The documentary series we’ve been working on about the Scarborough Hospital is now live on the foundation’s new website (designed by our friends over at Lush Concepts – check ‘em out). The series is part of the Scarborough Hospital Foundation’s new PR initiative, and is aimed at educating the public about some of the amazing things that are going on at TSH.

Since the site is freshly launched, we don’t have much in the way of metrics yet. But our experience is that video-rich sites like this have a significant impact on visitors and encourage longer visit durations. When the goal is to communicate an open, accessible, authentic brand persona, video is a tough medium to beat.

It’s also becoming more popular not just on campaign-specific microsites, but – like in TSH’s case – as a fundamental component of a brand’s main website.

Nike is a great example of this. A slick video carousel serves as a portal to Nike’s portfolio of category-, product- and campaign-specific microsites. A home-movie microdoc spot about pond hockey plays next to a mashup of richly lit behind-the-scenes footage of industrial sewing machines with Beyoncé-like glamour shots of the finished kicks. Although the videos are unrelated, they all share the brand’s classic just-do-it messaging. The result is a brand entry point that speaks to both the core brand personality and the diversity of the company’s offerings.

-Nick