Big buzz today. YouTube has finally decided on its advertising format of choice, and it appears to be transparent overlays.
This is major news. YouTube now accounts for 10% of all internet traffic, and is costing Google the earth. And until today, there was little way to guage how the search company would see a return on its $1.65 billion investment.
The challenge has been made all the greater by apparent public resistance to pre-rolls (ads that run before the video begins), with complaints in research groups that they ruined the experience.
But after much soul-searching, Google has finally gone for a semi-transparent overlay. The InVideo animated ads will appear for a time in the bottom 20% of the video you’re watching – click the ad, and it begins to show a ‘deeper, interactive video ad that we think is relevant and entertaining’, while pausing the original video in the background. If you don’t click, the overlay ad message will go away.
As the experts over at Marketing Shift explain:
Google is touting these ads as less invasive and more likely to receive a click through. The company smartly is allowing advertisers to target viewers by demographic information, time of day, and which videos they will run against, so big name brands won’t fear their products appearing alongside childish or obscene content.
YouTube Move Could Kill Off Pre-rolls
Of course, not everyone is amused by YouTube’s announcement, even if they’re pretending to be. Hence this, spotted over at VideoEgg:
