4 Lessons For Gov Via The @OldSpice Guy
Not one to let a hot meme slip by, and vacation prone to hearing the oceans in a shell and seeing signs in billowing clouds, here's my resounding YES to finding lessons for dot-gov in this past week's Internet phenom: that most awesome 180 videos in 3 days, multi-channel, rock-hard abs Old Spice campaign.
But I am not going to write about the brilliant social media campaign--others are doing that. Instead, I want to talk about four lessons we can take from @OldSpice Guy to better our dot-gov projects.
Number one: Speed
This is 2010, and if you haven't got it yet, we stopped waiting. The Old Spice team created video responses in real time. Someone--sometimes famous and sometimes not--would tweet and in minutes there was a response. And it was good. We hadn't seen this level of realtime before, but we like it.
Government needs to get with the program and escape from the time warps of never-ending requirements gathering, ad nauseam reporting, acquisition merry-go-rounds, and TAA (total risk aversion). I was on a panel a few weeks ago when someone asked how was it acceptable for government to take 3 months to implement open government initiatives. My response? that I would love for a project to come in under six. Sigh.
Our citizens expect immediate results. We need to make it so.
Number two: Planning
How do you make 180 videos, have them distributed across multiple networks and garner 11 million views in 3 days? Very carefully. This was a well-designed and executed plan. And, like any well-executed plan, it looked easy. But the handsome man already had a fan base, the social media team knew where to reach out, all the resources for the rapid research, writing, producing and editing were on site, and sign-offs were established.
I don't want to miss any chance to hammer home the strategy message. You, too, are building toward a goal. You have to lay the groundwork, do your research and pull together the team. You also need to be open to opportunities.
For example, we learned that you can't put a new capability in place during a disaster (duh, you say, but there is an expectation that technology can solve problems "magically"). That's why it's important for people drill and for organizations to run simulations and exercises. That's why your IT and new media teams need to participate. Setting up a Twitter account days into a crisis is much less effective than building a follower base and expertise to broadcast information that scales.
Is having a web infrastructure that can easily output RSS something you will need? Don't have the infrastructure you want, but can begin collecting data for the next gen? Do it now. In 2006, we tested third party tools for a blog, because, even though we had no nibbles from the front office, we knew that we would keep pushing to blog. When the formerly reluctant boss hit "go," many months later, we were ready with tested technology and policy. We went from go to live in 5 weeks without breaking a sweat.
See where you want to be. Build toward that state.
Number three: Talent
No doubt that the Old Spicers had a corral full of talent. From the guy in front of camera to the professional broadcast quality output to the hysterically funny writers to the social media experts who brilliantly got it and executed on key to the crazy creatives that put the whole scheme in motion, this was high-quality work.
Who do you have in your stable? Is your organization built for mules who keep their heads down and plod along on the well-worn path? Or do you nurture thoroughbreds and give them room to run? Do you hire or contact with superstars only to to keep pulling up the reins and push them to follow that old path? Does your staff look at the Old Spice campaign and wish they could do something like that?
You want high quality output? Find and nurture the folks who can do that work. And give them the space.
Which leads to...
Number four: Trust
There would be no speed from this well-planned caper if there wasn't an extraordinary level of trust in the superstar team. The ad company had worked with the client at length and pitched a process that skipped traditional sign-offs from legal, et.al. And the client agreed.
This is an interesting element. It's critical to understand that while trust is imperative, it's not automatic. Trust needs to be earned, every day. It's unreasonable--and dangerous--for executives to bet on a project or team simply because trust is a success factor. It's up to the folks in dot-gov to build the trust and to show the judgement necessary to take on risk. You create trust by building relationships, by showing success on smaller projects, by understanding the needs of the organization and developing programs to meet mission goals, by creating strong implementation and risk management plans, and by communicating clearly both up and down.
Trust, like Rome, isn't built in a day.
So that's it, speed, planning, talent and trust or SPTT! I think I need a vowel for that. Hey, look, a fish just fell in my arms. Then it turned into diamonds. I'm on a horse.
++++++++ Originally published on Gwynne On Dot-gov ++++++++
Comment
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Comment by Martha Garvey on August 11, 2010 at 11:08pm -
So...the postscript is: Old Spice Man cleaned up where it matters: in sales. 107% increase in sales in the month that "Hello Ladies" went viral. More detail here:
http://mashable.com/2010/07/27/old-spice-sales/
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Comment by GovLoop on July 21, 2010 at 7:52am -
The Government version...
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Comment by Gwynne Kostin on July 20, 2010 at 10:24pm -
Fabulous comments and discussion. Let me dip my toe back in on a few.
I agree with folks that there isn't a one-one between the marketing campaign and dot-gov. That's the reason I tried to abstract beyond the brilliant social media campaign to more general concepts. I don't want to limit these ideas to ways government gets out it's message--although there are good lessons on that, too.
Good caveats from @carol @jay @jon @matthew. One of the challenges that we have is to think--or as @doris offers, imagine--outside of the strictures. I know we have have experiences when someone says you can't do something. And sometimes, you can't. But other times...well that's when I like to act like a two year old and say, "Why?" By freeing ourselves to ask "why," we can discover that there really isn't a real barrier but an urban legend or that we can accommodate the issue by making a program adjustment. Not to minimize barriers, but there are sometimes ways around, above, under, next to, etc. Bottom line, I don't want to pull a humongous barge, I want to ride the horse. One with wings. Where we fly up and touch a rainbow. And it dissolves into spectacular fireworks. And by doing this we make government more accessible and open to the people.[okay, a big leap to that last result, but a girl can dream.]
And, @martha, I suspect there will be body wash in the birthday presents for my summer birthday sons. So they at least sold 2 bottles.
Thanks!
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Comment by Matthew Hall on July 20, 2010 at 9:23pm -
Old Spice isn't collecting public information and doesn't have to worry about following a whole bunch of laws, policies, regulations, etc that can lead to law suits for government. I don't think this is a very good example for government at all. But I do think government needs to start doing a way better job a attracting new talent, and planning its service delivery methods so that we can be present in online discussions, and benefit from social media campaigns to a greater degree. But there is an unrealistic expectation from the vast majority of people that because they can get a facebook page setup in a few seconds, then why doesn't it take so long to put up a new company website or a new company software product? It didn't take Facebook 1 month to build their software. It was developed over a period of 3 years, with a 2 year long releasing and scaling period before it was open to anyone. So much of what government does is very specific and needs custom development. This just doesn't happen quickly and it shouldn't. Government is an ocean liner is doesn't change direction quickly, so if you are asking for something that is going to change the direction of government, be it a policy change or legislative change, those things are going to take time before the whole government is going in the same direction. Actually government is more like a whole bunch of tug boats pulling a humungous barge.
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Comment by Martha Garvey on July 20, 2010 at 8:21pm
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So---has anyone bought Old Spice body wash since you saw the commercials? (Channeling the founder of my company, who famously said: "We sell, or else.")
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Comment by Lisa Wolfisch on July 20, 2010 at 7:28pm -
I read an article that mentioned the close work on location for this between the Comm staff and IT to manage the quick turn around collaboratively. That's another lesson.
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Comment by Doris Tirone on July 20, 2010 at 5:21pm -
Thinking outside the box is the first step toward "practically applying" these four lessons. Doing more with less is practically a mantra to all but government agencies! Perhaps Gov has a fifth lesson to learn as well... "Imagination".
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Comment by Jon Lee on July 20, 2010 at 5:11pm -
Hi Gwynne. Thanks for the post. I agree with those four lessons but I'm stumped to see HOW we can practically implement these lessons in government.
Speed – Yes, the public demand real time, but a lack of budget and resources make this incredibly difficult. We’re always trying to get things out as fast as we can. But with budget cuts leading to competing initiatives, you’re lucky to just get a project plan approved, let alone expedited.
Planning – This is one area that unfortunately, has become an afterthought. A lot of agencies treat plans like grandiose strategic documents that look great in a report, but in reality, never get implemented. A well executed plan makes the job look easy. Thanks for pointing that out.
Talent – This is one area where we all struggle. Government can’t attract the same talent without competitive salaries. And we have problems holding on to the good ones after a few years. What lessons about talent does Old Spice show us that we can implement in government?
Trust – Another area where we’re working hard to obtain.
So, although I agree with the importance of these four lessons, I still don’t see how you practically apply them given all the constraints we face.
Thanks,
Jon Lee
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Comment by Doris Tirone on July 20, 2010 at 3:32pm
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What a great metophor to introduce the antiquated to the 21st century! Thanks Gwynn!
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Comment by Rumon Carter on July 20, 2010 at 3:21pm -
Great article, Gwynne. Provides ideas, approaches _and_ abs to emulate - not a bad package all told.
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