Recently Rocketboom announced a sponsorship deal with YouTube (GOOG) and Neutrogena will be part of the LonelyGirl15 ongoing Web serial with a product placement strategy.
Some of this will include pre-roll and post-roll sponsored insertions in the case of Rocketboom, and Neutrogena will put one of their scientists into the storyline of LonelyGirl15 over a two-month period.
There isn't going to be a one-size-fits-all answer to monetizing online video. These two recent examples show two different ways it can be done, although their are all sorts of things being experimented with.
A lot of this will depend upon the demographic being served, and even may have to be changed from product to product or service to service offered by a company. By that I mean it could very much depend upon the content you want to embed your video within.
One of the problems for online marketers now is the obsession with alienation. I think it's way more overblown than can be confirmed at this time. Even when the popular Facebook made changes without consulting its users a while back, it did create a lot of negative feedback, but when it was responded to quickly, people obviously stayed around.
The point is we've got to try things. To not monetize isn't an option, I don't care what anybody says - that's a fantasy world.
Take Facebook again. They're already starting to monetize in their field. How long will they be able to absorb the costs of operations? Sure, they continue to get rounds of financing, but when will those doing the financing require a return? Even it they don't mind holding out, what's the business model? Think of it. They are made to be bought.
Is that a business model that most of us can copy? No it's not. Everybody likes to use them as some type of high standard, but in the end, just like everybody else, they will have to monetize further. If the only way they can survive, like YouTube, is to be bought by a multi-billion dollar company that subsidizes the operations, it's not a business model for the majority of online marketers - it's an anomaly.
For online video this is important to note because it's operational costs are much higher than text-based websites. So it operates at a different level.
In the end we need to be willing to try different things to see the responses of our users and get feedback. We need to look at that feedback and properly interpret it. We need to separate a small group of ranters from those that are the audience we really serve.
People will let us know what they are willing to put up with and not. I think the future for monetizing online video will include numerous ways of doing it based upon the demographics and specifics of the products and services we offer. We shouldn't try to look for one, easy answer, but realize we will be required to pursue a multifaceted strategy.
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