Vimeo recently announced it's new initiative, the Vimeo Brand Creative Fund, which aims to match major brands with creative individuals from the Vimeo community. We spoke with Vimeo CEO, Kerry Trainor to get the the details about what this means to filmmakers and videographers.
Since their inception, Vimeo has very much been about supporting the creative content producers on their site. There are no pre-roll advertisements and their non-video ad load is much lighter than sites like YouTube or Dailymotion.
"[Vimeo has] always focused on having a clean, clutter-free environment." said Trainor. "Although we are very judicious with our approach to having brands in the experience, we have always believed that brands have a role to play in Vimeo. The key is inviting them to participate in a way that makes sense."
Commercial Work… but Not Commercial Work
Does the Brand Creative Fund mean Vimeo is asking their community to make commercials for corporate sponsors? Well, yes and no. Yes, Vimeo will be selling media to advertisers (the first being Lincoln Motor Company), but the creative will be produced by Vimeo community members. And no, these won't come in the form of fifteen, thirty, or sixty second pre-roll commercials.
This doesn't mean there are contests where content is crowdsourced, Like Doritos' Crash the Superbowl campaign (although Vimeo isn't ruling that out). In the case of the current Brand Creative Fund project, Vimeo hand picked filmmakers to work directly with Lincoln to create videos centered around the theme of design. Those filmmakers were given money, just as they would if they were producing a commercial, but the end product is a short film, rather than a thirty second spot. The films live on Vimeo and will be promoted in on-site ads.
How to Get Involved
The Lincoln project isn't looking for additional filmmakers, so if you're a starving filmmaker, how do you get in on this action the next time around? Trainor didn't have any details for the future, but he did have some information about how it went with the Lincoln, as insight to how things might be handled in the future. Unfortunately, Vimeo will be acting as the middle man, and there are no calls for entries. To be chosen for future Brand Creative Fund projects, a filmmaker will likely be hand-picked by Vimeo's staff. Our advice? Be an active producer of quality work on Vimeo. All of the filmmakers involved with Lincoln Motor Company's campaign have had Vimeo Staff Picks videos, so there's your standard.
Want Vimeo to send you some scratch via the Vimeo Brand Creative Fund? The rules are the same as they've always been: display a history of high quality work.
