Vimeo Connects Brands and Video Creators with Brand Creative Fund

Online video sharing site Vimeo is more than a YouTube alternative: it's a place for creative video-makers to display their work and see the work of others. One thing missing from that artistic community has been brands. Vimeo started changing that in August 2011, when it introduced Vimeo Pro, a service that lets commercial companies host videos on Vimeo. But last week Vimeo made an even more exciting announcement: it introduced Brand Creative Fund, a way to connect creative talent with brand sponsorship.

With Brand Creative Fund, Vimeo is connecting members of its talented community with commercial brands looking for fresh, eye-grabbing advertising videos. The first project of the fund is the Lincoln Motor Company, which needed creative video for its "Hello, Again" campaign. The campaign aims to reintroduce the Lincoln automotive brand.

Vimeo selected four video-makers from its community to take part in the project: Lucy McRae, Jeff Frost, Eliot Rausch and Becky & Joe. Each created a short film that gave their interpretation of the "Hello, Again" theme.

As of this writing, only the first film in the series -- an elegiac short on digital distractions called "Get Back," created by Eliot Rausch -- is on the "Hello, Again" Vimeo page. The other artist-created works will appear one per week.

With the Brand Creative Fund, it feels like Vimeo has introduced a smart way for talent and brands to connect. The participating video-makers are paid for their work, and, as Vimeo president Dae Mellencamp points out, this gives them material for their portfolios and could jumpstart a career. Brands interested in sponsoring artistic video should get in touch with Vimeo's advertising team to learn how to create their own project.

Troy Dreier's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net