How can marketers know when a successful campaign has run its course?

July 14, 2010 by Big Orange Slide

Is it better to pull the plug before a great campaign gets old, or risk running it into the ground by squeezing it for every last chuckle?

The brilliant Old Spice “Man your man could smell like” campaign, for example, is going strong. Where’s the tunnel at the end of the light?

17 Comments

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17 Comments on "How can marketers know when a successful campaign has run its course?"

Wes Dean
July 14, 2010 @ 9:49 am

I asked myself this question the other day. I was watching the most recent “Man your man could smell like” spot, saying to myself, “My god, how many times do I have to see this?”, as I was applying Old Spice deodorant to my arm pit.
Dave Hamilton
July 14, 2010 @ 9:52 am

There’s an old adage: The client will get sick of it first; then the agency; and lastly the consumer. The smartest brands will allow campaigns to live a good long life, peppering and course correcting along the way based on new brand objectives and periodic audits of consumer reaction to the anchoring message. I also believe taking the “matching luggage” handcuffs off and not being too prescriptive in your evaluation of what makes it a campaign are key elements for success in an enduring campaign. While it pains me to utter (given how much we’ve all pointed to them over the years) Nike’s “Just Do It.” is a campaign filled with lessons in the power of longevity. The Energizer Bunny is not a bad example either.
francesco
July 14, 2010 @ 9:58 am

In Belgium, we don’t even have these commercials on television. We can only see them on Youtube… I’ve been looking for Old Spice deodorant in stores. Successful? I think so.
Tweets that mention How can marketers know when a successful campaign has run its course? « Big Orange Slide -- Topsy.com
July 14, 2010 @ 10:07 am

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jason Chesebrough and others. Jason Chesebrough said: RT @bigorangeslide: How can marketers know when a successful campaign has run its course? http://bit.ly/btT24D #oldspice @oldspice [...]
Jacoub Bondre
July 14, 2010 @ 10:19 am

To Dave’s point, campaigns can go through cycles, all of which are effective. The energizer bunny for example. If you look at the original commercials (brilliant by the way) the bunny interrupts fake movie trailers and news casts. People thought it was funny.

After a while it started interrupting other commercials, it started getting really annoying, but rememberable.

Years later it has become ubiquitous (god I love that word), and is engrained in several generation’s psyche.

On the other hand, Mazda’s long running Zoom Zoom campaign actively makes me NOT want to buy a Mazda.
Liz
July 14, 2010 @ 10:32 am

Well, the glib answer is to say when it gets parodied on The Onion, it might be time to move on. But really I think smart marketers and their agencies have a sense of when a campaign has run its course by having a good handle on who their customers & potential customers are, and what relevance the brand plays in their life. I still look at the Mastercard “Priceless” campaign as an example of an enduring communication rooted in a universal truth – the most important things in life can’t be bought – when you have a core idea that is that strong, the campaign potentials are endless…and priceless.
Harvey Carroll
July 14, 2010 @ 10:39 am

I was all excited about answering this with some powerful insight and then I see the post from Dave Hamilton and realize that he made the exact point I was going to make but much more eloquently… Damn it! Next time Dave Hamilton… Next time….
David Crichton
July 14, 2010 @ 11:16 am

A campaign can have a long life, if it stays relevant and topical (the Old Spice use of Rose McGowan tweets, for example), and the execution itself stays fresh. We’ve mentioned Nike and Energizer, but one that lasted even longer (20+ years?) was for Absolut. Here was a campaign that was arguably in one of the more limiting mediums, and yet managed to reinvent the idea quite often. Same with Rolling Stone’s “Perception/Reality”. Consumers don’t tire of something smart. And new generations can appreciate the previous generation’s idea if it stays relevant to them (eg. Saturday Night Live, or ironically, a deodorant/after shave that our Grandfather’s once used). Typically an idea will die when the agency/client kills it — either through apathy that would be reflected in the work (and judged accordingly by the consumer) or simply a decision to change direction. At that point, you at least hope the campaign goes out on a high note, like the season finale of a popular tv series — Maybe the Old Spice Man “jumps the shark”. Literally.
Martin Cinzar
July 14, 2010 @ 11:40 am

“When the media department starts telling you about it.”
David Kavanagh
July 14, 2010 @ 12:21 pm

Isn’t the simple answer when people stop buying the product because of the campaign?

Of course, I suspect a campaign like this (Old Spice) will likely live forever on YouTube… Which begs the question, will it ever end? With or without Old Spice’s participation…
Sara Vinten
July 14, 2010 @ 1:10 pm

He’s already become a meme that’s for sure, and we know how long those can hang around for. Look at lolcats, some people are just discovering it for the first time, and still more people can’t get enough of it. Even if the Old Spice campaign were to end tomorrow, the huge database of videos they’ve generating will keep people captivated for quite some time.

On another note, I’m sure his exit will be just as glorious as his entrance. That’s just the kind of man he is. And for the record that man is Isaiah Mustafa :)
Warren Haas
July 14, 2010 @ 1:32 pm

Personally I’d like to see a LOL cat/Old Spice Man mash up.
simonconlin
July 14, 2010 @ 2:04 pm

Old Spice has never looked so good as brand (last time they had any kind of cool factor was 1977-79 along with Brut 33.

This campaign has become almost a cult classic in a short space of time, catapulting it into the advertising stratosphere.

Strangely, I’m not board of it yet, (ask me again in 9 months)

I think Isaiah has a few more good TV spots in him for sure – the youtube channel proves that – it wont be long before he is on Leno or Letterman, (he has a better future / career as an ad icon than as a pro football player). Swan dive was a great follow up. The pressure is on to deliver a 3rd.

Stunts like the personal message via twitter can only fuel the success. Having people with over 1M followers tweet your brand for you only serves to prove that they are leading the social media charge.

I have a gut feeling that the client & W+K will beat this horse until its dead and squeeze every last chuckle out.
This could happen for many reasons ranging from financials to other forecasting. But no reason will be more influential than the fact that no-one at the agency or client side will be able to stumble upon a better winning formula or create better creative for such a long time to come.

I personally think a great brand should be like a great band :: you could use U2 or the Beatles as an example.
Always evolving and changing styles but keeping the core elements and likable personality. Each campaign is like a new album you tour it for a while then you drop it and move on.

Great Brands have a greatest hits compilation too :)
Dave Hamilton
July 14, 2010 @ 4:51 pm

A skirmish that will likely unfold both inside the agency as well as in the client boardroom (and no doubt fueled by a research “guru” somewhere) will be whether this campaign is defined by the Isaiah character or whether he is simply one dimension of a larger and more deeply rooted idea. If the latter camp wins the day, we’ll be treated to an enduring campaign more in keeping with Simon’s band analogy. Fingers crossed.
Ian Mackenzie
July 14, 2010 @ 5:14 pm

For more wicked smart on this, check out Grip’s own Partner, Creative Jon Finkelstein in today’s Digital Journal:

Old Spice guy responding to fans with personalized videos

http://digitaljournal.com/article/294641
Thom Antonio
July 15, 2010 @ 2:42 pm

My big fear is that this starts off so well and then quickly turns into one of those cliché spokesperson guys that ‘has to be’ in every ad in perpetuity. Best bad examples I can think of: a) man from GLAD and b) Maytag repairman. These gentlemen lived in the ad world far too long in superfluous roles. Hopefully Old Spice will retire Isaiah before he gets too old and tired to do another swan dive.
Thom Antonio
July 16, 2010 @ 9:46 am

And today’s news:

http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2010/07/15/Old-Spice-Man-Signs-Off.aspx