The official Google blog today announced that it would release an
exclusive video from the makers of the incredibly popular Diet Coke and
Mentos act. Their new video is available for viewing and includes a
“thanks to Mentos and Coca-Cola” at the end while flashing the
companies’ website urls. At the end of the video, another video immediately begins (one might go as far as to call it an “ad” *gasp*)
explaining that users can submit their own videos through Coca-Cola.com
to be entered into a contest.
According to Peter Chane, a senior product manager for Google Video, Google has agreed to pass on to the Diet Coke and Mentos clan “most advertising revenue” generated by their latest video. “This is the first case where we matched up video content with advertising,” Chane explained. “We’ve taken user-submitted material that is not considered professional content and monetized it.”
Interestingly enough, this move forward in online video is happening from Google Video and not coming first from the coveted YouTube. When questioned about how this might affect the Google/YouTube relationship, a Google representative said, “Until the deal closes, we’re continuing to operate as two separate companies.”
Ad sharing via video is not new, however. A rival company, Revver, had already shared its ad revenue with the Coke and Mentos folks well before this Google deal. Metacafe also announced that it will pay $5 to video makers for every 1,000 views of their video.
But one thing is for sure, once Google is in the picture, people take notice. The online video sharing model has officially changed. Google said so.
