Feb

1

Willful interruption

Filed Under Social web, Advertising 

 

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…

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One Response to “Willful interruption”

  1. alan patrick on February 3rd, 2007 1:48 am

    The answer is obvious - mid roll. Bound to win friends and influence people ;)

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