Google signed its first “Sponsored Video” yesterday, hooking up with geeky entertainers Eepybird, who performed the original Diet Coke and Mentos video. Eepybird’s second soda and candy experiement video is now showing on Google Video. As of this writing its received almost 100,000 views.
Professional video producers interested in partnering with Google in its Sponsored Videos program can sign up here.
If you’re wondering why this is anything special, remember that Eepybird originally released their video on Revver, the site that splits ad revenue with content creators. The deal also highlights Google’s continuing efforts to differentiate Google Video from other video-sharing sites. Google Video hasn’t benefitted as much from the online video craze as have YouTube or other sites less concerned with copyrights. Google has signed a few professional partnerships already — CBS and PBS come to mind — and now it looks like they’re going after the prosumer category as well.