“Hulu is ringing in Advertising Week by announcing the launch of “Ad Swap,” which the online entity says will allows users to “swap” out an ad they’re watching for one they feel is more relevant to them. In essence, it seems like an upgrade from just the “Is this ad relevant to you” question that was being posed by the brand during your Hulu viewing experience.
According to a blog post written today by Hulu’s SVP of advertising, JP Colaco, the company conducted a survey of 1,500 people to help it understand what users really want from an ad service (if they want anything at all, that is). Anyhow, Colaco copied some of the feedback on to his post, with survey participants saying things like, “I would let the viewer pick the ads he wants to watch” and “I would replace the commercials I watched with ones that were relevant and interesting to me.” Guess Hulu listened, and from an advertiser’s standpoint, the brand adds that the new service will allow them to “reach a more engaged audience through consumer opt-in.” If you want to get technical, you can read about the R&D and infrastructure behind Ad Swap here and here, respectively.