OLD SPICE / TALK TO OLD SPICE GUY

Fans of Old Spice's Man Your Man Could Smell Like, aka actor Isaiah Mustafa, got a special treat yesterday as the man himself devoted a marathon number of rapid-fire video responses to admirers on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Reddit.

Offering advice, suggestions, support and even in one case a marriage proposal, Mustafa and a shock team of writers, uploaders and social network liaisons managed to dispatch a frighteningly large number of responses with very little delay, in one of the best examples of real-time, spontaneous marketing seen to date.

The effort kicked off with a widely-noticed get-well-soon message to Digg founder Kevin Rose and spread quickly, eventually reaching more Twitter bigs like Ashton Kutcher, Biz Stone of Twitter and Alyssa Milano. Celebrity and commoner alike graced with Mustafa's pronouncements were compelled to share, extending the reach of the effort to networks of followers large and small. The team churned out some 117 videos in the first twelve hour chunk of the two day effort.

The creative team conducted an epic thread on Reddit in the site's 'Ask Me Anything' style, which questions those with unusual or interesting occupations, and even engaged troll haven Anonymous with a special video.

Even Metafilter, typically one of the communities on the web most averse to participating in overt marketing messaging, got in on the fun with a thread of its own.

Global interactive executive creative director at W+K, Iain Tait, explained why everyone's taking part in the effort:

'What's the secret to this thing? There's a bunch of secrets probably. Having a super hot character who's loved by gentlemen and ladies alike. That helps. Having him be able to present a product in a way that people actually enjoy. That helps. Having creatives and a performer with a great relationship and totally incredible energy and stamina. That helps. Having a social media team working at the heart of the creative process. That helps. Having producers, tech folks and editors who've built an amazing workflow. That helps. And having a client that's brave enough to go real-time online. That really really helps too.'

'But you know what I think the real secret is: everyone is having a total blast doing this. And that kind of enthusiasm is infectious. Even when it's filtered through computers and wires.'

Mustafa, meanwhile, continues to cement his position as reigning spokescrush, with fans declaring their devotion. Two Reddit commenters put it best, with ohsnaap writing 'As a lesbian, I'm conflicted as to whether I'd like to chop wood with you or make you rock my world one night' and Noexit responding 'As a straight man I have the same conflict'.

View all the videos on Old Spice's YouTube page.