• by kyle , Daisy Whitney , January 26, 2007

The rub with online video advertising has been a lack of inventory. So video sites — case in point, AtomFilms — are mining every chance to stuff more marketing content online and snag users to watch it.

In fact, it’s one reason AtomFilms revamped its site late last year after it joined the Viacom empire.

The makeover included a new embedded video player, high-resolution video clips and a syndicated video player that can be housed on blogs and social networking sites.

The goal is to make video easier to find and play, which leads to more usage, more ad impressions and ultimately, more dollars, says Scott Roesch, general manager of AtomFilms.

But AtomFilms will need to walk a fine line between making advertisers happy by jamming ads in front of each video — and displeasing users who don’t want to be bombarded with commercials constantly.

Time will tell if serving up an ad in front of nearly every video leads to more — or less — traffic.