http://www.beet.tv/2009/05/youtube-says-viewers-click-to-buy-visa-ponies-up.html
Sunday, May 17, 2009
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- As it continues to mine new advertising models, YouTube said VISA has currently bought out the new “click to buy” ad option on YouTube.
The ad format is an overlay ad that pops up on music videos and gives viewers a chance to buy the track that’s playing.
Clicktobuy.VISA The VISA/YouTube promotion was first reported on Monday by Greg Sandoval at CNET News.com. (The VISA ad provides branding and a dynamic link, but users are not required to use VISA to purchase downloads.)
Since launch in the fall, YouTube has sold million of tracks through the ad, the company’s spokesperson Chris Dale told Beet.TV in this interview done at Google headquarters.
The company has high hopes the ad format can drive sales for artists and creators. A recent Ipsos survey reported that half of all adults who watched a YouTube music video went on to buy music by that artist.
Also, when Monty Python became a YouTube partner in the fall, the comedy troupe said it saw a 23,000 percent increase in sales of DVDs on Amazon.
“We are an ad-based revenue model,” Dale said. “We share the revenue generated from the advertisements with our content partners and they get the lion’s share.”
In addition, YouTube also offers granular data to advertisers on who’s watching and how audiences are interacting with the content, relying on integration with Google Analytics and Double Click, Dale said.
Other ad formats on the site include banner ads, sponsored and ads sold through Google TV Ads, especially for YouTube’s new “Shows” section. Google TV Ads is the company’s auction-based system for buying and selling TV time used by Echostar and others, now being tested on the video site.
Daisy Whitney, Senor Producer