Yahoo! unveils plans to adopt video ad formats

Yahoo! is set to make video central to its portal and is working to introduce new ad formats across the board by the end of the year, according to Blake Chandlee, the firm's commercial director.

He plans to ditch pre and post- roll video ads on the portal by Q4 2007 or Q1 2008, after experiments with new formats are completed. Yahoo! is currently trialling formats in the US that will be introduced into the UK on completion.

"Our opinion is that the next evolution of the web is from text-based content to sight, sound and motion," said Chandlee.

"So we're very much adopting video as a core proposition throughout our sections like music, sports, news, video and travel.

"We are also working on ad formats that will allow the user to view the ad without affecting the user experience."

Yahoo! is also about to sign its first third-party deals in the behavioural targeting arena.

"We're looking at targeting customers when they go off network and that involves working with third parties; this means signing deals with sites that are consistent with Yahoo! from a branding perspective," said Chandlee.

He said that behavioural targeting accounts for 7.5% of Yahoo!'s media sales income, a figure that he wants to raise to between 10% and 12%.

Chandlee added that Yahoo! was looking at third-party deals because advertisers are demanding more opportunities to target users through Yahoo!'s behavioural tracking tools.

Yahoo! targets consumers by monitoring behaviour across four categories including surfing activities, keywords used when searching, clicking banner ads and the search results people click on.

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