Why the Old Spice Campaign isn’t Social CRM

By now, Old Spice’s latest campaign has permeated every available crevice of the internet and television land.

And the Old Spice man made his rounds at a frantic pace. But how do you define the campaign? Many seem to believe that it is a social media CRM undertaking. This article takes a stance against that belief and attempts to debunk it.

Traditional CRM involves relationship management. It would be hard to believe that a relationship is being formed with customers by the Old Spice campaign. While customers are being reached, en masse, there is no connection being formed. This, then, fails to achieve the critical point of CRM: customer relationship building.

While the success of the Old Spice campaign is undeniable, it is more of a publicity stunt than it is a customer-fetching tool. And for this reason, the makers of Old Spice may not see sales that are reflective of the hoards of customers they’ve reached.