The Long Tail - Oct07

YouTube unveils in-screen advertising

YouTube is undoubtedly one of the most powerful (and provocative) media vehicles on the internet, but the Google-owned video sharing site generates little in terms of advertising revenue, until now. YouTube's recently unveiled in-video advertising format certainly set the blogging community alight - here's a sample of what they had to say.

Buffalo Communications

URL: http://buffaloblog.buffalo.co.uk/

Blogger: Buffalo Communications

The post: The balance in online advertising.

What it says: Will companies ever find the right way to advertise online? Buffalo Communications credits Google with carefully balancing the thin line between advertising and annoyance by successfully integrating ads that are unobtrusive and innoffensive. The blog warns that YouTube should beware.

"YouTube needs to be careful of alienating users and developing too corporate a persona. Advertising means big bucks and big business which just isn't attractive to the majority of YouTube and web 2.0 users."

Everybody go to

URL: http://www.everybodygoto.com/

Blogger: Ali J

The post: The YouTube advertising brouhaha.

What it says: Ali J brings a refreshing perspective to the debate, pointing out that ever since Google acquired YouTube bloggers have been speculating about how Google will monetise it.

"Will there be pre-roll ads, will they be post-roll ads, will they take over the entire space, Adsense, CPC, CPM, CPA...blah, blah, blah. Seriously, what's the big deal? It's just an ad. You see them everywhere you go. From your morning newspaper, billboards on the way to work, during your lunch break, virtually every website you view while at work, at the grocery store..."

NewTeeVee

URL: http://newteevee.com/

Blogger: Liz Gannes

The post: YouTube rolls out in-video ads.

What it says: By all accounts Liz Gannes's blog seems to be among the more detailed, even tracking down the architect of YouTube's ad platform Shashi Seth.

She quotes Seth as saying millions of tests have been performed resulting in five to 10 times the effectiveness of traditional display ads.

"With all that testing done, YouTube is being extremely precise and careful about the implementation of the ads. Gannes says the ads have a distinctly un-Google-like lack of precision and target used by location, demographics and time of day.

Wired Blog Network Epicenter

URL: http://blog.wired.com/business/

Blogger: Adario Strange

The post: Revolution Televised: YouTube Unveils New Video Ad Program

What it says: Strange reckons YouTube's inclusion of overlay advertisements in selected videos will revolutionise the online video space.

"YouTube has confirmed that content creators will split the ad revenue with YouTube and that revenue sharing aspect alone could reshape the entire internet as we know it. Imagine if Tay ‘Chocolate Rain' Zonday had featured an ad on his now famous YouTube video, currently boasting nearly seven million views, ‘before' he eventually showed up on The Jimmy Kimmel show. This move, if handled properly by YouTube, could create a new field of employment for thousands of would-be video stars and puts new pressure on professional internet content channels that have until now remained out of the video fray."