From Reuters and the AdSense blog:
Over the next few weeks we’ll be testing AdSense video distribution and sponsorship with a small group of publishers. You may remember us doing a similar trial last year with MTV Networks, where we distributed ad-supported MTV video content to publishers who displayed the content on their sites. This time, we’ll be working with a larger set of content providers, grouping together video content from providers such as Warner Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment together with quality ads and offering them as playlists which publishers can select from and display on their AdSense sites. Participating publishers range from small to large, and cut across many different types of content.
This is an indication that the previous test with Viacom/MTV must have been successful. Content is the tease for the ads.
This does a couple of things:
- Helps attract brands to AdSense (model is CPM) and raise its profile.
- Helps take AdSense away from its identity as the “red-headed stepchild” of AdWords and differentiate it from competitive contextual offerings. Everyone and their brother is going after AdSense these days.
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Greg Sterling is the founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence, a consulting and research firm focused on online consumer and advertiser behavior and the relationship between the Internet and traditional media, with an emphasis on the local marketplace.
