YouTube to add non-skippable six second 'Bumper' ads to its mobile fare

If you love viewing YouTube videos on your mobile device, we have a bit of bad news. Today, YouTube announced today that some of its videos will include a six second 'Bumper ad' that will be unskippable. Actually, that is only one-second longer than the five-seconds that you are forced to wait before being allowed to skip longer ads on the platform. But when you're dying to watch a particular clip, one second can feel like a lifetime. And because these ads are unskippable, you're forced to watch them before your video begins.

What is bad news for consumers could be good news for Google and for corporations looking to advertise. YouTube sells the ads through its AdWords auction on a CPM impressions basis. Atlantic Records tested the new ad format to promote the second album of a band called Rudimental. The six second spots allowed the label to promote the number of guest stars that appear on the album.

YouTube compares the Bumper ads to little haikus, although you're more apt to consider them an annoyance. Still, with all of the free content available to watch on the video streamer, somebody's got to pay for upkeep and we're pretty sure that you don't want to be enlisted for that task.


You can check out a sample of a Bumper ad by clicking on the video at the top of this article.

source: Google via BGR