YouTube is letting brands take over the masthead, for an hour at a time, in a new ad format that will be on display during Super Bowl.

The new masthead ads will allow advertisers "to own one of YouTube’s most premium ad placements, now by the hour,” said Kristen O’Hara, YouTube’s head of agency and brand solutions, on a video conference with NFL and TurboTax. TurboTax was among the brands trying the masthead ads, and it is a Super Bowl advertiser. Google also is an advertiser in the Super Bowl, and it released its ad today, promoting the Pixel 7 phone.

The YouTube masthead has been available on a cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) basis, and typically gives advertisers a way to target different audiences. The hourly takeover offers 100% share of voice. YouTube is positioning the unit as a way for brands to announce product drops and build hype during key moments, like Super Bowl Sunday.

Google did not say how much it costs to rent the spot for the hour. Google's advertising information site says that the cost-per-hour ads are available through managed services, directly working through Google's sales team. Advertisers can guarantee their slots and “not rely on auction,” the ads support site says.

The masthead has always been a prime position for advertisers, and it competes with other broad-reach ad products such as TikTok and Twitter takeovers.

YouTube developed the masthead rental option so brands could get their Super Bowl commercials in front of more people, O’Hara said. For years, YouTube has run Ad Blitz, which viewers visit before and after the game to watch the commercials. People are “galvanized around the ads,” O’Hara said.

Brands and their ad agencies buy on almost all digital and social media channels to amplify their Super Bowl campaigns. YouTube, meanwhile, is growing closer with the NFL, after signing a seven-year deal, starting next season, to stream NFL Sunday Ticket, a subscription service that shows every out-of-market game. That partnership comes with new shows developed by the NFL, and more ad inventory for YouTube to sell.

YouTube has had some growing pains with its ad business. In the fourth quarter, the video site’s ad revenue declined 8% to $7.96 billion. YouTube’s strategy is to stream more premium programming through partnerships like the one with the NFL, and to offer more valuable commercial time.

“For marketers, cultural moments like live sporting events are some of the biggest activation opportunities of the year,” O’Hara said in a blog post that accompanied the announcement of the new masthead ads. “Right now, in the U.S., for example, brands are gearing up for the Super Bowl. But advertising can get crowded during those times, creating a need to go beyond traditional means and explore more creative ad experiences.”

YouTube shared examples of McDonald’s and Xiaomi, which both tested the hourly masthead ads when the product was in beta last year. McDonald’s used the ads for World Cup advertising in Brazil, YouTube said. In that case, McDonald’s ran ads to all the people who visited YouTube an hour before the national team played to “remind them to pick up McDonald’s before the game started,” O’Hara’s blog post said. The campaign “delivered tens of millions of impressions at the very moment fans were preparing for the match.”