Night Light | Brandcast Breakdown

What Happened at YouTube’s Brandcast?

YouTube announced some interesting news during Upfronts this year. Everyone was there: Neal Mohan, Ryan Trahan, Kinigra Deon, Billie Eilish, Roger Goodell, and even Stray Kids performed. This week I wanted to talk about YouTube’s Brandcast and what I think it means for creators, advertisers, and viewers.

YouTube is dominating watch time.

Mohan opened the presentation with some impressive stats. People are watching more than a billion hours of content on the platform daily, making it the most-watched streaming platform on TV.

YouTube is breaking away as a clear top choice for consumers, especially within the last few months. I saw this chart the other day…

Source: Nielsen, WSJ

YouTube is now the second most-watched media distributor. This probably isn’t news to any of you, but I’ve been the biggest YouTube advocate for the last several years—it isn’t surprising to me that it continues to grow. With the rise of creators making more TV-style content, I think this lends itself to a more co-viewing audience where videos look more like the 20-30 minute videos we’d watch on TV. Now you’re watching that on YouTube for free.

What does this mean for creators and advertisers?

One of the big announcements from the event was how changes are coming to YouTube Select Creator Takeovers.

Source: Official YouTube Blog

YouTube Select has been around for awhile now. The top channels are already embracing this approach and there have already been multiple instances where brands have executed full takeovers, securing all available inventory. To me, this really means a more targeted approach to selling channels directly.

What does this mean for sports?

As part of a deal between Scripps and Google, YouTube will now have the rights to stream WNBA games on Friday nights. Obviously, I think Caitlin Clark had a lot to do with this. If I’m a sports content creator, I’m probably thinking about making some WNBA videos. NFL Sunday Ticket has also had a huge impact on YouTube’s growth—one in three people reached by NFL lineups were new to the league.

AI and QR codes?

I think we’ll see better calls to action in the form of branded QR codes—This makes total sense. If you watched my podcast last week, I talked about how creators and advertisers should be paying attention to the connected TV experience (harder to navigate to the video description on TV). We’ve been seeing a lot of creators experimenting now with QR codes, Jimmy even had one in his latest video.

Source: Official YouTube Blog

Non-skippable ads which appeal more to traditional TV advertisers will also be seeing some changes. AI-optimized ad campaigns will drive better ROI on connected TVs.

The Big Takeaway:

It isn’t surprising to me that YouTube is #1 in streaming watch time. The YouTube Select program has been around for a long time now, but it looks like YouTube is taking a more targeted approach to selling ads. Obtaining the rights to the WNBA makes sense, especially considering how well NFL Sunday Ticket did last season. I think this presents a smaller opportunity for YouTube, but Clarkmania seems to still be going strong. Also, get ready to see some branded QR code integrations.

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