Who is Behind Charlie Sheen Winning the Internet?

My post before this one was about Old Spice Guy (Yes, it’s been a while). The Internet agreed it was the bench mark for an innovative social media campaign. It was interactive and different and got the brand’s message across. But once the buzz wore off, and everyone forgot how to spell Isaiah Mustafa, we all wondered what would be next.

We’ve finally got our answer. It’s Charlie Sheen.

Granted, he cheated since he is already a major celebrity, but Sheen has jumped online head first. The campaign isn’t interactive like Old Spice’s, but it’s more effective because it is truly transmedia. It begins with a TV show on a broadcast network and ends in nearly every online entertainment format available.

While everyone else wants to know if Sheen is still on drugs, I want to know who is running this campaign. Yes, there is the post for a social media intern, but that’s just a distraction (and it’s also an ad for Internships.com). This is all too well coordinated. It’s just too … perfect.

First, the power of mass TV and radio stirs the pots and gets people talking. This ABC Interview being the turning point into Act 2 (put that into film terms, why not). The mashups quickly followed and brought the sensation online:

Then he joins Twitter and gets a million followers in 24 hours. Since accomplishing that feat, it has been touted as a World Record ad nauseum. Of course, before then, no one even thought of that metric. Charlie Sheen sure didn’t think of it. Do you know who did? Some clever marketing agency. Now it is a benchmark for anyone trying to enter the online sphere with gusto. Can’t break a million in a day? You lose.

Furthering the proof that there are people behind this, his Twitter account is being monetized, to the tune of a million dollars a year. The mind of a digital agency. Rounding it out is a ustream channel and today, a FunnyOrDie short. You can’t be a funny celebrity online without being on FoD.

If you were given a high profile celebrity, who would do anything, and told to make him huge online, the last two weeks of Sheen is more or less a blue print of how to do it. Everyone is talking about Charlie, offline and on. He is a meme to all, a hero to some, and completely unavoidable.

So, we are left with two questions. 1) Who is the mastermind and 2) To what end – What is Sheen after? This is more than a ‘in your face’ to the execs who canceled his show. This power play must be grabbing for something bigger. The 2012 election isn’t too far away…