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Search engine and internet giant Google has announced a new kind of video advertising format for YouTube, to begin next year.
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The Telegraph.co.uk is reporting that Google has startred to test overlay video advertisements on YouTube. This is obviously the first steps in trying to get some ROI on the YouTube investment. they are trying some new approachs and trying to stay away from in-line and pre-roll ads.
Google launches first YouTube ads
By Emma Thelwell
Last Updated: 12:59pm BST 22/08/2007
Video website YouTube is to feature advertising for the first time, after Google revealed it is offering companies the chance to run ads on some of the site's most popular content.
The website, which Google paid $1.65bn (£829m) for last year, has allowed 20 companies to run trial adverts on 200 videos over the last few weeks.
However, from today it is opening up the advertising model to anyone, and will allow companies to place ads on the videos of a small number of the one thousand of its content providers, or partners.
These partners are a mix of traditional broadcasters and individuals, who are awarded partnerships based on their popularity and include the BBC, Warner Music and Chelsea Football Club.
YouTube claims the new advertising method is five to ten times more effective than any other display advertising.
A spokesman for YouTube said the group had been trialling various different ideas for weeks, revealing that video abandonment skyrockets as pre-roll adverts get longer in length, making it clear that they have a "detrimental impact on users".
During the trials, YouTube found that 75pc of those who clicked on the overlay watched the entire advert.
The featured adverts are animated semi-transparent banners, or "overlays", that run along the bottom of the screen about 15 seconds into the video.
They stay there for 10 seconds, allowing viewers to click on the overlay, which launches a deeper interactive video advert, while the main video is temporarily paused. Or viewers can ignore the overlay, and it will disappear.
People may just do that - judging from some of the comments posted in reaction to the announcement on Google's website.
One reader said: "Oh God...that sounds awful. Ads next to the video, OK. But inside? No thanks." While others promised to unsubscribe to any of their favourite shows that feature the new type of advertising.
Meanwhile, one reader summed up the challenges online advertisers face today, saying: "I hope the ads are cool, interesting, and relevant to me".
Google's management are all too aware of this attitude, warning earlier this year that consumers are the new brand managers, as they define the rules of engagement online.
The YouTube spokesman today said: "We connect the adverts with the content, advertisers come to us with ideas of who they want to target."
Google acquired YouTube last year despite the site having no proven revenue model