Definitely expecting big things from Old Spice though, and excited to see what else W+K do.

In my day job I work for a very sales orientated company and all I can say is that if I had created such a massively successful video campaign which just so happened to correlate with a huge boost in sales I'd be using that boost in sales to help sell the use of social media to a wider array of people within my company….regardless of whether I could directly attribute it to my campaign.

Based on this sort of logic I wouldn't be surprised if we see even more great things coming from Old Spice in the near future.

100%!! I couldn't agree more with this, which is why I think it's even sadder that people are jumping on arbitrary and very iffy sales figures. The brand awareness, the feel good factor, the lasting respect that this campaign will give Old Spice – it's huge and will probably, definitely, mean future campaigns carry something of an 'x factor' that wouldn't have been there otherwise.

Thanks heaps for your comment, it highlights something I didn't really pay enough attention to in the original post. The fact that this campaign was successful in ways other than an impact on four week sales figures, isn't something that should be overlooked.

The campaign was popular, yes, and it was groundbreaking in some respects (a notable absence of red tape in producing the responses you talk of), but it's one of the first true examples of a brand being able to break through, talk to, and even charm the Internet(s). This man even won the respect of Anonymous, for Pete's sake, which in itself I think deserves a medal, or something. The campaign showed understanding of how not only the social web works, but also about how its communities that the networks it's comprised of function. For one day, we were all unanimously in awe of Old Spice Man, which isn't only a result of arbitrary objects falling from the sky, and pop-culture references; it's also a sign of great strategic planning.

There's always the argument that amazing videos don't convert into sales, but what about word-of-mouth? What about brand reputation? What about brand love? Wouldn't you high-five this man if you saw him in the street?

I'm getting excited, and I'm straying from my original point. There shouldn't be so much furore surrounding increases in sales figures. Of course, that's important, but in this case, I think there's something far more important at stake. Instead, we should concentrate on what this campaign did differently, and use it to help us foster richer links with the online community, in future. In this respect, I think we agree with each other.

The Old Spice campaign made everyone feel special, if just for one day. I think this is something we can all learn from.