Here Come the YouTubes for Ads

Lester Craft at the blog Usertainment Watch earlier this month put out a call for startups that run video-hosting sites dedicated to user-generated advertising — along the lines of TBS’ Very Funny Ads and NBC’s forthcoming Didja. Craft calls it “usertising,” though the uninitiated might have trouble with the pronunciation.

[A]s far as I know a YouTube clone based purely on usertising (user-generated advertising) doesn’t yet exist. That, despite the many video ad contests mounted by various marketers. The closest to such an animal could be XLNTAds — but still, not quite.

All he had to do was ask. Craft heard back from no less than three such startups:

• Qoof (which likes the term “usermercials”),
• Adimade (which is pre-launch),
• and BlackTurtle Media (which is looking to nurture would-be ad makers).