Why Old Spice Man Isn't a Threat to Traditional Media

(MoneyWatch)  Here's evidence of what a great viral ad campaign Old Spice Man is: those of us who spent last week in close proximity to the North Maine Woods -- where moose outnumber people three to one -- were vaguely aware of it. But while the campaign used only the Internets to make its impact felt far and wide, there's one thing it can't do: pose a real threat to traditional media.

Sure, the campaign amazed -- as the most awesome commercial Internet stunt of all times -- and also by keeping Procter & Gamble, Old Spice's parent company, from spending tens of millions of dollars on channels like MTV, Comedy Central and Fox to get the same exposure. (But no where near the same buzz.) Per TechCrunch, it even got Google CFO Patrick Pichette to gush on the company's earnings call, "It just gives you a glimpse of where the world is going."

But Pichette -- and all the rest of you who think this is the future -- are wrong. It takes a special brand of marketer and ad agency to pull such a thing off, and, as anyone in the ad industry will tell you, that's much easier said than done.

It's no surprise, really, that the agency which finally broke through the online viral landscape in the biggest way ever is Wieden + Kennedy, the Portland, Oreg.-based shop that is best known for its decades of brilliance for Nike. Even before there was a World Wide Web, Wieden's work often went viral the old-fashioned way -- Its Nike campaigns such as "Bo Knows" starring Bo Jackson and Bo Diddley, or the Mars Blackmon campaign featuring Spike Lee ("It's gotta be the shoes") sparked word-of-mouth without the aid of Twitter. Other agencies have been trying to create campaigns equally as talked about ever since. And almost everyone single one has failed.

But it's not just the quality of the ads, or -- in the case of Old Spice Man -- the dozens upon dozens of YouTube videos. This isn't just about the content. It's about the agency's ingenious use of the channels the campaign was going to appear in. There are only so many times you can leverage Ashton Kutcher, and his 5.2 million followers, and expect him to actually become engaged in your marketing effort. The way the largely unimaginative advertising world works, a certain outgrowth of the Old Spice Man campaign will be tireless efforts on the part of other marketers to do the same thing. But next time, don't expect Kutcher to be so amused, or for Alyssa Milano to shoot a video response (below), wrapped only in two towels.

Maybe, for Old Spice and Wieden, this campaign will be enough to make them re-think a Super Bowl buy, which they did in February, winning a Grand Prix at the Cannes International Advertising Festival -- the industry's highest honor -- in the process. But even that's doubtful. As for the rest of you Wieden and Old Spice wannabes, you don't have the abs to get the job done. You should continue doing the couch potato thing, by getting on the horn to the networks and buying some TV time to get your ads noticed. They'll be glad you did.

Related:

• Lessons From the Old Spice Man
• The Old Spice Guy, a Media Darling, Has a Dirty Secret: Sales Are Down
• Why Old Spice Guy Can Turn Sales for P&G Around
• How Old Spice Used Twitter Plus Television to Draw Clicks