What's your "Old Spice" Message?

Does your man smell like the Old Spice Man? Are you one of the nine million people who have logged on to You Tube to see the latest viral video attracting attention around the world? Old Spice was a dying brand-- something we bought our grandfathers for Christmas. But now, they've created a concept for a video that is defining "viral". In case you missed it, click the link below to watch. It's well worth it.

There's a great article about why it works on MSNBC. Old Spice executives planned ahead, they engaged key bloggers, they promoted the video via social media. I think anyone involved in marketing can benefit from the article. You can read it by clicking here.

I do think they missed a key, point, however. The video works because it has a message. Old Spice will make your man smell better. There it is, nice an simple. Viral videos are fantastic, but I believe they only truly work if they also deliver a message.

Video of a singing cat may very well be seen by millions of people, but what's the point? If it's nothing more than funny, it no doubt falls flat. The message is key. It needs to be simple, memorable, and something that ignites a call to action. The underlying message from the Old Spice Man is "Buy Old Spice". And indeed, people are.

While people watch the video because it's funny-- they are buying Old Spice because they remember the message. What message do you want to deliver?

Keep It Simple So It Sticks

I'm reading the book, "Made to Stick", right now, and it's fantastic. Dan and Chip Heath wrote the book to find out why some ideas "stick", and other die. It's fascinating, and their insight can be applied to just about any idea.

The first lesson I've learned is that good ideas have to be simple. They don't mean "simple" in terms of "dumbing down", or "quick soundbites", but rather finding the single core of an idea.

The book says, "Finding the core means stripping an idea down to its most critical essence. To get to the core, we've got to weed out superfluous elements, but that's the easy part. The hard part is weeding out ideas that may be really important, but just aren't the most important idea".

What a great lesson. In other words, often deciding what you're NOT going to do, is just as important as what you're GOING to do. At Convention News Television, we're trying to apply that to the new design of our website. We started with three buyer personas to speak directly to our audience. (The idea of "buyer personas" came from David Meerman Scott... and we love it!). Our new home page used to say that CNTV creates videos for:

1. Associations

2. Trade Publications

3. Corporations

While that's true... we were listing all the available products for each persona, and it was overwhelming. We had to strip the message down to a single core idea. We're now focusing on one buyer persona: Associations.

It's been hard! We believe our company can help all three types of clients, but our website listed too many products. It was overwhelming. On our new site, we'll be focusing on ONE core idea: We produce video coverage to extend the reach of an association's annual meeting. Period.

It's a tough exercise, but one that every company should go through. What can you leave out, so your core idea is simple, clear, and easy to understand? If you simplify, your idea will be stronger, and therefore, more likely to stick.