A few weeks ago, with Blogger Social in full swing, a handful of colleagues were carrying Flip Video recorders. These small video recorders are easy to handle, shoot some decent video (from what I'm told) and come relatively cheap. Think $99 for the basic model, $149 for the Ultra Series.


Best of all, through a USB connection, they plug directly into your computer so you can easily and effortlessly move footage to your hard drive.
I had first heard of these from Matt Dickman during a conversation related to a client promotion. We agreed at the time that the ease of use and low price makes this tool an excellent candidate for promotional use.
Think about it. You're planning to run a contest, event, promotion or just want to generate some buzz. Even if you bought 100 of these to give away, you're looking at $10,000 to $15,000, plus shipping if necessary.
Then, what you choose to do is up to you. For example:

• You can slap a skin on them to make sure they're branded


• You can create a YouTube channel and provide your "ambassadors" with instructions on how to upload and tag to your group (there's an "upload to YouTube" feature built in to the Flip's software)


• You can pull the videos from YouTube onto your own site


• Create a feedback loop to judge, comment and rate the videos


• Award prizes

The point is this: for a relatively low budget, you can help people become involved with your brand and give them a tool to do it. What kind of businesses can this apply to? All kinds:

• Media outlets: Can give readers/viewers Flips to record events from their perspective and submit their own reports


• Jeep: Use Flips to help feed the Jeep Experience site


• Sports teams: Allow fans to cover their team and set up a site to "air" the reports


• Travel-related businesses: Give them away so people can document and share their experiences


• Packaged goods brands: Ask people to create their own testimonial of their product experience

If you seed these cameras with the right people, then there's a chance that they'll participate on a deeper level as well. Maybe they'll blog about your promotion. Maybe they'll embed the video there as well. Tag it, share it, post it .... suddenly, your consumers are not just passively using your product; they're a potential army of word-of-mouth ambassadors.
And this true whether you hand them out to 100, 50, 20 or 10 people.
Compared to the cost of creating a TV spot, you're saving big bucks, creating a potentially greater return on investment and, worst-case scenario, if things don't work out as planned, you've only spent $15,000 and created some goodwill. Much better than a TV spot that costs a lot more and gets ignored.
One last thought: I only point to the Flip because it's inexpensive, which makes this all doable. It goes without saying that there are other tools that can help you achieve the same thing.
I'd love to hear what other ideas you have for the Flip Video as a marketing tool or about other tools you think help accomplish the same type of program.