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YouTube Holds Special Event for Major US Advertisers

Chi-chi Ekweozor — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 22:15:52 +0000

Simiilar event in the UK not far off?

The New York Times and blogging CEO, Ian Schafer of interactive advertising agency Deep Focus are reporting that YouTube held a glitzy invitation-only event in New York last night for senior marketing executives from advertising titans like Hewlett Packard, Pepsi and General Mills.

The event, termed “The YouTube Videocracy” was described as “Google’s first large advertiser event” by the New York Times.

Considering Google makes most of its revenue from advertising, that description seems a little misleading. However, I do think its significance is that it highlights the fact that Google bought YouTube to grab a big slice of the global TV advertising budget.

Ian Schafer was kind enough to point out some of the new features YouTube is preparing:

Advanced Audience Analytics
And about time too!

This one will significantly change the ball game. If content creaters are provided with a Google Analytics-style web interface for assessing content views and statistics, combining viewer information with geographical location and duration of views, YouTube would have significantly raised the bar for web video accountability.

Active Sharing
YouTube has now enabled active sharing of videos. A viewer’s name will appear alongside videos they are watching and a list of recently viewed videos will show up in his/her profile.

Ha, that will make it harder to hide the fact that you are watching YouTube at work!

YouTube Content Goes Multi Platform
Apparently, Steve Chen is rather excited about showing YouTube on very large TV screens. YouTube on more mobile devices is obviously implicit.

Tentpole Content Inititatives
And we have the following to look forward to:

The YouTube Games — some sports-related content bonanza designed to run alongside the Olympics later on this year, perhaps?
Living Legends — content featuring living legends like… The Rolling Stones. Wow.
The YouTube Global Gathering — worldwide events, simulcast on YouTube. Could be pretty impressive this one. Live Earth, eat your heart out.

It wasn’t all fine wine and canapes, however. According to the New York Times:

“Google also made a plea to the industry to set standards for online videos, on the assumption that standards will help advertisers spend more on video ads. Google showed a video with executives from competitors like MySpace, Facebook and Microsoft urging the industry to pass video standards.

“As we get to a world of standards, it’s going to be very easy to do the big deals,” Jeff Berman, executive vice president of marketing and content at MySpace, said in the video.”

Fantastic stuff. Dovetails neatly with what the Joint Industry Committee for Internet Measurement Systems (or JICIMS as it is snappily known) is aiming to do in the UK.

So, please can I get an invite to the UK event when it happens?

Image Credit: YouTube Logo on Valentine’s Day

YouTube Raises File Limit to 1GB

Chi-chi Ekweozor — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:12:17 +0000

With the recent announcement of a new multi-file uploader and new file limits of 1GB, YouTube is steadily moving towards becoming the video distribution platform of choice for content owners looking to build a global audience for their content and monetise that audience…

I know, I’ve seen YouTube’s InVideo ads in the UK. Yes, they are coming.

And they look pretty good, actually. The example I saw was much better quality than the video it was embedded in.

So … this announcement makes perfect sense. Particularly in the light of the recent Video ID announcement allowing content owners to block, promote or even monetise ‘illegally uploaded’ copies of their works on YouTube.

What would be the point in YouTube courting advertisers without first ensuring that the content that they can advertise against is sufficiently high quality? As in, the quality deemed acceptable on a medium these advertisers already understand: TV.

With higher quality video files, InVideo Ads and Video ID now announced, Google is quietly letting the world know YouTube is now ready to open for business.

As the largest video distribution database in the world.

Thanks to Marshall Kirkpatrick at Read/WriteWeb for the heads up.

InVideo Ads: A First Step Towards Monetising Online Video

Chi-chi Ekweozor — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 22:26:13 +0000

Google’s launch of YouTube InVideo Ads in August is being heralded as the legitimisation of online video advertising.

At the very least, it is a first step towards monetising the vast online video distribution platform that is YouTube.

Any thoughts on YouTube’s In Video ads? There was much debate when they launched two months ago but the initial furore has died down.

What do you think?

Will they fly with YouTube’s notoriously fickle audience?

Future posts will explore this and new developments in online video advertising in detail.

Leave your thoughts in the comments.