Loren, love your point re youtube views as proxy for quality; it’s real-time feedback which is what advertisers will eventually demand. And, yes, in the midst of advertising “clutter” and DVR, ads have to be content unto themselves.

If I’m understanding things appropriately, we’re going to see ratings re commercial “pods” come out first. In other words, advertisers will know only how popular an entire slot of commercials was, not how their individual commercial fared. Again, it’s early days.

Best,
Matt

This is an interesting discussion as most of the “bleeding-edge” discussions around advertising seem to be focused on product-placement ads, embedded ads, in-game ads (for video games) since DVR’s have turned a captive audience into an active audience. By rating and building a competitive industry around TV advertising, one can engage an active audience and this advertising content could become part of the entertainment of television itself. This in turn would arguably bring us full circle back to the product-placement advertising discussion where ads and entertainment become seamlessly merged.

Good point about advertisers not wanting to follow bad ads. In the end, all of this will be a win/win. Advertisers will get more transparency and premium venues will be able to prove their value.