Brand-produced video can have any number of purposes, but its interactive component needs to serve those purposes.

"Good branded video needs to bring value to a consumer, either in the form of entertainment, information or thought provocation," says Ruby Gottlieb, SVP and managing partner at Horizon Interactive. "Good branded video encourages users to extend it virally for whatever reason they see fit."

Examples
The just-launched American Express OPEN Forum widget campaign
This campaign is powered by The Fifth Network in conjunction with Digitas. American Express' 300x600 widgets, with six short informational videos, are running on niche business blogs, news sites and a handful of architecture-related sites like this one (right-hand side).

"The brand gets the kudos, the users receive six streams of very important information, the site derives [advertising] revenue and at the same time provides a service to its user base… win, win, win," says Bill Caspare, CEO of The Fifth Network. Whether the campaign is successful is yet to be seen, but they're tracking video completions, time spent with the widget, "unmute" rates and of course, calls-to-action.

Marc Ecko's StillFree video
A shaky camera follows Ecko past heavy security as he proceeds to tag Air Force One with graffiti that reads "Still Free." Ecko maintains the video was watched more than 114 million times, in addition to the outpouring of press from TV news anchors who thought the stunt was real -- even the Secret Service reportedly launched an investigation. What was the point?

"The president that flies in it doesn't own the plane, the people own the plane," Ecko explains. "It's a symbol of our freedom to express ourselves." As is the Ecko brand.

Dave Friedman, president, central region at Avenue A | Razorfish, calls the video, "Borderline viral genius here -- Ecko is a streetwise graffiti artist cum millionaire clothing designer who perpetrated perhaps the most successful viral/pop culture branding stunt of all time."

Virgin Mobile's "Sugar Mama" platform
This platform is "one of the first to offer customers cell phone minutes in return for qualified engagements to watch "advids" or other types of online ads," says Greg Castronuovo, SVP, group account director, entertainment, at Initiative. "The early days of UGC seem to be steeped in promotional reward for the consumer advocate who creates video that proselytizes the product, but online allows us to track and reward both the creator and the preacher. Pass the basket around. Hallelujah!"

The Delta SiteSeer Challenge
This is an "Amazing Race"-style campaign where visitors can watch Delta-produced informational videos about 12 top travel destinations. Visitors earned bonus miles for voting for their favorite video destinations and could download or share the videos.

"This Delta campaign nicely linked Sky Miles members to personalized travel packages to the featured destinations using their Sky Miles," notes Mark Beeching, chief creative officer at Digitas. (In the travel vein, Avenue A | Razorfish's Funship Island for Carnival Cruise Lines is also worth a mention.)

Holiday Inn Express' The Smart Show
This was a nine-week road trip across the U.S., which concluded in November. The videos are available as content on Blip.tv, and season two is already in development. The Smart Show is groundbreaking because it's episodic. "Don't just put a viral film out there," Beeching argues. "Once you've built an audience, feed it. Brand content creators need the stamina of a broadcast in terms of ongoing, webisodic programming."