• Red Herring, Friday, April 27, 2007 10:34 AM

So the rumors are true: YouTube, which has been frantically searching for a way to court big advertisers and is set to roll out a series of new products for advertisers this summer, which are likely to include pre-, post- and mid-roll video spots. Suzie Reider, YouTube's head of advertising, said, "We're looking at executions like a very quick little intro preceding a video, then the video, then a commercial execution on the backside of the content."

Reider wouldn't elaborate on the company's plans, though ad formats would vary by video and content provider. It looks like YouTube buys will require an added degree of customization and strategic planning. Reider said she expects YouTube to contribute significantly to parent Google's bottom line in "three or four years." She implied that the video provider's more than 1,000 "premium" content partners would be the first to experiment with the new formats.

It's unclear whether long form 15-30 second video ads figure into YouTube's plans (at one point company CEO Chad Hurley strenuously denied they would), though Patrick Walker, European head of video partnerships at Google, suggested earlier this week that 30-second pre-rolls figured in the company's future. Meanwhile, Sling Media President Jason Hirschhorn, appearing in a panel alongside YouTube's Reider, declared that a television-style pre-roll "doesn't work." He said: "Advertisers need to be very flexible. Anyone who says they've figured it out is wrong."

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