Yesterday Youtube.com announced they would beginning running ads over some videos; you can get most of the details (spreadsheets with potential income, I do mean details) and a taste of the associated controversy here.

This is just a first step for Youtube.com as it searches for model to monetize consumer generated video. Yes, Britecove and VideoEgg have been using this format, but not at the scale or probably precision of the Youtube effort. Nor were they about to share their results.

With this learning, Youtube.com will move on to the next step. In other words, this is an iterative process; not finished tomorrow. Not standardized in a week, a year or even two. And while Youtube.com is focused on the issue of consumer generated content, their work has implications for the effectiveness of video advertising across the Web.

Their method has just clarified what some of us have known for a while: solving the puzzle of what to do with video online wasn’t going to be solved by a simple transfer of 30-second spots, as pre-roll, to the Internet. The interactive experience online is different (egad I am sick after 15 &%*#@ years of saying this) than watching a TV. Not better or worse, just different. Thus it requires different methods for interacting with the consumer using it.

So start thinking different. Or let the Youtube.coms and Facebook.coms of the world do it for you. I prefer the former position.

Kathy Sharpe, CEO

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