YouTube Launches Ads You Can Skip 249
wiredmikey writes "A new format that YouTube has been testing for a while officially launched today. YouTube is launching TrueView, a new ad format that lets users skip over ads they aren't interested in — and advertisers are actually okay with it. When a TrueView ad unit begins playing, you'll notice a five second countdown timer — as soon as that's up, you'll see an arrow that will let you skip the remainder of the ad and get back to the content you wanted to see, or you can choose to keep on watching the ad."
Re:I'm not interested in any of them (Score:2, Interesting)
But then how will these marketers be able to try to convince you to buy a bunch of shit you don't really need?
Not watching the ad almost as valuable as watching (Score:5, Interesting)
So at 5 seconds everyone participates in a no-opt-out survey on whether or not the ad interests them. No wonder advertisers like it! They get to sell their products to everyone for 5 seconds at a cut rate, to known-interested parties for X seconds at a normal rate, PLUS info on which ads get the most dropouts, least dropouts, and presumably WHEN they drop out.
Re:Why not just make 5-second ads? (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't think companies seeking or publishing advertising realize how diluted the ad experience gets when there's so many ads with so much content to each.
For example, the current TV ad saturation is 22 minutes of program to 8 minutes of ads for a 30 minute slot or over 25% of the total time. For some online videos it's even worse - for example I've been subjected to a 30 second commercial in return for viewing a 45 second clip (thanks to CNN.com.) With that type of trade-off, instead of the viewing experience being enjoyable, the onslaught of ads begin to make the viewing experience a chore and overall the ads become less memorable.
I actually applaud Youtube for this implementation because 5 seconds is enough to get a rudimentary message across. If that message annoys the viewer it can easily be skipped over so companies that don't advertise with fresh or entertaining content and are viewed as an annoyance can be skipped easily. Good trade-off for everyone.
fix endless repeats too (Score:5, Interesting)
Now if only the online video providers could fix a problem where they try to show you the same ad dozens of times in a row, it may actually become bearable.
Re:I'm not interested in any of them (Score:5, Interesting)
The trick with advertising in general is to make an impression. Any impression is better than no impression because people will generally when face with a decision go with the familiar over an unknown even when the familiar is an irritant. There is a line you can cross thought where people form a strong negative impression.
Making an impression is getting progressively harder because of all the noise, and lack of novelty. It used to be you could throw up some bill boards with catchy slogans in pretty plain print and get the job done, not so today. We have seen it all and someone is trying to do something louder and flashier right next to you. Ideally you'd make a positive impression but that is hard when you are turning to the proverbial blink tag to get noticed at all, most advertizers are happy just getting noticed today.
Using technology to force people to view an add is crossing that bright line for lots of people where its not just irritating its infuriating at least if you do to much of it. Google might have really hit the nail upon the head here. If you are not interested in an ad you don't get a sour grapes impression of the product going forward by being force to watch. If you are interested you can watch it and in anycase you are being asked to decide if its interesting in order to dismiss it so you are at least recognizing what the product is and associating an name with it. Those are all huge wins in advertisers books.
This is pretty much applied media studies 101, which is about the limits of my knowledge on the subject but the whole thing makes allot of sense, so much sense I am glad someone is brave enough to try it.
Re:I'm not interested in any of them (Score:5, Interesting)
Please don't show them to me, you're just wasting my time and your bandwidth.
You have got to be kidding me.
You expect to be able to watch it for free
You don't want to watch adverts to fund it
And you don't want to pay for it
What other methods of income for Youtube and free TV do you suggest for them to survive?