Old Spice has stumbled upon an insanely brilliant and popular marketing idea with the Old Spice Guy, and are jumping into it with both feet (that's a clever reference to their last commercial).  Apparently what they are doing is responding to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube comments in short 30 second to 1 minute videos like the one below.  Most of them are from regular folks, but there are a smattering of celebrity commentors, such as Alyssa Milano, Christina Applegate, and Demi Moore.  

I've only watched about half of them, but they are almost all hilarious and warped. They remind me of a video version of "Deep Thoughts" (and that's a good thing).  Hopefully someone will create a randomizer for these clips so I can just put them on autoplay in the background while I work.

Looking at it from the nuts and bolts creative side of things, this is a brilliant campaign on multiple levels.  It takes an already buzzed-about viral campaign and builds on it with immediacy and personalization.  The Old Spice Guy isn't just a commercial entity anymore.  He's a character that is active RIGHT now.  Not just active, but interacting with real world people.  He could be doing something interesting at ANY TIME from here on out.  

Through those interactions, a new mythology and history is being created for this character.  Most of the answers are random goofiness, but it's fun to see 'facts' from previous answers returned to and expanded upon.  

I'll be curious to see how well this little experiment does, and if it's just intended to be a one-time event.  I wonder if we'll see any of this incorporated into other marketing, or even into broadcast commercials.  I would imagine so, as the people behind this campaign seem to be on top of how it's being perceived at the user level. They seem particularly agile at creating a new wrinkle at the drop of a hat.  

From a practical production standpoint, it's also brilliant.  Spend a day on a single set (with one backdrop) and a stationary camera, and just shoot video after video.  I'll be curious to see if they had all or most of these responses scripted out ahead of time, or if they were writing them on the spot as the comments came in.  But something like this should be easily replicate-able for anyone that wants to do the same with their company.

I can see the Progressive Insurance woman doing something like this.  Maybe Jack from Jack in the Box.  Or the World's Greatest Spokesperson in the World.  Or even Brock Lee, Male Spokesperson.  Might have to give this a try with one of my clients or web characters.

So, here's one of my current favorites of this series of videos.

If you like this, they are still (as of this posting) releasing a new one every fifteen minutes or so. There's currently nearly 200 videos.  Look at them all right here. http://www.youtube.com/user/oldspice