It works, damnit. As a semi-cynical and overly critical media student, I’m always picking apart ads, having a laugh at how they fail to attract my interest or convince me in any way. But putting ads before YouTube videos? Genius.
I’m not saying that these ads are any more convincing than the ones on telly, but for a few simple reasons I think that YouTube advertising is extremely effective.
As a teen I know that most other teens spend a whole lot of time YouTubing random crap – Teddy Has an Operation, anyone? – and I end up watching a quarter of the ads just because I’ve got nothing else to do.
Also, having just one ad before a video, instead of the ten I have to watch before the next segment of the latest Offspring episode comes back on, makes the ad seem more important. This ad for pine ‘o’ clean sachets isn’t jammed between Macca’s new McChicken range and Snooze’s sale on Egyptian cotton sheets: it stands alone. Therefore it appears to be something more vital; it sticks with me.
Between Offspring segments I’ve got time to read a book, fetch a snack, write a blog post, go for a jog (maybe not), but in those fifteen seconds before my YouTube video, I’ve got nothing better to do than to watch the whole damn thing. Unless it has a skip button. But that’s irrelevant to this post.
And just thinking of the revenue! Wow. YouTube seems to have it pretty cushy in my eyes: people upload the videos and businesses are racing to take those ad spots. They don’t have to look for business, they don’t have to look for content. They’ve got it covered. So instead of aspiring to be Ellen DeGeneres, or Steve Jobs or whatever, I’m going to be YouTube.
