In the past week, Facebook and YouTube have both announced some changes to their video advertising formats. Now, a couple of years ago, I would have channeled Star Trek’s Commander Leonard “Bones” McCoy, M.D. and started this column by ranting, “I know engineers, they LOVE to change things.” But, it’s hard to get worked up when both video platforms announced that the changes they were talking about won’t take place until later this year or next year. Hey, I know video marketers, too. They HATE to change things. But, with that kind of advanced warning, who can really complain?
So, what are these changes? And why did Facebook, whose mantra for developers has long been “move fast and break things,” and YouTube, which changes at a rate of 33% a year, decide to alert us to these alterations in their video advertising formats several months in advance?