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"It looks as if the future of supersized ads really is unavoidable. If you've been to YouTube's home page today, then you've no doubt noticed the inescapable Volvo ad that looks more like its own website than an ad unit.\nIn what Volvo is touting as a \"a microsite in a banner,\" the interactive ad unit starts at 960x250 pixels and includes a short video with a live Twitter update, courtesy of @VolvoXC60, at the end. On click, the ad expands to include even more videos (that play like movies), photos, a 360 degree view of the Volvo XC60, and a game.\nThe whole campaign is centered around Volvo's relatively reasonably priced ($37,200) 2010 XC60, and its City Safety features designed for urban professionals. Volvo is hoping that the YouTube homepage masthead unit on steroids will not only draw viewers in with flashy videos and games, but also reinforce their social presence with dynamic Twitter tweets integrated into the ad.\n\nWe suspect that a lot cash was pumped into the ad campaign ($500,000 has been spent on similar units), but with budgets being reallocated to the Web (away from television), and major content publishers looking for ways to monetize on a massive scale, this could just be the beginning for social and entertainment-driven advertisements.\nWe do have to give Volvo credit though, not only was their ad unit informative and enjoyable to watch, but they're also trying to raise the bar and promote their social presence, as well as include not-half-bad entertainment baked right into the ad.\nAs a YouTube user, I may be a little disgruntled by the ad's prominence, but I was pleasantly surprised by the content. This seems to beg the question, since ads will only get bigger and bigger, could they also become destination entertainment akin to must-see TV?  Let us know your thoughts in the comments."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2009/04/15/youtube-volvo-campaign/>