Marketing 2.0: dare to share

Example #1:

Whenever camera manufacturers launch a new product, they create some nice sales collateral (i.e. brochures, ads, etc.) that makes you want to buy their stuff. So when Nikon introduced their new D90 model, they hired pro-photographer Chase Jarvis to shoot a cool brochure that makes you feel like all you need to do is run out and get a D90 and you'll be well on your way to become the next, well, Chase Jarvis.

But Nikon took it a step further this time. They also gave Chase's team, all advanced amateur photographers in their own right, a bunch of D90's to play around with, resulting in this video:

 The result: almost 322,000 views on YouTube as of this writing. To me, this is a lot more authentic and fun to watch than traditional advertising, even though I know that it was sponsored by Nikon.

Example #2:

Outdoor apparel company Berghaus doesn't "do ads", according to their website. Instead, they created a cool 60 second adrenalin-filled video following two base jumpers, which oddly enough they call the 60 second advert... Huh? What's up with that, I thought you didn't do ads. Anyway, the interesting thing is that there's also a longer "making-of" video. Again, it seems even more fun to watch the camera team schlep a ton of equipment up onto a Norwegian mountain and being suspended off cliffs in all sorts of precarious ways than to see the actual end result. The making-of clip somehow seems more raw and has more personal elements in it, in the form of mini interviews with crew and cast. So here's the video:

...uh... wait, there's no way to embed it. It seems that Berghaus has trusted that people will be able to find their site in order to watch their stuff. Hmmm, missed opportunity if you ask me.