Welcome back to YouTube Tuesday. Here are three product videos along with mini marketing communications critiques.
1. Awesome $600 Invisible Bike Helmet
What’s to say? This product is super damn cool. And so is the video for it. It’s a three-minute documentary about the two women who run the show– and, of course, their product. But you only see the product at the very end. Worth the wait! This is my favorite type of web commercial — it doesn’t feel like one. Want a helmet? They’re about $600. Not a bad price to save your life. But then again, there are some pretty nice looking actual bike helmets available for a lot less–and once the invisible helmet deploys you’ll need a new one.
2. Creepy? Lytro User in Love
In many ways this video for the Lytro — the revolutionary camera that lets you choose what part of your photo to have in focus (long after you’ve taken the picture) — is really smart. The video tells a nice little story — a love story, in fact. Which might be the best kind. And they subtly weave in ways to show the Lytro in action. And they seem to even poking fun at all those crime shows where the cop tells the lab technician to “enhance the photo” and, voila, what was once a grainy picture become super clear. All that said.. I might just be being overly sensitive.. but doesn’t this seem kinda creepy/stalkery to you?
3. Sharpie
Rather than just asking Sharpie customers to send in a video of themselves using the product, Sharpie is asking customers to send in descriptions of how they use the product. And then they unleash their pro videographers on the most interesting submissions to make really nice little inspirational little stories.