Sesame Street has come up with a spoof of the Old Spice advertisement that had a runaway success with social media masses. The original advertisement starring Isaiah Mustafa has gained up to millions of hits in a matter of hours it was released, becoming an instant hit.
Sesame Street’s Social Media Strategy
Sesame Street has done an amazing job at reinventing itself beyond the typical kids’ show. They realise that beyond the children, there is an increasing market of teenagers and young adults who have watched Sesame Street as a kid, and still love the characters. The content that is posted is consistently relevant, child-friendly, yet still enjoyable to older audiences.
It’s amazing how a children’s show can educate kids beyond the alphabet, teaching them current affairs such as the American mid-term elections, and also about the things around them, such as this video about Apple’s App Store. Not to mention the myriad of videos made based on popular culture such as the Old Spice commercial, Katy Perry, and more recently, Willow Smith’s I Whip My Hair Back and Forth
All these are part of Sesame Street’s attempt at remaining relevant to their key target audience – children, and also to target secondary audiences – parents. In this day and age where social media proliferates and takes up most of the time of the younger generation, the television-only business model is slowly being eroded. Businesses, even entertainment, would need to reinvent themselves to stay on the radar of their target audiences.
If they keep this up, Sesame Street would definitely still go on strong many years to come.
