Last month (4/13 to be exact) Twitter announced their long anticipated advertising platform: Promoted Tweets.

This month (5/24 to be exact again) Twitter announced a ban on all in-stream ads by third-party advertising networks like ad.ly, twad.ly, 140 Proof, PayPer Tweet, and TweetUp (not to be confused with Tweetup the somewhat generic Twitter meetup project). TweetUp, the new kid on the block is the latest start-up of Bill Gross from Idealab, literally launched just hours before Twitter’s announcement.

Twitter decided to ban all third-party in-stream advertising networks in order to “preserve the unique user experience “ and ensure the “long-term health and value of the platform” according to Twitter’s COO, Dick Costolo. In addition, Twitter “bears all the costs of maintaining the network” and therefore deserves to be first in line for advertisers. Makes sense. If anything, Twitter has been late to the table monetizing their micro-blogging platform. Twitter started only a few weeks ago leveraging Promoted Tweets for its advertisers such as Best Buy, Red Bull, and Starbucks. You can read how Twitter’s Promoted Tweets work here .

Although I’m sure the third-party ad networks are not too happy about Twitter’s decision (as are the advertisers that use them), there is plenty of room for these networks, especially those that do search and analytics better. With an estimated 40 million registered users, expectations are high. There are going to be growing pains.

I wouldn’t be surprise a partnership (or a merger) takes place between Twitter and someone like TweetUp. After all, last year Google allowed video ad management company FreeWheel to deliver and monetize third-party video ads within YouTube.

So, you just can’t get enough of the Cadbury’s eyebrow dance? Especially if you live in the UK… maybe not so much since Kraft bought them up.

You love those talking baby commercials from E-Trade? And now that Lindsay Lohan is suing E-Trade for $100 million for besmirching her (first) name with “milk” addiction, you really love them.

And who can resist cute dogs at 1000 FPS?

But before launching your own YouTube sensation, consider only 15% of all video ads actually go viral according to a new study from Millward Brown (this actually sounds pretty good to me considering users now upload over 24 hours of video to YouTube every minute). The marketing research company just announced their Creative Viral Potential (CVP) metric for predicting viral success of video ads (you can view the press release here). After analyzing behavioral data from YouTube for 102 video commercials along with survey-based data, they’ve come up with four essential components to viral success:

• Awareness Index – a measure of branded engagement that has long been used by advertisers to predict the success of their TV advertising
• Buzz – which identifies whether an ad is likely to generate pass-along
• Celebrity – the profile of a celebrity when used in an ad
• Distinctiveness – a measure of originality

However you prefer to break down viral success, these free online services can help you research, measure, and manage your video campaigns.

1. YouTube Insight – YouTube’s analytics and reporting product that enables anyone with an account to view detailed statistics about their videos.
2. Viral Video Chart – offers at-a-glance basic statistics on all videos. Good to see how competing videos compare.
3. TubeMogul – the first online video analytics and distribution company serving publishers large and small who need independent information about video performance.
4. Visible Measures – an independent measurement firm for Internet video publishers, advertisers, and viral marketers. Currently offering a free public beta.

I’m sure there are other free video metrics so if you have found something worth sharing, leave a comment.

Juliette Gordon Low would be proud of her enterprising young ladies for utilizing viral marketing to sell Girl Scout Cookies while promoting a positive message about leadership, community service, and financial responsibility. Cookies have been a lucrative tradition of the Girl Scouts since Low’s day (circa 1917), bringing in about $700 million in sales each year. Using social media to reposition this classic American brand is smart and, quite frankly, it is about time.

The YouTube video What Can A Cookie Do? has already received over 35,000 views since its launch on 1/18/10 and is part of a much bigger re-branding effort that will be kicking into gear this Spring. The message: “Every Cookie Has a Mission: To Help Girls Do Great Things.” Hey, isn’t that what we all want.

The video message is clean, simple, and direct; effectively communicating the Girl Scouts’ new mission statement. But I would be remiss if I didn’t note the irony that less than a year ago 8-year-old Wild Freeborn was banned by the national Girl Scouts association from using YouTube to sell cookies online (who, by the way, had 700 order in the first two weeks).

So, what do you think of the video? Are the Girls Scouts re-branding efforts a step in the right direction?

One of the featured case studies at last week’s B2B Social Communications event held by the Business Development Institute in New York City was IBM’s use of Social Media, specifically, their YouTube viral video series entitled Mainframe: The Art of the Sale. The brainchild of comedian Tim Washer, the series started 3 years ago and has since dramatically increase awareness of the company’s mainframe computers not only with IT execs but with college students (the next generation).

The take-away for B2B communicators and marketers: leverage your in-house resources, use “absurdity” to tell your story, and don’t let fear hold you back. You can watch part of Tim Washer’s presentation on 3 Minute AdAge.