Tipp-Ex is a correction fluid product that was once an essential piece of office paraphanelia. Since the decline of the typewriter, the market for white-out fluid has considerably shrunk but it still survives on the margins. To bring the brand to the attention of the global consumer, the company created a very cool interactive advertisement.

Since it's launch on the 25th August 2010, this little video has gained over 10 million views since it was posted on 'You Tube'. With the success of both Blendtec’s Will It Blend? and 'Old Spice’s' 'The Man Your Man Could Smell Like'  series of viral videos, it's no surprise that another brand has rolled out another internet phonomenon. However considerring this is from Tipp-Ex a stationary product, this is one online marketing campaign you should take note of.

The video, which allows viewers to change the hunter-vs-bear story by “Tipp-Exing” its headline, you can "Type anything you want into your keyboard, then enjoy". The video has racked up over 10 million views. Its YouTube Channel has over 30,000 subscribers, and the company has set up a Facebook page called “Hunter VS Bear“, which now has over 15,000 fans showing their support in a variety of European languages, which hasn't gone unoticed from Tipp-Ex HQ, after launching the same interactive videos in different languages.

This interactive video offers the viewer the ability to litterally tell the hunter what to do with the bear from singing, dancing, and drinking even all the way to fornicating -which is censored for your own good- in total there seems to be over 50 different videos that can be viewed based on the commands you write. This versatility and range is what has has made this campaign such a huge hit online and has essentially brought the Tipp-Ex brand back from the graveyard. Once again, YouTube shows you don’t need to be a celebrity product endorser to get big results.

Although this is a great campaign I must not forget to mention that this is not a unique idea. Burger King were first to experiment with interactive videos. Their 'Subservient Chicken' allowed viewers to type in a command and the chicken would then try and match that command, alas anything considered rude would result in a ticking off from the chicken. I am sure that we will see another example of interactive video soon, I just hope it's done using Vimeo.

Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” marketing campaign by Wieden & Kennedy was launched in February during the Super Bowl. It features Isaiah Mustafa, a former NFL athlete, telling us all why he is totally awesome whilst flying eloquently through the air or miraculously appearing in various situations...on a white horse speaking intellectual gibberish.

No doubt this campaign was an instant viral hit. Since it's inception the Old Spice You Tube Channel has racked up over 132 million views on You Tube and is no doubt one of the most visually entertaining campaigns I have ever seen!

It wasn’t until mid July 2010 when Old Spice made a turn in their marketing campaign and finally embraced social media to use it to its full potential. Old Spice opened up their marketing campaign so that viewers could either Tweet, blog or use Yahoo! Answers to directly ask Isaiah Mustafa questions. Isaiah replied to their questions in the form of exceptionally charming personalised video messages directly on the Old Spice You Tube and Twitter channels.

Due to the success of the Old Spice campaign Cisco Systems decided to spin this for their own favour, by creating their own version on the viral hit, unwittingly entitled ‘Cisco Spice’,  featuring ‘Ted from Accounting’ and his spectrum of office ties.

Alas hijacking this marketing campaign is like committing social media suicide. Fewer than 12 thousand hits are not good enough to drive this campaign, unlucky Cisco Systems but that’s a massive fail!

WATCH: The Making of Wieden + Kenedy's Old Spice Campaign

Social Media Marketing aka SMM is one of the hottest buzz words in the world of online advertising, however what does it mean to the average Joe...probably not a lot?

I've recently started working on a project with the aim of raising thousands of pounds within a relatively short period of time. My client needs to raise this money in order to produce a  product and is trusting that social media marketing is a route to generating these funds.

The internet we use today is known to tech geeks as web 2.0. It's far removed from the internet of the past. No longer are advertisers, brands and products pushing adverts to the viewer. The viewer now has the power to voice their opinion. They can tell the brand exactly what they like, It's now a two way relationship.

Imagine reading this comment below the product that you're about to spend thousands of pounds on:

"I hate your product, it breaks all the time and it was made by a three year old child in a sweat shop, I demand you remove this product and send me my money back!"

If I was about to spend thousands of pounds on your product and I saw this it would defiantly alter my view on parting with my money in exchange for your dodgy product.

Last week I attended the Figaro Digital SEO & PPC conference at the Hospital Club, London. Martin Dinham, Director of Guava presented "Trends and Spends in Search Marketing". This survey otherwise know as the 'UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2010' represented the UK's marketing industry over the past year. To cut to the point Social Media Marketing aka SMM has:

• Increased by 35% in the past year.
• 57% of companies spend less than £5000 per year running their social networks.
  
• 65% of companies plan to increase their spend on SMM in the next year.

The main reason why companies hesitate with SMM is the inability to measure what they get out of SMM,...what is their ROI aka Return On Investment from using Social Media?

Measuring social media is tough, however there is more to Social Media Marketing than just converting your 'likes' into sales. The survey summarised why companies use social media:

1. Brand Awareness
2. Increase Traffic to their website
3. Increase the volume of leads
4. Increase volume of sales.

Brand Awareness is paramount when it comes to marketing. What do your customers think of you? What are they saying about your products? Who are they reccomending your products to? These type of questions are essential to selling your product, you have to know what people want, so you can sell them what they want!

By simply setting up a Facebook like page and Twitter account you are one step closer to your customers, you are opening up your brand, they can get a little closer to what you do, they can even become brand ambassadors helping promote and distribute your products and news!

However you need to keep them plump by feeding them a little bit at a time. We're not talking supersize, all you need to do is keep it simple, what would you like to see, read or click on if you were a fan of your brand?

Ultimately if you are a brand with no social media presence, how on earth do you expect to develop your product? Sooner or later you'll have to set up these various channels, so what are you waiting for, get off your ass and do it!

DOWNLOAD: UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2010