The search engine giant hopes advertisers will pay £32,000 a day for a click-to-play expandable homepage video ad, with other homepage options including masthead and 30-second auto-roll ads.
Cadbury, Barclaycard and Apple have already trialled ads on the site. 'These are high-impact, glossy ads, which will have 6.5m views a day - audiences comparable with TV,' said Google's head of agencies, Bruce Daisley.
Dan Clays, managing director at BLM Quantum, said buyers would push the pricing down, but that the ad formats would create 'traction in the market'. Google hopes advertisers will sign up to 24-hour YouTube homepage takeovers.
Some agency heads have cast doubt on the strategy.
'Advertisers would rather spend on a targeted audience,' said Rhys Williams, founder of Agenda 21. 'Homepage take-overs used to be all the rage, but advertisers, particularly FMCG and car advertisers, which have cut on spend, have moved to really specific audiences.'
Iris Digital managing director George Nimeh added: 'Ads are watched on YouTube anyway. There are better means of engaging consumers.'
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