for their brand of one-liner comedy. Their more recent venture, RiffTrax, is their digital way of talking back to bad movies, and their promotion is highly social.

“We have been working in the quip business for quite a while, so [Twitter] works well for us,” said Michael J. Nelson of RiffTrax. “But I think it’s allowed people to find their comedic ‘voices’ in an environment somewhat safer than a bar. Fewer Piña Coladas being blended during your punchlines. Less flying food.”

“It’s amazing how much people love delivering one-liners. It’s like crack,” said Kevin Murphy of RiffTrax. “You could say it’s cultivated a more literary form of one-liner. Hasn’t cut down on the volume of dick jokes, though.”

“It’s not surprising that a big share of riffs we put into a RiffTrax movie are 140 characters or less. WE HAVE BEEN TRAINING ALL OUR LIVES FOR THIS,” Murphy added with capitalized emphasis in an e-mail interview.

The flip side is, there’s no filter. The publishers, editors and producers through which we have traditionally gotten our comedy don’t exist on Twitter. So you get the good with the bad.

“Good: There’s a lot of genuine wit out there, from many different and unexpected quarters,” said Bill Corbett, the third comic brain behind RiffTrax. “Bad: The Tweet-groaners that are trying way too hard, and still seem too long at 140 characters. So it’s a renaissance just like the actual Renaissance: Amazing art, but with occasional outbreaks of bubonic plague.”

Social Performance

Funny, audience-building tweeters, as well as established Twitter-savvy celebs can click a button and send laughs out to hundreds, even thousands of fans. There’s no gig to arrange, book to publish, or episode to shoot. It’s become a very direct and personal form of comedy for many writers.

“I think the ‘publish yourself, whenever you want!’ aspect of Twitter greatly appeals to professional writers and comedians,” said Corbett. “Most of us have the faith, and perhaps the arrogance, to believe that we are almost always worth hearing or reading. Most of us are mistaken, of course,” he added, including himself in this category. “The idea of playing whenever you want to an ever-waiting audience is rather addictive.”

Tompkins views it as a much more social experience than performing via traditional channels. “I end up thinking of it in way more intimate terms because people are talking to me directly when [they] respond to what I’ve written. I don’t think of it as 50,000+ people expectantly looking at me,” he said. “It just feels to me like I’m another person on Twitter. I read other people’s stuff, so it’s like, ‘Here’s my contribution to what everybody’s talking about.’”

The real game-changer for performers seems to be in the dialogue. “One of the things that’s been so great is to find out that my fans are funny. The people that like me are actually funny people themselves,” said Tompkins. “That’s so satisfying and so flattering. It’s like, ‘Wow, smart, funny people like what I do.’”

But Hofstetter has reservations about how much Twitter is impacting traditional comic reach. “Well, most comedians aren’t playing to thousands on [Twitter]. I don’t think it’s changing the industry, as it’s exceedingly rare for someone to get famous [from] Twitter. Typically, the famous people have a big audience and the non-famous people do not.”

The Perfect Marketing Channel

Plenty of businesses look for ways to be fun or personal on social networks in order to build a market for their products. For many tweeting comedians, the medium is the message, and snagging “LOLs” on Twitter is both an art and a marketing strategy.

“It’s changed my way of looking at promotion, really,” said Tompkins. “How do I boil down my essence in this very limited amount of space to give people an idea of me and the way that I’m funny to maximum effect? It’s been an enormous boon for my career.”

Tompkins noted that Facebook Groups come in handy as well for organizing attendees at his live performances. When enough fans commit to a show in a particular city, he’ll book it and perform for them. Twitter is a way to drive people back to the Facebook Groups, and get the word out about committed performance dates.

“There’s always conjecture with social networks about ‘how long is it going to last,’ and ‘people are done with that one, now they’re on to this one.’ For people like me, it’s not all one or the other. It’s using all of them in conjunction with one another to cover all your bases. And it’s fairly easy to do,” Tompkins said.

In addition to their in-studio work, the RiffTrax crew also perform “live riffs” on movies which are simulcasted to theaters nationwide. Much of their Twitter engagement — which includes contests, giveaways, etc. — revolves around these events, and the performers tend to get the most play when tweeting with fans from their personal accounts.

“I don’t have huge numbers of followers, but I suspect a large percentage of those I do have actually care, at least a little bit,” said Nelson. “So people are happy to hear when we have events coming up.”

“We announce to our tweeps, and then they spread the word,” Murphy added. “People link up, meet up at events, tell each other about the surprise live events we’ve been known to do. It’s a hell of a lot more fun and exciting for people than looking at an ad.”

Corbett concurred. “I wouldn’t expect people to follow or enjoy a constant commercial, but I think it’s fine to promote your work in the context of a mostly for-fun account. Mike, Kevin and I all seem to follow that pattern, actually, whereas the RiffTrax account is mostly business.”

But the line between performance and promotion can be a delicate one.

“I have people unfollow me, and they’re like, ‘It’s too much self-promotion, I’m just here for the comedy, so I’m unfollowing you,’” said Tompkins. “So what you’re saying to me is, ‘Hey, you’re not giving me enough comedy for free, so I’m bailing on you.’”

“[T]he relative anonymity allows people to heckle you and run,” Nelson added.

For comic tweeters, it’s about finding the right balance. “We never really stay too serious in any of the four accounts. That would be just plain weird, given what we do,” said Corbett.

The Culture of Riff

One trend that has arisen in snarkier Twitter circles is the habit of talking back to popular culture in real-time. Tweeters riff on live television, sports, and the news regularly. And depending on who you follow, the results can be hilarious.

“Oh, I love it,” said Tompkins. “I think of Oscar night for something like that. To see a bunch of funny people all making comments in real-time as this thing’s happening — that’s like a gigantic party with the funniest people you could imagine. It’s great.”

“It has made live television relevant as fodder, I suppose. Though I’ve worked in TV, I’m delighted to see anything that makes it less passive and brain-deadening,” said Corbett. “Honestly, I’m not sure what to make of a culture where everyone riffs everything all the time. It could get so self-referential that the universe swallows itself. On the more positive side, people seem happy when they’re creative and interacting with each other, especially for some laughs. It’s hard to think of that as all bad.”

“[I]t gives the audience a voice of their own,” added Murphy. “And that’s really damn cool.”

The “LOL” vs. Real Live Laughter

For the average humor-tweeter who doesn’t have access to a comedy club stage or her own television show, 140-character accolades will have to suffice. But for the current generation of pros who cut their teeth on stage and screen, a retweet or an “LOL” is nice, but not quite the same as the real thing.

“It’s great to hear that people are laughing and retweeting, but a laugh from an audience is something special — sort of a neutron star of delight,” said Murphy.

“Nothing beats a real, live laugh for maximum joy in the moment, unless that laugh is from a mad scientist bent on world domination. Then it’s a little awkward,” Corbett added.

But all the comics we spoke to noted that the retweet has become something special for humorists — something that doesn’t have an exact real-world equivalent.

“What’s really gratifying to me is when people pass on the things that I’ve written,” said Tompkins. “I’m really flattered that people are passing my ‘message of comedy’ along.”

“A retweet is more gratifying than a laugh,” Hofstetter added. “It’s the equivalent of someone re-telling one of your jokes after a show. And not botching it.”

Time will tell if comics who start out in social media (on Twitter, blogs, and the like) will ever be able to reach the mainstream audiences that their predecessors did through television, film and print. We’ve already seen some crossover, and we expect more of it as newer artists use social media as a starting point, rather than a supplementary channel. For the moment though, entertainment, like all industries, straddles the line as it sorts out its digital future.

To wit, Tompkins added, “As much as I love the Internet, nothing beats real life

Conan O’Brien and Stephen Colbert decided to resolve a dispute with an epic yet awkward dance-off at New York’s Radio City Music Hall last night, and Jon Stewart joined the battle wearing what Conan called “a Mexican waiter” outfit.

The cameos by The Colbert Report and The Daily Show hosts were just two of many in the special New York City stop in Conan’s “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television Tour,” which Conan began shortly after he left his job as host of The Tonight Show.

Other extra appearances last night included The Office’s John Krasinksi, Saturday Night Live’s Bill Hader, and TV and movie hunk Paul Rudd. We don’t have video of those, but these clips should give you more than enough laughs.

Be sure you stay tuned for Stewart and Colbert’s dramatic moment at the very end.

Videos

There’s no official video, but there are three of varying quality from different angles here. The top one is the one that appeared on the Team CoCo blog. Enjoy!

[via The Hollywood Reporter]

He may be “legally prohibited from being funny on television,” but Conan O’Brien has still managed to capture the attention of a video-viewing audience. More and more fan-made videos from O’Brien’s live comedy show have made their way onto YouTube since the tour kicked off on Monday.
 
The stirrings of virality started yesterday, when one YouTube user uploaded a vid of Conan performing “I Will Survive,” which has since garnered more than 100,000 hits. Another video — this one depicting the comedian covering Radiohead’s “Creep” — hit the web recently as well, popping up on myriad web video sites. (The song is a rather funny choice on O’Brien’s part, as a popular parody of Jay Leno’s return to The Tonight Show featured the same jam.)

Although Conan will be returning to TV in November, his online fame only continues to grow. He’s a heavy hitter on Facebook, Biz Stone cited his Twitter fame at today’s Chirp developer conference and now videos of his live show are going viral on YouTube. Forget television at this point, Coco — the Internet is your oyster.

Check out a collection of fan-made vids below:

 

With this morning’s announcement of Conan O’Brien’s 30-city tour, the former late-night comedian is fully embracing his online fan base, “Team Coco.”

The official poster for the tour re-uses the image made famous on the Internet of a heroic Mr. O’Brien, orange hair aflame, in front of an American flag. The image was produced by Mike Mitchell, an artist in Los Angeles, as a show of support for Mr. O’Brien when NBC tried in January to move “The Tonight Show” to 12:05 a.m. Within days the image and its message, “I’m With Coco,” was a viral sensation, inspiring dozens of pro-Conan groups on Facebook. Several of Mr. O’Brien’s employees even made the image their Facebook profile photo.

Now they have formally adopted the image as their own. Days after Mr. O’Brien signed off of “The Tonight Show” on Jan. 22, one of the comedian’s producers contacted Mr. Mitchell and said that they wanted the “Coco” illustration to be the emblem of a nationwide tour they were planning.

“They wanted it to be the main image,” Mr. Mitchell recalled in an e-mail message Thursday. “They are all such fans of the ‘I’m with Coco’ poster and what it means to everyone.”

Mr. Mitchell met with Mr. O’Brien’s executive producer, Jeff Ross, about a month ago, to talk through a licensing deal.

“Apparently Conan wanted to get me on board for it – obviously I was honored,” Mr. Mitchell said. He said he retains the rights to the widely distributed image; Mr. O’Brien’s team will use it for the tour and for some merchandise sales.

Mr. O’Brien has set up an online presence on Twitter and at TeamCoco.com. His representatives do not own ConanOBrien.com, so TeamCoco could become his primary Web site. The site currently promotes the tour, and says it is “Copyright © 2010 Team Coco Inc.”

Asked about compensation for the image, Mr. Mitchell said “a fair deal was made for both parties.”

Mr. Mitchell said Mr. O’Brien called to thank him for creating the image. He recalled Mr. O’Brien joking that “I love anything with my face on it, and CONAN in huge bold letters.”

Comic instructs audience to 'redefine Canada's history in the most jaw-dropping terms imaginable' on urbandictionary.com

Canada's history is being rewritten -- online, at least -- in terms so crude, it could make any Canuck blush with a patriotic tinge.

On his late-night TV show this week, satirist Stephen Colbert took aim at Canadian magazine the Beaver, which announced last month it was changing its moniker after 90 years because some search engines were weeding it out, believing it was pornography due to its name.

The Winnipeg-based publication is rebranding itself as the less suggestive Canada's History, starting in April.

But what Canadians don't know, the comedian joked Thursday on The Colbert Report, is in America "Canada's history" is a euphemism "for a sex act so depraved," it can't be described on television.

The unspeakable act, apparently, "involves moose antlers, a jug of maple syrup and the Stanley Cup."

The comedian then invited his audience -- often referenced as the Colbert Nation for their willingness to help with his pranks -- to "redefine Canada's history in the most jaw-dropping terms imaginable," on urbandictionary.com,a Wikipedia-like webpage that allows users to submit definitions for words and slang.

"Just put everything in there," said Colbert, who mockingly portrays a conservative pundit on his show.

"Putting everything in there, by the way, is the hardest part of performing Canada's history."

Thirty-six hours later, there were 521 listed entries -- each with increasingly vulgar descriptions that use more Canadian cliches than a Kids in the Hall skit.

This isn't the first time Colbert has taken a slapshot or two at Canada.

He's responsible for dubbing us "syrup suckers," "iceholes," and "Saskatche-whiners," after the U.S. speed skating team couldn't secure ice time for training at Richmond's Olympic oval.

And in June 2008, when CBC announced it wouldn't renew the contract for the Hockey Night in Canada theme song, Colbert declared "Bad move, Canada!" saying he would licence the iconic "Dunt-da DUNT-da-dunt" to be played while doing very "American" things.

"I'm going to play it when doing things like punching beavers in the face," he quipped.