Marketing communications have shifted from a one-way street to a conversation with the customer. New media grants your customers easy access to channels that allow them to share their opinions about your brand with millions of other people. Until recently, marketers have allowed customers to bad-mouth their brands, accepting that they have no control over what is posted in the blogosphere. The game is rapidly changing, though, thanks to marketers who are willing to take risks.

“Outside the box” thinking? Most marketers believe they are thinking outside the box when they create a viral video or take user feedback into consideration for future campaigns. EA took this idea one step further: literally responding to a single customer (albeit, a very popular one) by creating a hilariously creative YouTube video response featuring the real Tiger Woods.

Levinator25 says: Check out this glitch, yo!

EA replies: Tiger Woods says shut yo mouth.

Some serious negative discussion was reversed into some hugely positive buzz (almost 2 million views, to be exact, and countless blog posts). Granted, this response came nearly a year after Levinator25’s video was first posted. It’s certainly a step in the right direction, though! Viral videos are pretty exciting (although the novelty is rapidly wearing thin and truly buzz-worthy concepts are becoming harder to capture), but a genuine video response to a YouTube posting, that talks directly to a vlogger and his viewers in their language? Now THAT is revolutionary!