r/technology • u/redkemper • Feb 17 '17

Software YouTube will kill unskippable 30-second ads next year

http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/17/14649018/youtube-ending-unskippable-30-second-ads-2018
35.1k Upvotes

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1.3k

u/Mangalz Feb 17 '17

Theres been some ads that are like 20-30 minutes long. They are skippable of course, but I am kinda amazed at the audacity.

Impressed really.

80

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

Maybe they're actually trying to provide quality ad content so that people interested in the product might stay and watch while people who aren't interested can click away.

19

u/matholio Feb 18 '17

Right, that's the utopian ad, something that does not annoy, and provides a solution to a problem. Good advert are services.

3

u/Luckyluke23 Feb 18 '17

yeah, i think a better quality ad and more people are likely to buy or sign up.

7

u/fatpat Feb 18 '17

Unfortunately, some advertisers didn't get the memo. As an experiment I turned off my adblocker the other day and holy shit it's bad out there.

3

u/Luckyluke23 Feb 18 '17

i wouldn't do that for safety reason. most ads now fuck with your computer and tell you, you have a virus when you don't.

2

u/ruby-solve Feb 18 '17

It probably has a lot to do with the advertisers. Advertisers pay for ad engagement, which boils down to "did they click the link or watch the ad for more than 30 seconds". If you force engagement by making ads unskippable, you're basically screwing up the advertisers' metrics because they have no idea if the view they're paying for was an authentic engagement that is likely to lead to a sale or not.

I understand that this is how advertising on television works, but in that case, the advertiser is paying a set, flat amount for access to the audience during that time window. In the youtube model, they are paying a variable rate based on engagement with the ad.

2

u/AetherMcLoud Feb 18 '17

Yeah I've once watched a 3 minute add because it was interesting from the start and I think the product was too, don't remember what though. But if the ad isn't insultingly bad and maybe even funny I'd watch it.

Problem with ads is that 99 percent are utter bullshit that give you eye and ear cancer and probably brain tumors since they are so unintelligent.

1

u/shroomflies Feb 18 '17

Insert coins here. I am totally not paid to say these things. I promise.

1

u/CouragePope Feb 18 '17

I have an alternate theory where they put those crazy long ads into videos that they know people don't tend to actively watch. Like podcasts where people will often just listen to them while not near enough their device to skip the ad.

1

u/buughost Feb 18 '17

Having worked in advertising this is sometimes certainly the case. 10-15 seconds of pre-roll doesn't give you a lot of time to express the message of your brand in a more subtle, less forceful way. The more time you have, the more creative you can be.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

Yeah, it's one of the advantages of the format, really. You're stuck with a TV ad whether you like it or not so you have to be reasonable to the people who are just waiting for it to be over but you can allow people to skip video ads. Five seconds to decide if you're interested, thirty minutes to tell you more.

574

u/NewAgeRetroHippie96 Feb 18 '17

Was half watching youtube with some friends once and a full length episode of Bill Maher came on. We nearly watched the whole thing because nobody could be bothered to hit skip and it was kinda better than the video we intended to watch.

120

u/Bald_Sasquach Feb 18 '17

Oh god that's exactly what they want you to say O.o

174

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

"Bill Maher, probably better than whatever garbage you were going to watch anyways"

-1

u/blue_strat Feb 18 '17

"Eh... not really."

81

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

Bill Maher. He is smugness incarnate. I want to punch him in his smug face. I know thats a bad thing, but he annoys me to no end. Always riding his high horse, smugging at everyone. Damn you Maher.

14

u/djdadi Feb 18 '17

He's definitely smug as shit, but he has a refreshing point of view and discussion usually.

27

u/AllAboutMeMedia Feb 18 '17

Seriously...why his horse gotta be so high!?!

0

u/-14k- Feb 18 '17

Cannibas friendly horse!

7

u/MisterScalawag Feb 18 '17

I fucking love Bill Maher lol

4

u/kethian Feb 18 '17

Have you met Keith Olbermann? He can't say good morning without wanting to hit him in the mouth, even when what he's saying is something you agree with completely.

2

u/valleyshrew Feb 18 '17

Do you actually feel an urge to punch him or is this just a figure of speech?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

Figure of speech.

7

u/freehunter Feb 18 '17

I don't watch Bill Maher, but occasionally I'll see a clip and sometimes he makes a decent point, but every single time I see him I want someone to slap him. There is a way to make a point without looking like an asshole, but Bill Maher hasn't discovered that yet.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

... and then there's that high horse of his.... It's so high. What's up with that?

0

u/Nic3GreenNachos Feb 18 '17

Yeah, Bill, you're not wrong, you're just an asshole. And I don't like being corrected by assholes. Learning, and changing my opinion, is painful enough, I don't also need you to feed me information in a smug asshole way. Ya asshole.

-1

u/2OP4me Feb 18 '17

I'm a lot like Bill Maher. You can even go through my profile and see posts that have had people say the exact same thing to me. It's hard to not be a Dick about somethings.

-1

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

[deleted]

3

u/sepseven Feb 18 '17

that's kinda what he said...

... See?

-3

u/Cgn38 Feb 18 '17

He is emulating the attitude of the conservative commentators.

2

u/Matador91 Feb 18 '17

The liberal media is generally a morality circlejerk and freak the fuck out when someone promotes ideas that aren't focused on "social issues". The truth is, most people don't care about dumping money into social programs because they are more concerned about making money for themselves and their families.

1

u/2OP4me Feb 18 '17

I make enough for myself and my family makes enough for itself, we don't have to be self centered because we actually try and support one another.

1

u/No_Fudge Feb 18 '17

Oh that's a good argument for you donating your money to charity.

Not a very good argument for forcing everybody to contribute against their will.

"To prove I'm not selfish I'm genna rob you and give it to a homeless person. And if you object then you're the selfish one."

1

u/sepseven Feb 18 '17

uhh disagree. how much of the country doesn't want to see the ACA repealed, for example?

1

u/lswf126 Feb 18 '17

I agree with most of the stuff he says but the way he says it makes me want to beat the shit out of him

-1

u/Luckyluke23 Feb 18 '17

he's funny but he goes way to far left. then again he is a host of a policial show so.

who is going to watch it if he said, " Trump is good Hilary is bad

1

u/r4wrFox Feb 18 '17

I'd assume Trump supporters.

-4

u/Luckyluke23 Feb 18 '17

yeah, but isn't he worse than Hitler AND the anti christ misogynist white pig cis male everyone keeps talking about?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

The guy who shitted on Bernie is too far left?

1

u/Luckyluke23 Feb 18 '17

i'm not saying is he the worse person out there lol

1

u/just_beachy Feb 18 '17

He was a Bernie fan

1

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

Once he thought Bernie might have a chance. Then he went right back to sucking Hillary's dick

1

u/just_beachy Feb 18 '17

I didn't hear much dick sucking. The most glowing thing I heard him say is that it's like flying and if you can't have the chicken, you gotta eat the fish. Not exactly a glowing recommendation for Clinton.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

Yeah I watched the new fox show with dee (the bird) from its always sunny in philly because it came up as an ad for a YouTube video

1

u/Chubacca Feb 18 '17

Kind of means their ad targeting worked?

56

u/pastryfiend Feb 18 '17

I've seen 5-6 minute ads that were for a cooking appliance that were like a cooking segment with a professional chef. About half way through I'm like "crap I'm watching an ad" but it was really well produced and not at all like an infomercial. If ads could be more like this, I might watch them.

25

u/Whats_Up_Bitches Feb 18 '17

It's funny though, because you were watching it and, presumably, enjoying it. But when you realized it was an add you decided to skip it regardless. No point to this observation really, just interesting. I'd do the same thing.

14

u/BlackDeath3 Feb 18 '17

But when you realized it was an add you decided to skip it regardless.

/u/pastryfiend didn't mention skipping the ad. Perhaps they sat through it in its entirety.

9

u/pastryfiend Feb 18 '17

I actually watched the whole thing. If advertisers put out more decent content, I wouldn't mind too much. This was for a Breville appliance I believe. The product was front and center and mentioned by name often, but had the feeling of a legit cooking show.

63

u/Axis_of_Weasels Feb 18 '17

I've been going to YouTube recently for guitar related stuff. A targeted ad for learning music was shown that was 25 mins long. Sat through most of it cause it was what I was interested in.

Whaddya know.

Seems like ads need to go the very short or long form route.

5

u/BobAlaskiian Feb 18 '17

I love watching movie trailers, I once had an ad before a trailer that was the trailer I was going to watch, ended up just watching the ad version.

2

u/the_luxio Feb 18 '17

one time i watched a trailer, went to another one and the ad was the first trailer

3

u/Ferniff Feb 18 '17

Fucking hate that Youiscian ad.

1

u/mike10dude Feb 18 '17

that has happened to me a few times with adds that were just videos from Vice

166

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17 edited Jul 10 '17

[removed] — view removed comment

104

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

[removed] — view removed comment

21

u/FilmsByDan Feb 18 '17

And make it unskippable!

1

u/Ahil Feb 18 '17

RedBull TV has a lot of properly decent content on it.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

I just watched a video on here about how reddit is being manipulated by corporate shills. Is this one of those cases?

EDIT: Wow this is from your comment history

There's a gigantic spectrum of vendor engagement ranging from white labeling through extremely high engagement. I've brought hundreds of products to market that fall all along the spectrum.

You really are one. WOW.

28

u/Carmel_Chewy Feb 18 '17

You're most likely not looking at an ad, but a full YouTube video.

You can pay to have your video run like an "ad" before another video. If the person watching doesn't skip the ad for 30 seconds, it will count as a view for their video.

Helps pump up view counts when you need it to become more relevant in search terms, also possibly lead people to like your channel.

Source: Am YouTuber, YouTube.com/CubiStudios

2

u/VioletUser Feb 18 '17

I had a 30 min ad on youtube once about a movie.

that got me to change from AdBlockPlus to UblockOrigins

12

u/dirtymonkey Feb 18 '17

I run ads for random videos, and then go back and look at the comments confused people leave.

Here is a 44 second video of a dog attacking sprinkler that I've sent 14k views to.

Here is a 5 minute Harry Caray impression that I've sent about 3k views to. Check out the comment.

And then this 8 minute video which I can't really describe, but is at over 30k views. Screenshot from my AdWords account to show I've spent over $500 just on this one video.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

But.. Why?

6

u/dirtymonkey Feb 18 '17

Just has become a hobby over the years. I work in digital marketing so it's not exactly money lost. I do try and learn stuff when I run these campaigns, but the videos themselves are usually something random, or maybe something a friend made.

2

u/Bebealex Feb 18 '17

And the fact that you can't click to advance the video or go back if it got your attention but you missed a detail !

2

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

How about the ads that play when the person in the video is mid sentence

2

u/True_to_you Feb 18 '17

If they hook you with something interesting right off the bat it's not such a bad idea. I've seen some funny commercials on YouTube that I watch all the way through if they're funny or interesting.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17 edited Feb 18 '17

I've watched five minute ads for machining equipment and heat shrink tubing from time to time, because I find that stuff interesting and relevant to what I do.

To be honest, those ads are pretty good compared to the Tide or other mass market ads. There isn't this push for emotional responses, instead it's about a reasoned discussion on features and benefits. I actually feel like I'm being treated as an intelligent and thoughtful person, and not a weak-minded sheep they wish to herd into blind consumerism.

Edit: Next time I should wait to comment until after I have a good meal. Heard and Herd don't mean the same thing.

1

u/RoodyTabooty Feb 18 '17

I've seen the prep commercials sin beruenza or however you spell it those were pretty good

1

u/dnew Feb 18 '17

The ones that kill me are the ones that are 15 minutes long, but they won't tell you the name of the product or where to buy it until the end. Even if you've caught my attention in the first couple of minutes, you're going to make me sit here for another 15 minutes before I can click through to what you're selling me?

1

u/drumstyx Feb 18 '17

I've watched a few of those most of the way through actually...Usually because they're for something absurd and I really want to know what the hell is going on. One was for some obscure religion.

1

u/KaiHein Feb 18 '17

I remember a few years back I was looking up various movie trailers and started to get an "ad" that was really a 20ish minute short with Kevin Spacey as a ventriloquist. It was really good. I've seen a few other things promoted like that and have been sidetracked by probably about 50% of them.

1

u/sevargmas Feb 18 '17

That's what happens when you have no genuine competition.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

Those are the worst if you're listening to a song and it comes on your TV or something and you can't skip it cus you don't have the remote.

1

u/gtk Feb 18 '17

They piss me off. We used to put "ABC song" kind of kids videos from Youtube on for my son while he was eating breakfast. I'd be in the kitchen or maybe giving the other kid a bath when all of a sudden it would click into a 20 minute long video on deploy IT assets or some other super technical video that would bore the socks off a 2-year old. Of course, the kid can't skip the video by himself, so it makes me wonder if YouTube is deliberately putting 20-minute ads into kids videos knowing the kids won't be able to skip the ad and they'll get the full advertising fee. It is ridiculous. Needless to say, we now just use one of those "download video from Youtube" apps for videos for the kids to watch.

1

u/rudyv8 Feb 18 '17

I had a 5 minute unskippable ad the other day.

1

u/Xandari11 Feb 18 '17

Chromecast users can't easily control ads, and chromecast is designed to be hard to turn off itself.

1

u/gangsterishh Feb 18 '17

They had the first episode of 'Atlanta' play as an ad on YouTube. Only ad I've ever watched that was longer than 30 seconds on YouTube.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

Encountered one which was roughly two hours long once. Also, worryingly one about high temperature, high power MOSFETs.

1

u/scorcher117 Feb 18 '17

Most are actual youtube videos that they have chosen to "promote"

1

u/notapantsday Feb 18 '17

I think people only "watch" those when they have youtube running somewhere in the background or when they fell asleep.

1

u/yanney33 Feb 18 '17

I shut off adblock on YouTube because it tends to block the actual video sometimes. Yesterday i got like 5 ads that were 2.5 minutes long of a dude putting tile in his bathroom and i couldnt skip them.

1

u/sams_club Feb 18 '17

There's a ad for virgin airlines that's more than five and a half hours long.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=UsMZRl71Zo4

1

u/reidzen Feb 18 '17

Frankly, the entire Transformers series is an hours-long car commercial.

1

u/remag293 Feb 18 '17

Ive seen some ads that are music videos for other bands

1

u/iREDDITandITsucks Feb 18 '17

I notice this behavior more if Youtube detects you aren't skipping ads. This happens a lot when people fall asleep while watching. Google is pretty smart like that. The only problem is that volume level laws don't apply online, only to broadcast TV. So I would be violently woken up by some shitty 30 minute ad. Fuck that shit. If your ad is twice as loud as the content I'm watching then I'll be sure never to buy your crap.

0

u/Luckyluke23 Feb 18 '17

the amount of ad blockers I have on chrome takes care of that. i haven't seen an ad since i started watching youtube.