iClickNation.com

Last June I reported on how MTV hired a couple of YouTube celebrities to promote their global warming campaign. This celebrity-on-a-budget approach is slowly starting to catch on.

According to adrants.com, the Philippine Department of Tourism recently hired HappySlip, a YouTube celeb, to promote Philippine tourism to second- and third-gen Filipino-Americans.

What I love about this pairing is that it makes sense. HappySlip is a Filipino-American. As a result, her videos are sincere and touching. Here is HappySlip’s sentimental arrival video.

I was going to write a long article on why companies should explore Facebook for their next viral marketing project. Luckily, Monica Hamburg from “Me Like the Interweb” blog beat me to the punch.

Check out her great article…and don’t forget to create a Facebook page for your business!

In an effort to sell more Cheetos, Frito-Lay has launched a website called the Orange Underground.

The microsite asks people to join a not-so-secret society that encourages mayhem and random acts of Cheetos (RAoC). I guess if you can’t get people to eat them, maybe you can get them to waste thousands of Cheetos on silly pranks and gags.

To help the creative process, Frito-Lay has created videos and a cookbook on how to best “fight the man”. To help spread the word, they are encouraging people to video tape their pranks and post them on YouTube. Frito-Lay is hoping that this healthier alternative will produce a collection of funny user generate videos.

Oreo’s Approach: Supported by a TV campaign, Oreo has taken a different approach to selling food. They actually have a viral campaign that encourages people to eat their product. Check out the next hot sport: DSRL. Basically it involves licking the cream off an Oreo.

After everything is said and done, viral marketing is not about microsites and YouTube videos. It’s about finding and sharing something truly unique or remarkable.

In the spirit of all its past innovations, Apple is now taking on the bland banner ad. Although it’s not the first time they’ve employeed this technique, this witty execution was disruptive enough to get my attention. In TBWA’s latest creation, Apple’s loveable PC character reaches into another banner ad to pasts a “NOT” at the end of it.

This interaction between two separate ads has proven to be a unique enough idea that it has attracted a lot of buzz on the web. Well done Apple.

(via Ad Freak)

According to a blog called “The Vig“, ABC has launched a viral campaign to promote the new season of Lost.

In Portland, there are now a few new billboards for a fictional airline, featured in Lost, called Oceanic Airlines. In the spirit of multi-site mysteries, the billboard leads you to one site, which leads you to another one.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much there unless you are a big fan of the show. And there’s no reason to send it to your friends…unless they are big fans of the show. Personally, I think this viral broke one of the most important rules of viral marketing: keep it simple. There’s way too much information for the average person to go through or care about.

It would have been more interesting if visitors could invite their friends to help them solve some kind of mystery.

Some viral marketing videos are so stealth in their approach that you don’t realize that the video is even a commercial. Personally, I think this defeats the point of viral marketing. You do it to promote your company not to just amuse yourself.

Here is an example of a video for the Dewey Cox movie that is far from being subtle. It’s peppered with product placements. They even tell you that this is a viral marketing video.

If you’re a Facebook user you should also checkout the “Is Dewey Cox your father” plugin.