Google is seeking to fill a newly created position of director of video advertising, responsible for leading the search giant's video ad sales.
The move appears to signal that
Google intends to significantly boost its efforts to monetize and distribute video. Earlier this year, Google began offering click-to-play video ads on the network of sites where it sells contextual
advertising.
Google this summer also forged a deal with Viacom's MTV Networks to distribute
content, including clips from "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Laguna Beach." At the time, the deal was positioned as a first step toward broad video syndication. "Today on Google Video, our goal
essentially is to be comprehensive," David Eun, Google's vice president for content partnerships, told OnlineMediaDaily in August.
Video ads account for only a tiny portion of online ad
spending today, but are expected to grow to 8 percent of the market by 2010, according to eMarketer.
The video ad director's chief responsibility at Google is "to develop and execute on a
strategy for driving video ad sales with all advertisers," according to a job ad that began running Friday on sites including HotJobs and mediabistro.com.
The position, based in New York, also
entails hiring and managing a video ad sales team.