Here's a good example of a marketing team that understand how the internet works, and are using the tools effectively, without simply 'jumping on the bandwagon'.
Virgin America is a new domestic US airline, under the Virgin brand. Initially, they found it hard to get government approval to fly, partly because of the involvement of a British brand.
Virgin America (VA) started a campaign called Let VA FLy, and started the website www.letvafly.com. Part of this campaign involved a series of videos, hosted on YouTube, that showed people the product and invited comment.
One of the videos, where Fred Reid, the CEO took the audience on a tour of the aircraft, had over 60,000 views, and 120 comments. Shortly after, Virgin America obtained their permission to fly.
What was savvy about this, is that YouTube and the web was the right medium. TV and print would have been too agressive, and would have been politically bad for VA. The web allowed the audience to explore and get to know the product, as well as record their opinion, that VA could later to use to sway the US authorities.
The even better thing is that it didn't stop there. Whereas many marketing teams would have said "nothing to see here" until the TV ads were ready, these guys are continuing to engage their potential customers and engender loyalty and brand affinity before they even take off.
Most recently, half a million people have viewed a video on YouTUbe of a VA aircraft being spray painted as part of the Name our Planes campaign.
Now I'm sure that this will attract hundreds of rude, obscene, obnoxious and generally inappropriate suggestions, but so what? It won't harm Virgin America, and the kudos they get for being open, honest and 'different' in the marketplace will be worth far more.
YouTube - Virgin America