Now that viewers can watch their favorite shows on TV, online via Hulu.com and various network-sponsored sites, or even on YouTube, Google thinks it’s time advertisers had similar flexibility. According to the Wall St. Journal, Google is testing a new technology that will let advertisers more easily buy ads across Google TV, YouTube and even video running on other Web sites.
The technology is currently being tested by a handful of large advertisers. The idea is that once advertisers have the flexibility to run–and evaluate–ads across all three outlets, they’ll be better able to target what works, and eventually, spend more ad dollars more wisely. The trick is finding ads that work well on both TV and the Internet. As the WSJ article says, YouTube has struggled to support longer-form video, and thus longer-form TV-like ads. And:
Whether Google TV advertisers — many of whom are just experimenting with the service — will take advantage of the online video integration remains to be seen. Some TV ads may not be suited to run before or alongside online video.
Still, the one-stop-shop could be a boon for advertisers struggling to get eyeballs as more viewers embrace ad-skipping technologies like Tivo or reduce their expenses by canceling cable and migrating to online viewership. Video is video, after all. It will be interesting to see if it works.
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