Our friends at Cisco have provided us with another stinging example of what can happen to a digital campaign that is unsupported by the benefits of more traditional marketing. Here, Cisco depended solely on a one-day viral campaign, attempting to replicate the social media success of the infamous Old Spice response campaign. However, it neglected to incorporate the traditional marketing strategies successfully leveraged by Old Spice (television and advance staging via YouTube and Twitter). (See Old + New = A Happy Medium for Marketers).

In fairness, although the Old Spice campaign won social media domination, it didn’t sell product – but that’s another story…

In her post today on Social Times, Megan O’Neill explains where Cisco went wrong and what we can learn.

Yesterday Cisco paid homage to Old Spice’s recent response campaign with their own YouTube response project, featuring ‘Ted From Accounting.’  Just like Old Spice, Cisco announced the campaign in the morning, asked people to send in tweets, and posted a number of personalized videos throughout the day.  However, unlike with the Old Spice campaign, you probably had no idea anything out of the ordinary was going on yesterday.  With a mere 2,750 views on 18 videos in the first 24 hours, the campaign paled in comparison to Old Spice’s 40 million plus views.  So where did Cisco go wrong?

Read the full story: Cisco Fails With Old Spice Copycat Campaign.

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