I think the dominant ad format will not be pre-roll or overlay, both are somewhat intrusive:

- The pre-roll is like the pop-up. How much longevity did that have?
- Any decent quality video will have some kind of caption in the lower 1/3 of the screen, and the overlay blocks it.

Much the same way Google (technically GoTo.com first) took simple little text ads (classifieds basically) and deployed them online, I think what will succeed in online video will be a throwback to something from offline media, this time TV.

What is that?

Just a guess, but what about the PiP. That’s right, the Picture in Picture. I think it will work for a few reasons:

1 - a PiP ad format can technically stay on throughout the whole video, which I think is the only way video will surpass search advertising’s size.  I am not saying it has to remain throughout the whole period, but that would be far more effective.

2 - a PiP can be an image, short text or even, video. If video is the killer app, should the killer ad format in the killer content format not include itself? Expecting a video ad format to thrive with no video in it is akin to building a website out of a cardboard box and calling that interactive.

3 - Technically, you should be able to somehow make it expand to see the whole ad, so imagine if

- scrolling over with a mouse will make the PiP expand as an overlay with the full text;
- a simple click will make the PiP load a video (I know, this might be irritating) and
- a double click takes you to the client site.

It’s not obvious but it could work, especially as viewers learn how the PiP works.

4 - Video content itself has expanded, at WatchMojo.com, for example, we publish in 480×270 pixel sizes, so a PiP of 120×90 would not really piss off too many users, I think… look at the image below. I’ve noticed on our page on YouTube, for example, that an overlay does cover up the caption that bears our text, so I do not think that is optimal, either.

5 - I don’t think it’s very killer (in a good way) for the overlay to have to go somewhere, such as the lower 1/3 of the screen, whereas technically the PiP can go to the top, bottom, left or right. With our content, for example, I’d probably put it on top, to the right.

See the black box, that’s what a 120×90 PiP would look like in our 480×270 publish format.

That black box does not really take much away from the content, does it?  Then again, maybe I’ve had too much turkey this week, cause a Black Box is obtrusive… but a logo, text or image would be easier on the eyes.

I’m not saying no one has done this, I’m just saying no one has really fully executed this… and this is where I think the most upside is.

What do you think? More importantly, if you wanna watch the video in question, click here, it’s pretty funny.