Volvo's mini-foray into social ad units must have done pretty well, because now Sprint is taking the concept and pushing it to new limits. In what will be YouTube's first masthead with user-generated content, Sprint's ad will emphasize their "Now Network" with a dynamic human clock representing time in hours and minutes via user-created videos.
Sprint's ad is expected to take over the masthead unit of YouTube for a 24-hour period sometime this week, with the primary focus being the Now Clock. Viewers can then opt to participate via the "add yourself" button, and will be assigned a number to record on their webcam. The ad will also take shape in widget form on Sprint's Now Network site (definitely worth a quick look) that already includes a plethora of real-time tallies on now activities - like tweets.
MediaPost further explains how the ad will work: "The numbers are strung together in a series of video vignettes placed in a digital clock to represent the time. For example, at 12:09 the ad would display four people, each holding up one number to represent "1," "2," "0" and "9." As seconds, minutes and hours click by, the user-generated videos change based on the time zone."
While Hulu seems to be focused on adding more premium content — Disney's stake in the company adds ABC shows — to attract premium advertisers, YouTube's experimentation with ad formats appears to be an attempt to demonstrate that integrating social and user content into ads is a big new way to turn advertisements into premium content that viewers want to engage with.