If you need an example of how to perfectly integrate social media and viral marketing into your business’s marketing campaign, look no further than Old Spice.  If you haven’t seen the new hilarious Old Spice Body Wash commercials, you should check them out right now.

What’s most impressive about the campaign isn’t how humorous or unique its ads are, but rather how quickly it generated huge viral buzz stemming from Old Spice going out of its way to interact with fans all over the Internet.  On July 14, Isaiah Mustafa, the Old Spice guy himself, replied to comments and questions on Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks via personalized YouTube videos.  Within 24 hours there were 181 reply videos posted on YouTube, producing over 6 million views.

The campaign has become a viral marketing success that we seldom see these days.  The secret?  For one thing, the commercials are hysterical and different.  Most importantly, though, their utter absurdness got people talking.  Before you knew it, they became the new “must-see” Internet videos.  Old Spice then proceeded to take it to a whole new level by personally replying to individual fans, thus surely setting the bar high for companies’ viral marketing campaigns in the future.

The success and creativity of this campaign should not come as a surprise, however, given that it was launched by Proctor and Gamble (P&G), the consumer goods manufacturing giant that owns the Old Spice brand.  P&G has long been a leader in advertising and marketing.  In fact, they created the concept of brand management and soap operas, and they consistently spend the most money on advertising every year.

So how will these Old Spice commercials and this viral marketing campaign result in more sales for Old Spice?  They have a distinctly beneficial impact on branding.  Consumers will now positively associate the Old Spice brand with humor, fun, adventure, manliness, confidence, and good looks.  Furthermore, Old Spice ensured success by reaching their market in an extremely personal manner through social media, an advertising channel that is all too frequently not utilized to its full potential.

Old Spice showed us that to make the most of social media you really must connect with your customers.  It’s clear as day that people use social media sites for connecting with others, but often most companies try to remain separate from the action.  If your business is simply advertising on these Websites and not participating in them, your messaging is just getting in the way of what users are looking for.  Consequently, no one will pay attention to your ad content.

So when it’s all said and done, what insight can we gain from Old Spice’s marketing campaign?  If there’s one thing to learn, it would be to get creative and start doing some serious connecting with your customers through social media.  Just don’t be afraid to “swan dive” right in!