TheCable

Google Nigeria has launched “YouTube Masthead”, an innovative online advertising tool that gives advertisers and brand owners in Nigeria the opportunity to promote their business on the YouTube homepage for 24 hours.

The YouTube Desktop Custom Masthead is a 970 by 250 pixel in-page unit running the full width of the YouTube homepage below the navigation bar. It explores the YouTube homepage with classy video plug-and-play format that helps brands interact with the consumers.

The masthead, which is the first of its kind in Nigeria, will give advertisers in the country the opportunity to compete with their counterpart on the global terrain. It will also aid the rise of e-commerce in Africa’s largest economy.

Internet access in Nigeria continues to leapfrog overtime. In March this year, market research and statistics specialists, digitXplus, said the number of internet users in the country grew 200 percent between 2009 and 2013.

YouTube content partnership head in Sub Saharan Africa, Teju Ajani said the video-sharing website receives over a billion unique global users every month with over 100 hours of videos uploaded every minute, presenting a massive opportunity for brand managers looking to boost exposure.

Country manager at Google Nigeria, Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor, said since Youtube was launched in Nigeria three years ago, brands have expressed interest in “taking over” Google properties.

“The launch of Youtube Masthead, which is essentially the full takeover of the Youtube homepage, now presents advertisers a terrific opportunity to engage with YouTube users when they arrive on the YouTube homepage,” she said.

The service is already used widely across the US, UK, Australia and Canada.