YouTube is about to take a gamble in offering viewers of long-form video content the option of choosing which advert they want to watch, when they want to watch it, or, controversially, whether they want to watch it at all.
Video Advertising
takes many forms. From video ads embedded (often annoyingly autoplay) on sites across the Web, to viral ad campaigns such as the ones for Old Spice and Tippex, video advertising is both varied and increasingly popular.
It makes sense for sites which display online video to use video advertising. Hulu does this extremely well, but YouTube has somewhat struggled thanks to concerns over the type and legality of content on the site.
However, YouTube is confident its new approach is a good one.
TrueView on YouTube
TrueView, as the new YouTube video ad units are called, give YouTube viewers three different ads to choose from. If none appeal, they can instead choose to skip the ad altogether, and the advertiser won’t be charged.
Short-form videos will have in-stream adverts, while long-form videos will have either pre-roll ads or ad breaks spaced throughout. The ad breaks may not be skippable.
This is no doubt inspired by Hulu’s Ad Selector which already allows viewers to choose their own ad. This is currently an option on around 10 percent of all Hulu videos.
Conclusions
The idea of allowing people to choose or skip ads is, at first, a bizarre one. But it actually makes a lot of sense. If someone chooses a particular advert then you can be pretty sure they’re interested in the product being advertised.
And if they choose to skip the ads altogether? Then they were unlikely to be swayed by them in the first place, and the advertiser actually saves money trying to sell something to an uninterested party.
[Via AdAge]
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