• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, March 26, 2009

This article has been updated.

Geico launched a series of YouTube videos this week featuring two talking kittens, the infamous talking gecko, and YouTube celebrity Numa Numa Guy, who generated more than 27 million views for his first lip-syncing video.

The auto insurance company relies on Numa Numa, the gecko and theme music from the company's new ad campaign in the video, which contains no call-to-action or 800-number. "This is not a direct response campaign," said Jon Kaplan, industry director of financial services at Google. "This is about entertaining and making people laugh. It's a way to extend the icon and brand they developed for the offline channel to the online channel."

Geico used YouTube Promote Your Video to tap into keywords such as "Geico," "gecko," "funny videos," "Numa Numa," and "comedy" to bid on keyword and promote the videos.

While Numa Numa lip-syncs in the foreground, viewers can see the gecko dancing in an aquarium on the table in the background. The video, posted March 23, had generated 165,395 views and 674 comments as of 6:20 p.m. PST Wednesday.

More people search on YouTube than Yahoo on any given day. In the last six months, YouTube has become the second-largest search engine behind Google, according to comScore.

Companies looking to launch a video and use the YouTube Promote Your Video tool select keywords that people might search on to find the content. The keywords are typically related to the video. The advertiser can purchase a sponsored link that leads the viewer to the video.

Similar to Google.com, the auction is dynamic and happens each time someone creates a search. Depending on the way the brand configures the budget for the sponsored link, the ad may or may not appear. Sponsored links can appear beside or above the YouTube search results. The auction price is determined by the bid that the brand sets as the click value price. It also depends on the number of companies bidding on the keyword.

"Finding humor in entertainment and picking stars from YouTube to parody was frankly a brilliant concept," Kaplan said. "This was the perfect match, but other brands have created brand channels and set up Promote Your Video campaigns to lead people to the brand channel. One example is Nationwide Insurance."