• Brandweek, Monday, March 19, 2007 11:30 AM

Several companies--including Hitachi, The Home Depot and IBM--are producing brief Internet-based documentaries in order to present their products and capabilities, tinged with touches of humanity. Subtlety is the watchword: In some of the videos, the brand is not mentioned until two minutes in.

The results are providing a self-reported click-through rate of up to 30% for Hitachi, which came online in November with a series of five-minute vignettes called "True Stories." Visitors are staying an average of six to seven minutes at the video section of Hitachi's site. They're being driven there via print, online and viral efforts, as well as banners at business sites.

Home Depot's episodes top out at around four minutes and lean more heavily toward branding. Thirty and 60-second versions of the episodes are used for TV broadcast. It has pointedly avoided video-sharing sites. "A genuine testimonial does not belong on YouTube," says Roger Adams, Home Depot CMO. "These are serious."

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