YouTube Debuts In-Video Ad Unit

It seems Google's YouTube has debuted a new in-video style ad format. It's not pre-roll. It's not post roll. It's a transparent banner that appears on the bottom of the screen several seconds after beginning of the video which the user can either minimize or click on. If clicked, in the case of this example, the advertiser's video opens and plays within the same YouTube video window as the original content. Once the advertiser's video has played or if the close/minimize button is clicked, the original video commences playback right where it left off.

So it's a bit of a mashup between banner advertising and the standard :30 with a bit or user-controlled DVR-like behavior tossed it. It's certainly new. It's definitely different and we have to admit, we like it a lot.