- YouTube boasted a dominant position in streaming at its Brandcast upfront presentation Wednesday evening while unveiling a smattering of ad tools, in line with details shared with Marketing Dive.
- A latest solution tailored to connected TV (CTV), called Video Reach Campaigns Non-Skips, serves non-skippable assets across an advertiser’s in-stream inventory and is optimized using parent company Google’s artificial intelligence (AI). YouTube also bowed a latest take on branded QR codes to assist businesses higher link their CTV efforts to other channels to drive results.
- A YouTube Select product that permits brands to take over the channels of top-performing creators can be expanding after debuting in pilot at the top of last 12 months. On the content front, YouTube TV will begin broadcasting locally televised Friday night WNBA games as a part of a pact between Google and Scripps Sports.
Amid an upfronts week that’s seen increased streaming competition, YouTube is claiming a position as top dog on the subject of engagement. The company cited Nielsen data that shows YouTube has stood because the most-watched streaming platform within the U.S. every month since February 2023. As of April, it was the second most-watched media distributor on TV.
YouTube TV, its CTV service, today commands greater than 8 million paid subscribers, while YouTube Shorts, a solution to TikTok, saw CTV viewership double in 2023. YouTube TV has beefed up premium sports programming, nabbing NFL Sunday Ticket in 2022 and recently striking a deal to hold more WNBA games.
Beyond broad viewership figures, YouTube emphasized its strengths with Gen Z, a cohort that marketers covet and one which has largely shunned traditional media. One in three people reached by NFL Lineups on YouTube were latest to the league, in line with platform data.
As viewer habits shift from desktop and mobile devices to what YouTube calls front room screens, its ad strategy has followed suit. The Brandcast announcements threw a highlight on CTV-specific ad formats, including non-skippable video campaigns that mirror how traditional commercials work and are built with Google AI. YouTube several years ago pushed Brandcast to the upfronts to chase more conventional TV promoting budgets.
At the identical time, YouTube is ramping up multichannel efforts through branded QR codes that link viewers out to other sites where they will learn more about an advertiser and its products. The QR codes put the brand’s logo front and center and have a “send to phone” call to motion.
Typical to Brandcast, loads of the discussion centered on the creators who provide a gradual stream of content to YouTube and keep users hooked. Internet personalities including Zach King, Shannon Sharpe and Cleo Abram made appearances on stage, as did performers like Billie Eilish and Finneas. YouTube announced it’s making its creator takeover option on YouTube Select more widely available. YouTube Select, a premium advertiser program, can be now built across the top 1% of content on the platform after previously being focused on the highest 5%.
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