New Formats for online Video Ads

I've collected some infos about new formats for online video ads. Some are just new way to play video, others open to new business model for advertisers. Hope you enjoy this summary ;)

• CBS, through its TV.com unit, is experimenting with a system that would allow users to earn credits by watching ads. Earn enough credits and you can watch ad-free. It's also experimenting with bigger ad loads. Typically a half-hour show online has two minutes of ads, compared with eight minutes on TV. CBS is pushing that up to five minutes with no measureable consumer blow-back.
• Tremor Media has rolled out a host of ad units called vChoice that bring interactivity into the player. Viewers can choose the ad they watch, dig deeper into related content, watch a product demo and play a game all without leaving the video experience. Some units allow advertisers to use their existing creative. Others "push the boundaries of what has been done by allowing new, nonlinear storytelling," said Shane Steele, Tremor VP-marketing.
• Hulu pioneered the choose-your-own pre-roll "ad selector" unit, which allows users to choose an ad, including a long-form movie trailer in exchange for an ad-free episode. The site has also experimented with ad-free blocks where an advertiser such as McDonald's buys up the ad inventory to make prime time ad-free. The Disney-News Corp.-NBCU joint venture has also tried live ads, like the faux "telethon" for Microsoft's search engine, Bing.
• YouTube introduced its own variation on choose-your-own-ads just last week. Google's video site is trying out a system where viewers can choose to watch a pre-roll ad or a "promoted video," which itself is a media buy. Either way, the view helps YouTube fulfill guarantees made to advertisers.
• Then there are "engagement" pricing models where the advertiser pays for a specific action, rather than an impression. Video-ad network ScanScout, for example, serves rich overlays that allow users to hover over or click to watch an ad or movie trailer. The network did a deal with Universal Pictures for "Fast and the Furious 4," where the studio paid for a number of completed views of the trailer rather than impressions.

Picture above is from Scanscout: THE 'ENGAGEMENT' MODEL: On video-ad network ScanScout, advertisers pay for specific actions rather than impressions. Give a look to their new video format, click here