When watching the new Lilly Allen music video for The Fear on YouTube I was presented with a pop up link across he bottom of the video. I hadn’t seen an ad like this pop up in YouTube before and have to say I really quite liked it.
It’s not too intrusive, doesn’t spoil the video and is of genuine use to users who are watching and enjoying the content. As soon as you click ‘Buy Song’ the video is paused and you are taken directly to the page on iTunes. When you there, if you have an iTunes account, you are only 2 clicks away from completing a transaction for 79 pence which will mean you now own a copy of the single.
It is micropayment transactions like these that will become an increasingly important part of networked business’s revenue stream.
Because of the short form nature of most of the videos on YouTube users won’t react well to preroll because they think of YouTube as providing exactly what they want to watch as soon as they click play.
In-play contextual overlays are a form of advertising that give engaged users a valid opportunity to make a cash transaction with a product related to he content being viewed without having any negative impact on the act of consuming the content.
This is a positive commercial experience.
The Internet is a medium that allows for users to instantly switch between consuming media to a transactional interface. This is a perfect example of the opportunity the Internet offers to utilize that capability to drive a cash transaction, which is of value to the user and publisher.
