We don’t believe in pre-rolls… says Penry Price of Google. What a relief! I was seriously worried when Chad Hurley mentioned pre-roll somewhere in the flurry about YouTube looking for a "new monetization system" and "sharing revenue with contributors". Apparently, he said in a BBC interview that YouTube may begin running three-second spots before videos. We were not amused… there is a reason why YouTube fans reject pre-roll.
Curt Hecht of GM/Planworks seems to have the right idea. The pre-roll model…
…just doesn’t cut it. It’s not really helping us get the experience out there. It’s an interruptive model.
Surprisingly then, marketers continue to buy pre-roll because the demand is there
from the advertisers, according to Brian Quinn of Dow Jones
Online. What gets my head shaking in disbelief is his explanation.
The post-roll format
has major problems as well. We’ll put your 30 or 60 back there, but I
don’t know if anyone’s going to watch it.
Let me get this straight. The marketing/advertising bunch know or suspect that their ads are unlikely to be watched if they put them after videos that people choose to watch. So the ‘problem’ with post-roll is that people can ignore the ads. Their solution is to stick them before the video and force people to watch them. Amazing. Not getting at all. I can hear the Cluetrain hurtling right past them…
alan patrick
on Feb 3rd, 2007
@ 1:48 am:
The answer is obvious – mid roll. Bound to win friends and influence people