Video ads on the iPhone are about to get a lot more like video ads on the Web: highly interactive and hard to just skip over. AdMob, the company that Google just announced it was buying for $750 million, has launched an interactive video format for ads running on the Apple device.
Much like some of the more complex campaigns you now see on sites like YouTube and MySpace, the ads let users watch video and perform a number of actions, like view additional videos, learn more about the ad, or respond directly, like by buying an app.
The ads load before an app starts. In the example provided by AdMob, the game Tap Tap Revenge is preceded by an ad for Madden ’10 by Electronic Arts. According to the company, the ads are optimized based on your connection, so you’ll likely get a higher quality streaming ad if you’re on 3G as opposed to EDGE.