We're pleased to have Ad Age curating the YouTube homepage today, in a spotlight that celebrates the creative revolution going on now in the advertising and marketing business. In other words, these are ads you won't want to miss. Ad Age digital lead Michael Learmonth and Creativity managing editor Ann Diaz explain further in the video and guest post below:

We, in the business press, love to obsess over YouTube's business model, whether it can make money from the world's video through advertising. But today Advertising Age is curating the front page of YouTube to help tell an even bigger story, and that's YouTube's impact on advertising itself.

Once, TV ads were pretty much foisted on the public. Turn on the TV, and they were there. Some were great; most were not. Indeed, in some TV ads the intent is to annoy and grab the attention of a passive public. Enter YouTube. And while all of that is still true, the marketing world now has another powerful, democratic vehicle to reach a TV-sized audience. But there's a catch: the ad has to be something people want to watch.

Each day, YouTube is a global referendum on the world's video, and ads are very much a part of that mix. TV ads have always had the power of sight, sound and motion; now, to reach an audience in an on-demand world, they also have to delight, entertain and tell a story. That has inspired a creative revolution in the advertising and marketing business, just as it has in entertainment and attracted new talent to the industry. It has also refocused the industry away from obsessing over who's skipping the ads to producing ads no one wants to skip. Just like you can buy a 30-second spot on TV, you can also buy media on YouTube, but you can also earn an audience there, and increasingly ads, both made for the web and for TV, attempt to do just that.

Witness the Super Bowl advertisers, on the hook to the tune of $100,000 a second for time in the big game, increasingly gear their campaigns to live on on YouTube after its over. Or, take Evian's "Live Young" aka the "rollerskating babies," which never appeared on TV but have been passed around and watched more than 71 million times over the past year. The beauty of what works on the web is that there are no hard and fast rules. Ad Age picked some of the best of the recent best with a big hat tip to our sister pub, Creativity. It's true that YouTube sells ads. But it's also true YouTube has made advertising better. Take a look.

Michael Learmonth, Advertising Age, and Ann Diaz, Creativity

Today, the DoubleClick Rich Media team announced a call for entries to their annual Digital Movie Advertising Creative Showcase awards program. This is the only awards program dedicated to showcasing the best creative in interactive movie advertising.

Movie marketers and creative agencies are invited to submit their work for consideration. New to the awards this year is a "YouTube Creative Award." Any home entertainment or theatrical movie campaign that included YouTube in its execution is eligible. For the campaigns of theatrical or home video releases, whether they included a YouTube homepage ad, brand channel, or an original video that engaged YouTube users, it's all good: the event rewards creativity and innovation in the entire rich media and video space. The deadline for entries is Thursday, September 17th.

In addition to the YouTube Creative Award, the program supports three more categories: Theatrical Release Rich Media Display Ad(s), Home Entertainment Rich Media Display Ad(s), and Multi-Channel Cross Media Campaign.

The winners of each category will receive recognition by their industry peers, the opportunity to present to a live audience at the Director's Guild of America in Los Angeles, inclusion in the event's video reel, two award trophies (one each for the movie studio and creative agency) and two Flip Mino mini digital camcorders!

To learn more, or to submit an entry, please visit the Digital Movie Advertising Creative Showcase website.

Posted by Sally Cole, Industry Marketing Manager