I read today on Marketing Shift where Google is planning to capitalize on You Tube videos with paid streaming advertising. Supposedly the ads are going to be related to the video tags, but you knew it wouldn’t be long before You Tube went from being fun, new, and interesting to becoming the next mass marketing device. The beauty of You Tube was the sharing of videos without the annoying sponsorships before, during, or after the videos.
I understand Google didn’t buy You Tube to keep it “as is,” but it wouldn’t surprise me if somebody starts up another You Tube like video sharing service that prohibits any sponsorship whatsoever. Many of the videos on You Tube are commercials themselves, but they are commercials the user community elects to watch. There’s a value in that—why can’t Google capitalize on the videos that are already commercials and charge people based on the click rate of their ad? Then we won’t have to be force fed messages we really don’t wish to see in the first place. Maybe I’m naïve to think things can work well this way for any extended period of time, but I’d like to see someone at least try to pull it off for a change.
Am I an idiot? What are your thoughts?