:: adgruntie :: Viral and You Tube?

+ Yesterday I posted parts from an article questioning if ad agencies can come up with a formula for viral ads. Today techdirt.comhas a piece on a sort of related topic that's worth checking out. Here's some of it:

The simplest approach would be pre-roll advertising, a short ad that plays at the beginning of each clip. This would be lucrative, except for the fact that it annoys people.
[snip]
People don't like their personal expression or communication to be invaded by ads. If YouTube started inserting pre-roll into its clips, it's likely that users would migrate over to Google Video, or one of many other online video sites; and since YouTube's only valuable asset is its user base, it can't afford to see that happen. YouTube has to keep pursuing unobtrusive strategies such as Fred Wilson's suggestion of selling off the post-video recommendation links and continuing to sign deals with major content owners, that use the site as a promotional tool.

Yup. Yup. Uh-huh. The writer of this, Joe, is on to something. I have to say that the other side of the situation is that if you pre-roll ads in the same loading of the videos, people will pause, wait for it to load and then skip past what you're forcing them to watch, or go find one of the many many other sites out there that serve up shared content. Youtube is not the only one...it's just the largest.

Also I know content providers (networks, etc) have paid deals with YouTube, but as far as I know, advertisers who seed content on these types of sites don't pay for doing so. Perhaps if they made people who put on content for profit pay there could be a solution of some sorts as well. They pay for other seeding sites. Why not these places that are free to John Q. Pubilc? Just. A. Thought.