As of right now this only affects YouTube Partners, but it could affect you as the viewer. Do you want to see more YouTube videos with product placement?
In May 2009 MediaWeek reported that YouTube wrote several notifications to several content producers that had direct branded integration within their video. It appears that YouTube now wants its Partners to disclose whether or not their video features product placement that the producer was paid for. Emphasis on the PAID product placement.
You’ll see the option at the bottom of the picture below:
After you identify the video as one that includes paid product placement, as of the publishing of this post, YouTube doesn’t bring up any additional options. So why identify a video that includes paid product placement? One can only begin to speculate. At some point we’ll hear from YouTube about what the purpose of this new option is. Hopefully it isn’t a mark of death on your YouTube video. No one wants YouTube to take down their video because they didn’t follow YouTube’s Terms of Service especially when you identified your own video as breaking the rules.
I’m not reading much into it. It’s just a way for YouTube to certify that we’re not breaking the rules on “double dipping” (monetizing videos that are already sponsored, which is bad form). The good news- if you promote your sponsored video (bidding on terms), you can put your sponsors URL over your video in lieu of the InVideo ad.
By monetizing videos that are already sponsored, do you mean having YouTube ad banners in addition to the in-video paid product promotion?