Marketing Pilgrim

As the advertising world continues to try to figure out just the best way to deliver ads online enter Microsoft, Yahoo and Hulu are using something called ASq to allow site visitors to choose just what ad they would like to see before a video. Honestly, I don’t know who ‘owns’ ASq because the article in Bloomberg Businessweek covering this particular advertising change is unclear.

Starting next month, websites that include MSNBC.com, Yahoo.com, and Hulu.com will begin letting consumers decide which ads show up in video clips they view online.

The new ad-selecting tool is called ASq and may step up development of the $3.1 billion global video ads market, already online advertising’s fastest-growing segment. While it may not end unwelcome commercials for car insurance or weight-loss pills, it may help websites command higher rates while letting marketers attract more eyeballs and improve consumer targeting.

The bottom line here is that pre-determined, pre-roll ads attached to video content are really annoying, at least to me. I want the content I want to see and I don’t want to see an ad that has little or no relation to me. Now, if I am forced to choose something to watch before the content then maybe I would be interested. It does make sense that people would at least try to choose something they could tolerate before getting to their content. Of course, there will be others who say “Screw the content!” because the whole process is annoying.

While my observations are far from scientific, it appears that there is enough potential value in this concept for big names to give it a chance

CBS.com (CBS), AOL.com (AOL), and Discovery.com (DISCA) plan to start using ASq in September. Google’s (GOOG) YouTube is studying it. The new offering would let viewers of an online video choose from three or more ads instead of imposing a pre-roll clip. Yahoo and Hulu plan to use it, as does Microsoft’s MSNBC.com, which features segments from the Today show, NBC Nightly News and Meet the Press. “We’re getting smarter about what makes more impactful advertising,” says Uyenco Shatto. “The big ‘aha’ here is understanding what makes a viewer choose a particular ad.”

So my real question here is who or what is ASq? If anyone has an idea let us know.

Now of course this whole exercise wouldn’t be any fun unless there were detractors and naysayers, right?! So here you go.

Not everyone is convinced that allowing users to choose ads will benefit the industry. “If you only watch what you like, then how will it broaden your appeal?” says Richard Wheaton, managing director at Ogilvy & Mather’s Neo digital media agency, which works with such clients as Cisco Systems (CSCO), Eastman Kodak (EK), IBM (IBM), and American Express (AXP) “Everybody isn’t happy to be advertised at, but the more iPads (AAPL) I see, the more I want an iPad.” Wheaton says there’s a “real shortage” of quality video ads online because they are very expensive to shoot.

So what are your thoughts? Would you like to be able to choose which ad you see before getting to content you want? Is this something that helps or hinders? Do you even pay attention to the pre-roll ads? Give us your insight because it’s always best to hear from those who actually do these things as opposed to those who think they know what people want. Silly advertising executives .