Last night was YouTube’s big showcase event Brandcast held at Hordern Pavilion. Creatives, marketers and trade press heard from brands like ​Disney​, ​Telstra​, and the ​AFL​, as well as YouTubers creators ​Casey Neistat​ and ​Elise Strachan​.

Jason Pellegrino, managing director, Google Australia and New Zealand spoke about the power of YouTube as a platform for brands. He talked about how YouTube is built for the user, which means capturing attention and delivering results for brands. The audiences brands value most – whether they are high income earners or household decision makers – are watching the content they love across every screen on YouTube.

“YouTube is home to the audiences your brands are looking to meet and you can’t reach them on TV alone. For brands reach and frequency are always the starting point of campaign planning, but attention has to be the goal. The ability to generate attention is what makes YouTube as a platform invaluable,” Google Australian and New Zealand managing director Jason Pellegrino said.

Bart Jenniches, Director Media & Entertainment, Google Australia and New Zealand closed the evening talking about how YouTube is built to help brands win attention and deliver superior business results. Jenniches said: “YouTube is built to help your brand earn and keep attention. The more attention you earn, the more unskippable you become, the greater the business results.”

KEY STATS FROM THE NIGHT:

• YouTube watch time increased +40 per cent year over year in Australia [+55% on mobile].
• 72 per cent of Australian’s 18­ to 54 years say they use YouTube at least weekly.
• YouTube monthly reach according to Nielsen;
• YouTube reaches 73 per cent of light TV viewers;
• YouTube reaches 81 per cent of high income earners;
• YouTube reaches 73 per cent of main grocery buyers.
• 7 out of 10 viewers prefer to watch online video on YouTube.

Big brands like Telstra CMO Joe Pollard, Disney managing director Kylie Watson-Wheeler and AFL’s GM of game and market development Simon Lethlean and innovation lead Kylie Robertson also presented at the night.

According to Pollard, Telstra’s use of YouTube has grown from 30 videos in 2013 to more than 700 last year. The biggest example was Telstra’s recent ‘The Magic Of Technology’ campaign which called an example of Telstra’s shift from a “Telco” to a “Techno” company.

“From a performance data perspective, YouTube is 30 per xent more efficient for us than any of our other video sources,” Pollard added. “We only pay for the ads that people actually watch, not the ones that they skip. It’s about paying for attention that engages our customers and that makes more business sense for us.”