Ads.

Ah, that terrible, terrible word. Who hasn’t researched a million ways online to try to avoid those little interruptions during their season catch-up binge-watch?

The fact is, online video ads are here to stay. Not only are people apparently more receptive to them, but they also have a higher impact on viewers. This makes them great for marketing folks at your lovely local conglomerate. In fact, online video ad revenue spend is growing faster and faster, having overtaken broadcast TV in April this year (and cable TV before that).

Honestly, though, most of us wouldn’t mind a few strategically placed, well-targeted, or entertaining ads. After all, we understand that the episode that we’re streaming free has to be paid by someone, somewhere, and ads are a relatively harmless form of currency.

Still, that doesn’t excuse advertisers for just slapping them on every available surface — or even, at times, creating artificial breaks in episodes just to serve ads. See the growing litany of complaints directed at Hulu.

The good news is that video providers are beginning to take notice and get creative about how they serve ads. It’s a win-win situation if they can improve the process. It makes their consumers (i.e. us) happy, and since a well-placed ad is much more likely to be remembered, brand marketers who pay for ad space will be happier as well.

Take Hulu for example. Soon after they first launched in 2008, they introduced Hulu Ad Selector, which “allows users to choose to watch one of three ads from the same brand (e.g. Coca-cola, Diet Coke or Sprite) or one ad from a selection of three different brands”. Then in 2011, they introduced Hulu Ad Swap, in which you can choose to instantly swap out an ad for one that is (hopefully) more relevant.

It doesn’t seem like much — after all, you’re still watching an ad — but Hulu hit on a key point with these strategies: it’s all about choice. It’s a very limited choice, to be sure, but it still helps. Hulu’s research showed an increase in a bunch of metrics, including recall, intent to buy, and most importantly for us, customer satisfaction.

And they’re not stopping there. What’s really interesting for the future is the possibility of moving past simple video ads, and instead making ads interactive while enhancing viewer experience. Hear me out. Hulu’s thinking of letting people order pizza from a TV ad.

Let me repeat that. You may soon be able to order pizza right in the middle of your binge-watching session.

To which my only response is:

There are a couple of other cool ideas in the mix: browsing Corona recipes, 360° views of a car’s interior, et cetera. They’re also considering simply cutting down on the number of video ads, which will be a relief to those of us who subscribe to Hulu Plus.

What do you think of video ads and all these new strategies? Do you think they’ll make ads less annoying? Take our poll and comment below.

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