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YouTube and Hulu Let You Choose Your Commercials

by Terrence O'Brien on June 17, 2009 at 09:30 AM

Web Trending Towards Viewer Chosen Ads
YouTube is experimenting with a new ad delivery system that lets viewers choose to watch either a relatively lengthy pre-video advertisement, or to stick with shorter ads inserted throughout the video. Note that these ads will only appear on sponsored videos, not the meme masterpiece of Keyboard Cat teaming with Hall & Oates. Although this change may not seem like a big deal, giving viewers options is always a useful improvement.

Of course, YouTube isn't the only site putting commercial control in the hands of visitors. Hulu occasionally presents viewers with a similar choice (between longer pre-roll, and shorter, in-video ads), and it lets viewers vote for ads by giving them a thumbs up or thumbs down, helping to refine the pool of advertisements Hulu offers. Digg will be applying the same voting scheme that it uses for articles to advertisements. Allowing visitors to digg or bury ads, the site charges more for videos the more they are buried, essentially pricing them off the site.

This move may be a functional solution to the problem confronting many content owners and advertisers. People don't want to pay for services like Hulu, but many have no patience for several minutes of irrelevant ads, having become accustomed to skipping through commercials on their DVRs.

The notion suggests that presenting viewers with options will make them more receptive to watching ads. Additionally, since the viewers are choosing which ads to watch, audiences become more accurately targeted. Targeted, receptive audiences make marketers happy, and sites like YouTube can charge more for ad spots. Perhaps this viewer-chosen ad model can be the middle ground that satisfies both consumers and businesses. [From: NewTeeVee and Digg]

Tags: advertisement, advertising, consumer, hulu, marketing, top, youtube

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