Coca-Cola has launched a YouTube promotion that invites users to create, submit and send video holiday cards.

The Coca-Cola Holiday WishCast promotion allows visitors to select and send a classic Coke commercial or customize a pre-made video created by popular YouTube personalities. The video cards are then delivered via email messages with Coke branding.

According to AdWeek, this is not the first promotion to tap YouTube stars -- Young & Rubicam recruited popular video bloggers to make clips for World Poverty Day in October -- but it is the first time YouTube has brokered an ad deal that uses content from its top users, who will be paid an undisclosed fee for their participation.

Last week, Reuters and Yahoo! revealed they are working on a plan to compensate users whose contributed photos are selected for commercial syndication.

Petro Kacur, a spokesperson for Coca-Cola, told ClickZ that it's YouTube's ability to reach viewers that attracted the soft drink giant to this deal.

"We partnered with YouTube because they have global reach and a great platform for video. For Coca-Cola it's an opportunity to leverage that and bring new users to coca-cola.com," he said.

The WishCast gallery of holiday greetings is also available at coca-cola.com.

This is the latest in moves by Coke to embrace user-generated content. Earlier this year it created The Coke Show on its site, and, after initial rejection of an EepyBird-created viral video featuring a Diet Coke/Mentos fountain, in October Coke partnered with EepyBird for a video contest called Poetry in Motion.