The Success of Youtube Ads?

Youtube Ads?? Why would I want to see ads on Youtube when I get spammed enough on TV!? I personally find it worrisome to think that I'll be spammed with ads telling me to go to Las Vegas when I'm just wanting to look at new uploaded videos made by my friends! To be fair, lets paint a little context to the story...

Since October 9th, 2006, Google's acquisition of Youtube brought one key question to marketer's minds: "Can Google make effective Youtube ads?" 

The promise was to use "pre-roll ads", ads that play for short period before the Youtube video is aired to the active user. As time can tell, Google also experimented with inline ads, ads that appear on the bottom of the video for the initial 15 seconds and remain animated to trigger consumers to click-through (http://newteevee.com/2007/05/11/youtubes-new-inline-ads-screenshots/). 

However this still begs the question, do people really want to see ads when they're on Youtube? The obvious and simple answer is "NO"! This article on CNet News explains it best: "It really is all about a father finding a cleaver way to get himself invited into his teenager's private world" (http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10009462-71.html). 

In a society where internet ads are dreaded and often ignored, Google has been successful in implementing ads in their Google website as content that blurs in the background of search results. However people use the Google search engine to look for specific information not casual browsing like Youtube! No one intends to buy anything when watching a Youtube video, so how will ads that prompt sales on 3rd party sites be even remotely successful? Some blog users believe that making the ads on Youtube animated might help, but still the purchase intent is not there! Ads on Youtube that attempt to drive traffic might reinforce top-of-mind awareness but Google has a long way to go until we can begin calling Youtube ads a success.