Banner Ads on YouTube – 1990 Style

YouTube’s been experimenting with a variety of advertising models. In-video overlays, promoted videos, traditional blocks of adsense….they’ve been testing all sorts of things in the hope of monetizing the most popular video search engine on the planet.

Today it seems we’re going back to the 90’s with a large banner across the top of the homepage.This screenshot was taken on a Canadian IP address without being logged in to YouTube. (For readers outside of Canada, Rogers is a telecom company which just released the Android phones in Canada. They’re also the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in Canada) 

 And when the banner expands it takes up nearly all of the above-the-fold real estate. I’d be very interested to see the stats on the ad.

Gord has mentioned before that Rogers was a little behind when it came to search. I’ll refrain from commenting right now, but I’m sure that there are some strong opinions about the wisdom of this move by both Rogers and YouTube.

Thoughts? Is this really a good option for monetizing YouTube? If you’re an advertiser, would you want to display here?