Ms. Adverthinker

I must be the last person on the planet to watch this (it has 26 million+ views on YouTube), but I have to post it here anyway.  Amazingly creative and entertaining.

YouTube is the most popular video site on the web with more than 330 million users. And while the site really generates little to no revenue, Google purchased it for $1.65 billion in 2006.  It has kind of been like that popular kid living off a trust-fund, with no need or requirement to get a real job and earn his keep.  Until now.

YouTube is introducing longer format videos that include advertising.  The launch is with CBS and includes full-length episodes of popular shows ranging in length from 20 to 48 minutes.  In addition to offering the video free to viewers, there will be a “theater” mode to improve viewing experience.  See full story here.

This sounds like a winner to me.  It would be great if they could offer geo-targeting for the advertisements that appear before/during/after the video to allow local marketers to get in on the action with viewers in their areas.

Coming off the Super Bowl surge of popularity for advertising (when commercials get higher audience than the game thanks to DVR devices), a NY Times had an article today noting the importance of the web for additional viewing of popular commercials. In fact, marketers should be thinking about ways to post all spots on the Internet on various sites:

“The ‘torture test’ for brands beyond their Super Bowl ads is how to make it easy for consumers to find the ads and engage with them, whether you put them on Web sites, on YouTube or make them easy to search for on Google,” said Pete Blackshaw, executive vice president at the Nielsen Online Strategic Services division of the Nielsen Company.

With broadcast production costs rising and media placement costs continuing to rise, it just makes sense to take the spots that have been produced for the paid media placement and use them in free media outlets that consumers actually seek out. As an advertising agency and strategic partner to our clients, we should be recommending that all produced spots are placed on the web.