Google Ignores Madison Avenue, Even As Web Video Rivals Cash In
Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo (YHOO), CBS Interactive (CBS) and Hulu (NWS, GE) joined advertising agency Starcom Mediavest and six of its advertisers, including Allstate, Capital One Financial and DineEquity's Applebee's, to form a group they're calling "the pool" that will attempt to finally decide on a standard for Web video advertising.
"The lack of standards makes it challenging from an efficiency perspective," Applebee's EVP Bill Leibengood told the Wall Street Journal. "Right now we put so much time into re-creating unit sizes, the content and the pricing for every site."
The group first met in November, when they took a list of 30 ad types and narrowed it down to five. Focus groups will review those five this week. The top two formats will then go into beta testing. Advertisers in the pool agreed to use the winning ad format to buy inventory from sites participating in "the pool."
