• Ad Age , Thursday, October 12, 2006 11:31 AM

Media buyers have reacted positively to news that YouTube will be added to Google's empire. The likely outcome of the acquisition will be product enhancements to AdSense, Google's massive network of Web publishers. "I couldn't be happier with the move," said Greg Verdino, vice president-director of emerging channels at Digitas. "The AdSense model has been rock solid for Google, and now I see them extending that model into video."

Sean Finnegan, U.S. director of OMD Digital, thinks Google is a safe place for YouTube to go, giving advertisers "a deeper comfort that people who understand our programming guidelines are involved in the buying process." If anyone can turn YouTube into an ad machine without compromising the user experience, it's Google.

Others see a potential conflict. "Now, with YouTube, Google poses a great threat to agencies and networks," says Renny Gleeson, managing director of Carat Fusion New York. "Instantly, they're looking at a massive amount of inventory." As for agencies, they won't become irrelevant to advertisers anytime soon.

Still, most media buyers are excited about the prospects of the marriage. Jeff Lanctot, general manager of aQuantive's Avenue A/Razorfish, says YouTube has now completed the first two phases of its maturation cycle--getting ad inventory on the site and filtering and organizing the content. The third phase, contextually targeting ads on the videos, is roughly a year away.

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