Nikon is getting into the user generated content game. The photography giant today announced plans for a new marketing campaign called the “Nikon Festival” that will award $100,000 for the best 140-second video.

The festival is meant to help promote the company’s D5000 camera, a digital SLR that also shoots 720p video – though entires will be accepted from any camera. Users are being asked to submit short films for the next six weeks with the theme “A Day Through Your Lens” at www.nikonfestival.com.

Actor Rainn Wilson, Internet personality Justine Ezarik (iJustine) and photographer Chase Jarvis will help select one of two winning films, which will be announced in January. The second winner, as selected by visitors to the site, will pocket $25,000.

Contests surrounding UGC are nothing new, of course, but given Nikon’s big user base – both professional and amateur – there could be some interesting things coming from this. And there’s a lot of room for potential growth to the world of Web video even after the awards are handed out. 

Magazines aren’t typically where you expect to find video ads, but CBS has found a way to make it happen.

The network will embed a video chip into the pages of Entertainment Weekly’s Sept. 18 edition (well, for subscribers in NY and LA – the rest of the country and newsstand buyers will get a version without the chip). CBS is teaming with Pepsi to co-promote the network’s Monday night lineup and Pepsi Max.

LA-based Americhip is the company behind the chip. The battery fueling each one, it claims, can run about 40 minutes of video.

It’s a fascinating step forward in advertising, though I’m curious how much it’s costing the two companies. (Are ad-supported ads really the next step in the advertising world? Shudder.) Given the limited distribution, it has to be significant.

Running the ad in the nation’s top two markets will certainly help, but as my colleague Brian Lowry noted in his blog BLTv, CBS is already seeing a surge in viewership for “The Big Bang Theory”. If Monday’s see a ratings bump at CBS, will it be due to the innovative print ads or viewer excitement built up by on-air spots this summer?

While the Grateful Dead didn’t mind recordings being made of their concerts, most musicians are a little less enthralled with the idea.

Not Rob Thomas. Whether it’s at his solo shows or his gigs with Matchbox 20, fans can pick up a copy of the live show they just attended on the way out the door – and do with them whatever they’d like.

The concerts, which are sold on Flash Micro SD wristbands, are just one of the digital tools Thomas is using to promote himself and his music these days, making him one of the industry leaders of digital marketing.

“Fans on the Web site are trading their favorite nights,” he says. “Some fans have gone so far as to make their version of a live greatest hits album. When you see that sort of application, you get closer to your fans.”

The wristbands not only bring in a little extra income, they help fight the inevitable. With cameras and recording equipment so small today, bootlegging is one of the facts of concert life. Fighting it is essentially repeating the industry’s folly with downloaded music in that it can alienate fans.  Embracing (and quietly controlling) it, though, establishes a bond.

“With YouTube, you can’t shy away from bootlegs,” says Thomas. “I’ve done a show and on the bus, I’m able to see parts of it on YouTube before we leave the venue. [But] I’ve got a great band and I’m proud of what we do. When people see it on YouTube, they say ‘oh I’d like to go see them live’.”

Beyond the wristbands, Thomas has also established a partnership with Research in Motion to launch the Blackberry’s first mobile artist app. And he is the premier artist on Atlantic Records’ Fanbase app for the iPhone, where fans can listen to clips, read lyrics, leave him voicemails, chat with other fans and see a feed of both official and unofficial news and photos. Coming soon are a pair of games: “Inner Beauty” and “Reverse Barbershop.”

Admit it… that voice on your GPS gets old. The condescending way it says “recalculating” after you miss a turn? The harsh tone that seems to occasionally seep in when it tells you to “Turn right”?

Maybe it’s time to replace it – with the dulcet tones of Homer Simpson. TomTom has unveiled a new voice skin putting the patriarch of the Simpsons household in charge of your navigation. It’ll cost you $12.95.

Sure, it’s a marketing gimmick, but with lines recorded by Dan Castellaneta, it’s a more entertaining way to get where you’re going. For example, “Take the third right. We might find an ice cream truck! Mmm…ice cream.”

Homer isn’t the first celebrity to lend his voice to navigation systems, of course. Everyone from Mr. T to John Cleese have offered skins. Kevin Carter, a TomTom spokesperson, said the most popular, by far, has been Mr. T. The company declined to give any sales numbers though.

Carter, though, says the company expects Homer to give the iconic “A-Team” brawler a run for his money.

Zak Knutson and Joey Figueroa of Chop Shop Entertainment get brought in by big studio films and indie projects to produce electronic press kits and other promotional materials, which for them, since at least 2006, includes webisodes. Recent projects include the indie feature "The Art of Travel", starring Christopher Masterson, and Kevin Smith's "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" and "Clerks II". (Below is one of the shorts they produced for "Zack and Miri," an Elizabeth Banks-Seth Rogan parody of the "I'm F****ing Matt Damon" video from last year.)

Making webisodes is their number 1 tip for filmmakers looking to get the word out about their projects, as they explained in a panel this morning at the South By Southwest Interactive conference. And their sub-tips include:

• Film everything, at least as much as you can. Chop Shop spent a year with the "Zack and Miri" production team, filming every stage of the film's creation.
• The faster you put up your footage, the more the audience feels involved. Chop Shop managed to upload a webisode filmed at Cannes the same day they shot it, and the viewcounts went huge.
• Commit to regularly producing content, because your audience will look forward to it. You can't necessarily anticipate what will take off, but if you keep producing content, something will attract attention.
• Use viewcounts as a way to determine what's working and what's not working for the audience. And the basic rules of the Internet apply: "If you've got pretty girls, your stats are going to go up," Figueroa said.