Jordan McCollum gives a recap of YouTube’s foray into video advertising, called InVideo:
“InVideo Ads appear 15 seconds into the selected video, occupying the bottom 20% of the video player. If a user doesn’t click on the ad within 10 seconds, it minimizes for the duration of the video. The time marker at the bottom of the video player features a gold stripe to indicate the 10 seconds when the InVideo Ad displays. While the InVideo Ad displays, there is an option to close the ad, but less than 10% of YouTube users exercised that option. After the ad minimizes, an arrow in the bottom right offers the opportunity to expand it at any time.”
“Clicking on the ads open a new player within the video (which is paused). The InVideo Ads can use a Flash overlay to display anything from related albums for sale to concert tickets to movie trailers to commercials. Options include interactive features, video, and click-through offers.”
Search Engine Land adds the following:
“Instead of simply subjecting users to unwanted pre-roll ads, what this approach does is create a more qualified user for the subsequent video ad, among those who click through on the flash overlays. This offers a combination of branding and, to some degree, direct response to marketers. If the overlay ads are successful you can expect to see them quickly emulated by others.”
More from the New York Times.