YouTube, the fast-growing video website, will today roll out its first branded "channels" aimed at offering advertisers the chance to promote specific products and services.
YouTube, which has become one of the most visited sites on the internet over the past 18 months, said Paris Hilton, the celebrity hotel heiress, would spearhead a push to offer "brand channels" to advertisers that wanted to promote their products to the YouTube community.
Advertisers will be able to customise the look and feel of their channels free of charge if they meet predetermined spending quotas.
YouTube said Warner Brothers would create the site's first brand channel to promote sales of Paris, Paris Hilton's new music album.
The "Paris Hilton Channel" will include a video advertisement produced by Hilton for her YouTube fans. It will also include advertisements for Fox Broadcasting Company's television series Prison Break.
The move marks the most ambitious attempt yet by YouTube to monetise its huge and rapidly growing audience.
YouTube had already been exploring partnerships with companies such as Nike, which have experimented with uploading short advertisements or other video clips to the site for users to watch. YouTube claims its users view and comment on as many as 100 million videos each day.
Chad Hurley, YouTube's co-founder and chief executive, said he hoped brand channels would help build an advertising platform that "both the community and advertisers" could embrace.
Robin Bechtel, head of new media at Warner Brothers Records, said Paris Hilton and YouTube were a natural fit because they were both "pop culture phenomena".
Mr Hurley said that the brand channels were one of several features YouTube was planning to announce this year.
"Consumers are increasingly programming their own entertainment and content experiences," he said. "We believe it is important for us to embrace this change and have developed new advertising strategies that will help marketers more effectively connect with consumers."
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