The First Post - a brilliant bit of marketing

Ever tried the First Post: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?menuID=0
If I'm honest, I hadn't even heard of them until yesterday.
But I visited today - and I'm pretty impressed. I'll probably go back again. I particularly like their 'SOHO'.
But I'm not here to praise the site - I'm here to praise the way I got drawn to it.
I visited because the guys who posted this video on youtube mentioned that's who they had done it for.
It's such a good little bit of video fun that it's even the clip the BBC used to illustrate their Google-Buys-YouTube story on last night's 10pm news.
It's had over 300,000 views in couple of weeks and created loads of good feeling in the YouTube community.
Their 'we're just having fun like you-style' description of the video, says it took the makers two weeks.
Time very well spent - and a hell of a lot cheaper than a TV ad campaign.
And actually it cost The First Post next to nowt - it was the £5000 winner in a comp they ran. For more from the winner (and I have to say it all looks like genius to me... go here
For the details of the competition, go here

What this tells me?
You don't even need to spend time coming up with and delivering really good content worthy of featuring on YouTube. You just need to inspire the right people with the right reasons to do it for you (and, I guess, pick a winner which reflects both the vibe of your community - and of the community you aim to get viral among) and you'll get all the traffic you need at a fraction of the usual marketing spend. This is where ad agencies need to be right now.
Of course, you can try doing it yourself - if you've got the right people, with the time and the motivation. The brilliant thing about the competition approach is the way it finds all those for you. The Ministry of Sound has been doing something similar.

What does it tell you?