Lycos hunts brands for video blogging service

Lycos Europe is offering marketers the chance to take advantage of the latest craze – video blogging.

It is already talking to a number of major brands about sponsoring a video blogging service aimed at users of its existing online communities and chat services – an estimated 5 million people across Europe.

Lycos has linked with technology company Coull to offer consumers a free three-month trial of the service, which lets them make videos on their PCs, edit the film, add captions and sound and then send them to Lycos.

Coull chief executive Irfon Watkins says the software can encode the sponsor’s logo into all the films made by users, so the branding cannot be removed: “You can’t strip the branding out, so if the video goes viral, the brand goes viral with it.”

The service launches initially in the UK, France and Sweden, with plans to roll it out in Italy, Spain, Germany, Denmark and The Netherlands later. Once the initial trial period is over, users will be offered the chance to subscribe for &£3 a month or &£24 for a full year.