Tippex: Hunter and the bear party on with YouTube

The innovative ways in which the creative mind uses new media nowadays is amazing. There are several brands trying to do it, but very few evoke a ‘wow’ or a ‘wish I had thought of that’ kind of response . Tipp-ex did that with their 2010 campaign on YouTube (19.2mn views as of date). The word ‘shoots’ in ‘A hunter shoots a bear was  whitened out and viewers were asked to input any word in that area. The hunter then proceeds to do what they say – from ‘A hunter hugs a bear’ to ‘A hunter eats a bear’.

In a follow up video released recently, the hunter and the bear have a ‘birthday party‘. The party is interrupted when they see an approaching meteor. The viewer then has a choice to either ‘end the party’ or ‘continue the party’. The resultant page then has a product plug (done in a non-serious manner of course). The viewer is then asked to input ‘any’ year in the whitened out are and a relevant video follows.

Type in 1980 and you have a Pacman game. Type in 1970 and you have disco dance (you can make the characters dance by using 5,6,7 keys on the keyboard). Type in 2007 and you have a reference to the iPhone launch! It’s almost endless fun and the videos bring a smile to your face. What’s more this ‘interactive activity’ is likely to appeal to all age groups and has a relevant link to to the product. Awesome stuff.

It’s amazing how great use of new media has created new brands (Blendtec) and made existing brands like Tipp-ex famous. All without the help of traditional, paid media. And buried in this somewhere is the lesson on how to make videos go viral. And not ‘make viral videos’.