Overlay Advertisements in YouTube Videos

Posted by Jessica Madrazo on March 13, 2008

Overlay is simply defined as covering or spreading something over another, and that is exactly what YouTube has decided to do, to earn revenue from millions of videos and their potential profits from numerous page views. It is an effort to meet the visitors’ high standards with optimum services, and equally monetize the video streams.

According to Google, the new overlay advertisements function as pictures within pictures. 15 seconds into the video, an overlay ad appears on the 20% bottom of the video screen. The overlay emerges as translucent, around 80% transparent, and animates for ten seconds. As it has begun, it also ends automatically, and can be replayed by clicking a button.

The internet is actually not new to overlay ads. Although not popularized, many sites like Videoegg, Adbright, and Brightcove has been testing the waters for this new advertisement medium. The success of this type of classifieds has not been confirmed yet, and Google has been very careful with the undertaking of this new venture. It is said that Youtube will not put overlays in all their videos, but only with selected partners, and in a limited basis only, slowly progressing and widening over a period of time.