Babs Rangaiah, director of media and entertainment, and his team at Unilever have appropriately been hailed as visionaries for their efforts on behalf of Dove. Rangaiah has crossed the chasm, so to speak, internally at Unilever. Now, instead of him having to hard-sell his efforts to his superiors there, they occasionally come to him. This can only be due to the success of his efforts, the most recent of which also garnered a lot of buzz around the Super Bowl. This YouTube spot featured the right spokesperson speaking to the company's target, which reflects acknowledgement of the engagement that’s axiomatic.

It also entices viewers to stay tuned for nearly a month, since the winning spot will be shown during the Academy Awards broadcast on Feb. 25. Perhaps best of all, it was the second most viewed spot during the week after the Super Bowl.

Why does this belong in the "not so successful" section then? Regarding the YouTube object lessons means that we have to regard the bad with the good. Here, the bad is rather innocuous.

In UGC, as happened here, someone is always out to "punk" you, as that guy did with Unilever. Nevertheless, it’s a thumbs down to Dove without ever mentioning the brand. And it’s also among the top-viewed videos.

So, no matter how well you construct your campaign and how perfectly you integrate it with broadcast, someone can still stick your brand in the eye, as that kid did. Marketers have to have thick skins to play in this milieu.