The marketing or web department at CBS knows what they are doing. On the television show “How I Met Your Mother” they seamlessly work websites into the shows plot that are actual sites and adds some interaction and content.

During a recent episode Lilly and Marshall needed extra money to pay for some improvements on their new apartment. So Marshall creates a website to sell his wife’s clothes. They mention the address on the show lillyandmarshallselltheirstuff.com and again after the show. Rather then just having it be another promotional site for the show they are actually doing some good. The website sells items from the show for a fundraiser for the LA Children’s hospital which I thought was very cool.

Also in a previous episode about Robin and her embarrassing past as a teen pop star in Canada, they showed her second music video. When I was watching it I was wondering if they would have a link to it on youtube or another website. At the end of the episode it said go to myspace.com/robinsparkles to see the rest of the video. I thought that was a brilliant way to showcase the video, and create more content and information about the fictional 80’s pop star.

This is a great example of how some subtle cross promotion mixed well into the plot of the show can help extend the following of the show beyond the television and to the internet.

Here is a video that features over 5000 Web 2.0 logos in less then 6 minutes. It is quite impressive and crazy to see.