These can turn out huge results when they're well executed.

"Collaborative video participation is… all part of this whole transparent brand marketing trend that I think is really refreshing," says Rebecca Hill, associate group account director at Questus. "People have come to ignore the brands and products [in viral videos] and rely heavily on the content at play. That is why this type of participation between the brand and the consumer is so much more interesting."

Examples
Axe's "World's Dirtiest Film" contest
This campaign used brand-created video to encourage user participation and hosted the entries on Collegehumor.com. "David Spade hosts the brand-created versions, Axe loves the viral collaborative video thing, and they do it pretty well," Hill notes. "Axe does a great job of distribution and uses targeted blogs in its sweet spot demographic to get the word out."

The Gmail video
More than 1,000 people submitted videos of themselves passing the Gmail logo along. Google strung the best ones into a video that's received more than five million views in the last three months since its debut on YouTube.

Doritos 2007 Super Bowl ad
"It cost $12.97 to produce and generated $10 million-plus in publicity along with a 14 percent increase in sales," says Dean Harris, partner, Silvermine Marketing, and Brandweek's 2005 Marketer of the Year. "My guess is that high production costs will not win the day in the online video world. In my view, well-produced, well-priced (but higher than $12.97) video will win out."