Vodka company Absolut had an idea. That brainwave may have come in the sauna (with the company being Swedish). Or perhaps during a roll in the snow.

But it was a very good idea. The idea was to work with acclaimed film director, Spike Jonze, and the result was a 30-minute robot love story film entitled, ‘I’m Here’.

It was released in January 2010, at imheremovie.com but unfortunately – or perhaps more fortunately – has been an overwhelming success.

According to the vodka folks ‘I’m Here’ is screened every two hours on imheremovie.com, limited to just 5,000 viewers per day, the capacity of the site is now to be expanded to 12,000 a day.

In it’s first weekend of release the online movie theatre apparently clocked up 230,000 unique visitors alone.

“’I’m Here’ marks an evolution of our commitment to creativity, and I’m very happy about the great interest in this film. It is a beautiful story and a fantastic piece of art,” said Vice President Global Marketing at The Absolut Company, Anna Malmhake.

Seen in the worst light, it could be just a load of spin from Absolut. But there are widen implications.

It’s a reflection of just how viewing habits online are growing. In fact as we’ve already reported on UTalkMarketing, Online video is medium of choice for marketers in 2010

Why? Well it’s all down to the growth of broadband across the UK.

Absolut obviously knew the film was going to be popular. Otherwise they’d never have commissioned it in the first place.

They’ve also been driving traffic by integrating the project on Facebook, making it possible for social networkers to see the film together with friends.

But it looks like they underestimated just how popular it might be.

Lessons to be learnt?

Marketers should never underestimate the potential appeal of online video

Get it right and 230,000 unique visitors could be engaging with your brand over just one weekend too.

With the costs of video production falling too, there are no excuses for not making the leap into digital celluloid.

We’ve even got some top tips on How to produce video that delivers on a tight marketing budget here