But HOW DID IT GET FROM HIS MACHINE TO YOURS? That's the ONE question you haven't answered.
EDIT: I watched the video, but what it shows is how to install from a recovery partition on an already existing system. That recovery partition appeared for the first time in Lion. So if you have a recovery partition from which to boot, then you have Lion (or later) already installed. But if the machine has Snow Leopard on it, there is no recovery partition. Either way, the video shows how to install from a downloaded version of Lion. What I think is most confusing is your use of the term "redeem." If you have an Apple ID, and if you purchased Lion on your Apple ID, and if you have access to the Internet and the Apple store (which the process in the video requires), then what is the redeem that your friend had to do? You should have been able to download Lion directly to your machine on your Apple ID.
And what the video doesn't show is that at the end of install you need to reboot. Have you tried holding down the option key as it shows at the beginning and selecting the other partition (not the recovery partition)?