Google Host Its Annual YouTube Brandcast In Sydney (As Elton Steals The Show)

YouTube hosted its annual Brandcast at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion last night. However, it was an astonishing solo set by legend Sir Elton John that had the masses raving.
The event, MC-ed by The Projects Waleed Aly, featured a number of high-profile guest speakers and acts and was attended by 1900 media types and marketeers.
The key speakers and their messages are detailed below:
Jason Pellegrino, Managing Director Google Australia
● For each of you, and for each of the 14 million Aussie adults who visit YouTube every month, you come for something different. People are turning to YouTube to watch diverse, quality content and coming back for more. In fact, education and learning videos now have 4 times the watchtime of “animal videos”.
● Last year we shared how YouTube’s reach was on par with the leading TV networks – and with 35% growth in the past 12 months the same is now true for total watch-time. While a lot of this is driven by mobile, the fastest growing screen for YouTube is the TV.
● Your ads are in full view, with the sound on. YouTube’s average ad viewability is 94% in Australia, with 95% of all YouTube ads watched with the sound on. And you can measure the viewability of your own campaigns using 3rd parties like MOAT and IAS. It’s the combination of sight, sound and motion on YouTube that captures consumer attention.
Richard Wolstenholme, Industry Leader Auto, CPG, Media & Entertainment, Google ANZ
● In talking regularly with our client partners and agencies, one request that consistently surfaces across all industries is the ability to reach the right consumer, with the right ad at the right time.Well I’m excited to announce 3 developments that will help you do this better than ever.
● Firstly, Custom Affinity Audiences 2.0 will enable you to create custom audiences at scale harnessing the intent-rich data from Google Search, Maps and apps.
● With Director Mix, you’ll now be able to leverage our machine learning technology by taking a creative base asset and create tens or even hundreds of personalised versions of your story, to capture attention from the right audience segment in a creative and contextually relevant way.
● Video Ad Sequencing is exactly how it sounds… and lets you tell your story sequentially at a precise cadence over time.
Kevin Alloca, Global Head of Culture & Trends, Google
● Many people associate YouTube with big viral hits or creators with huge audiences. But niche content allows us to connect with passions and communities in a personal way that have now made “niche” entertainment more mainstream than ever. Each day, YT surfaces more than 200 Million distinct videos on it’s homepage, connecting us with personalised experiences matching nearly every passion and interest.
Vijay Solanki CEO, IAB
● But here’s some advice in plain English without expletive or hyperbole. Three tips for you:
1. Link data with results – yes – look for insights in your own data and but use independent industry data too; hygiene metrics are key, but marketing outcomes are what get us out of bed
2.To navigate a digital world, work with real world experts, those who have walked in your shoes and not just academics.
3. And most importantly, keep up with consumers with rich behavioural data. Be sure to understand their journeys across device & platform.
● Speaking of which, industry data tells us that 15m Aussies look at their smartphones daily and many are deep into digital video. You simply cannot deny or refute the increasing consumer immersion into digital. You will find it harder and harder to win the attention of your customers through traditional channels alone.
Monique Perry Head of Media, Nielsen
● DCR is the industry’s first and only measure of daily audiences to digital content. Think of it as the equivalent of tv dailies but for digital. I’m not going to lie – it’s complex to measure digital, it’s been a team sport with the IAB, the Australian publisher industry and the people at Nielsen. And, yes it’s been years in the making. But the effort has been worth it as you now have DAILY audience reporting for large and small sites. So now you can buy digital with greater confidence and transparency.
● The big picture for July is that 81 per cent or 15.4 million Aussie adults watched online video, for an average of 27hr 30min per person for the month. Bringing that into context for today. YouTube reached 14.6 million Aussie adults for an average of 20h 59 mins each per month.
● The inclusion of mobile devices for video is new with DCR. And the data tells us that mobile is important. Time spent on digital video more than doubled when mobile was added in.
● Online Video, it’s a daily habit, it’s always on and now Digital Content ratings allows us to bring those stories to life.
Andrew Knott, Chief Marketing Officer, NAB
● We needed to deliver our promise to increasingly busy, time poor and distracted Aussiecustomers, including those who aren’t really interested in hearing from a bank. We needed the audience to understand what we meant by More than Money, and we wanted to do it in an authentic way. For that authenticity we turned to YouTube. We looked to YouTube as a partner who could unlock the art and the science of creative storytelling. As we heard from Nielsen, YouTube is the platform where people go to watch video, so we knew this was where we’d find an audience receptive to our stories.
● In our latest video launched two weeks ago, featuring our customer fashion designer, Michelle who has created Misha Collection, we applied the learnings. The optimised video included branding within the first five seconds and saw a 10.1 per cent uplift in ad recall. And overall we managed to achieve circa 42 per cent view-through rate for this video because of continual optimisation over the course of the year. With our film length being 1 minute, this is a great result.
● Whilst I believe that the whole industry has work to do on viewability standards, we heard earlier this evening about YouTube’s 94 per cent viewability, which is an exceptional result.
● And with YouTube’s evolving commitment to improving transparency and brand safety with 3rd party verification, even during the debate around brand suitability earlier this year, I was confident in continuing our partnership.
Hugo Schreuder, CMO, Youi
● The purpose of creating this content was to truly connect with an audience, as we are earning the right to their attention – while at the same time getting more bang for our marketing bucks! Yes we got solid views – over 5 million, but it was the engagement with the content that stuck out for the team. The average watch time, across all 3 episodes, was over 2 minutes – which is far more than the 30s second view we paid for. Better than views, and watch time we also saw positive shifts in brand favorability – between 7-10 per cent, which as anyone in financial services industry will know – is incredibly difficult to do.
● Youi partnered with YouTube, and Emotive to launch a “Who’s in the car” series in May this year. And for those that haven’t seen it – shame on you – we took a stand-up comedian, put her in a car with celebrities like The Veronicas, Burgess Brothers and Osher and ask interesting and entertaining questions. The idea might sound familiar – sorry Mr Corden – and might not be jaw-droppingly new, but the results were great. And the beauty of it all was that we could measure the pants off the activity. A modern marketer’s dream.
Peter Horgan, CEO, Omnicom Media Group Australia and New Zealand
● As the custodian of our client’s brand and their media investment, it is important that we do not get drawn into taking sides. We need to ensure we hold all publishers, content owners and technology companies to the same level of transparency and accountability, and then have those claims independently verified. We need to make sure that the foundation of media – traditional, digital or however we choose to categorise it today or in the future – is in robust and rigorous audience measurement that provides both a currency, and confidence that brand’s investment is well spent.
● I did want to take a moment to thank Jason for inviting me on stage tonight, and for the work YouTube has done to tackle Brand Safety on the platform. We were pleased to see YouTube move fast, deploying their resources quickly to address the issues. We were pleased to see new tools provided, to add to our multilayered approach to safeguarding brands on the platform. But we were even more pleased to hear that brand safety on YouTube would open up to 3rd party verification.
Meagan Bell, Global Director of Brand, Movember
● All of the ads created truly were fantastic, each of them smashing industry benchmarks.. The winning creative not only grabbed and retained people’s ATTENTION, but also drove a 34 per cent view through rate and received an average watch time of 1 minute 52. And the winner is… The Monkeys.
Zoe Hayes, Senior Marketer, Berlei
● We were thrilled to see that the YouTube campaign also contributed to Berlei’s highest top-of-mind awareness amongst bra shoppers in three years—and the highest consideration score in one and a half years. In the three months after the campaign, consideration amongst the core audience of 25–34-year-olds was 10 per cent higher than the closest competitor. And even though 18–24-year-old women weren’t part of our core target, the 28 per cent consideration increase amongst this group was a certain sign of Berlei’s revival.
Wengie, YouTube Creator
● YouTube is an incredible way to reach your audience in a place where they are engaged and paying attention. On YouTube you aren’t just running ads – you’re reaching real people, through real people. If you want engagement with your ads – with the sound on – and with people actually watching, advertise on YouTuber’s channels and you’ll see results for your brand.
● I’m hoping – the reason you’re here tonight is because you want to know how to connect with the people – both young and old, male and female – that are actively choosing to watch YouTube content. People come to my channel specifically to watch and engage with my videos. They aren’t passively scrolling through their feed, or making a cup of tea during an ad break. I’ve got their undivided attention. My community are invested on YouTube. I hope you are too.
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