YouTube Talks Up Its TV-Like Results At Brandcast

YouTube told Australia’s advertising community at its Brandcast event in Sydney that consumers’ viewing habits had changed and that the video platform was the place to find them.

Lead image: Mel Silva, managing director of Australia & New Zealand, Google

It was revealed that YouTube reached more than 17 million Australian adults in June 2023 — more than 85 per cent of the Australian population. Over 11 million people in Australia watched YouTube on their TV in June, with average daily views of YouTube Shorts up by over 150 per cent year on year in Australia.

Google Australia managing director Mel Silva said: “We know there’s been an explosion of video platforms in the past few years. From an audience perspective, most of those platforms do one or two things extremely well – they cater to a specific audience, specialise in short or long form, they provide a digital alternative to linear TV. YouTube does all of it. It caters to every audience, from the mainstream to the micro-enthusiasts. It does a snappy 6-second video just as well as a two-hour feature doco, and works seamlessly across devices – from mobile to the biggest screen in the house.”

Youtube also revealed a range of AI-powered advertiser tools to help drive creative, campaign execution and results.

Caroline Oates, head of YouTube and programmatic media at Google Australia said that a new AI-driven solution for Demand Gen would be scaled across both Google Ads and DV360 in Australia and New Zealand early next year.

Demand Gen is Google’s tool that allows advertisers’ best-performing video and image assets to be integrated across its most visual, entertainment-focused touchpoints, giving advertisers the best opportunity to find and drive consideration amongst potential customers.

“Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, YouTube has a full-funnel suite of Google AI-powered ad solutions which lets you choose the outcome that matters to you across long or short objectives, from reach to action, and we use AI to remove the complexity between that goal, and how you achieve it,” said Oates.

New ad solutions were announced to help advertisers and brands connect with viewers via Connected TV and through short-form video formats such as 30-Second YouTube Selects Non-Skips, only on Connected TV. This new format allows advertisers to put a 30-second non-skip ad in front of YouTube’s most popular content – from top creators to the livestreams of events such as Coachella and highlights of the country’s biggest sporting moments including the AFL, NRL, Australian Open, and more. This will be coming to YouTube in Australia in October.

YouTube Select is being expanded with a new Shorts line-up next month, as well. Advertisers will be able to appear alongside the most popular and relevant videos in viewers’ Shorts feed, so their brand can stay top-of-mind and reach highly engaged YouTube audiences on the fast-growing format.

Finally, the YouTube Connected TV Pause Experience can help brands drive awareness and action during a user-initiated break in a viewer’s streaming session. The new Pause experience will be coming to Connected TV next year.

Marketing expert and commentator Mark Ritson hosted a panel discussion with Lucinda Barlow of Uber and Kathy De Lullo of Mondelēz International, which explored recent campaigns by the brands and how they achieved long and short-term business results.

As part of a Christmas campaign for Cadbury, De Lullo said Mondelēz ran a campaign find out whether TV-sized scale in digital drives TV-sized results. Mondelēz ran YouTube TrueView ads, building creatives with YouTube Creators.

It found that YouTube’s effectiveness trumped TV effectiveness by 36 per cent while helping deliver a 13 per cent growth in retail sales value, and grew its market share by 5 per cent.

Barlow pointed to Uber’s marketing activity being focused on educating people about the ride-sharing brand as it evolves. She said the “Get Almost Almost Anything” campaign which ran heavily on YouTube and drove Uber’s strongest brand health ever including salience, consideration, and preference. Awareness of Groceries on Uber Eats increased by six points and it is now being scaled globally.

“On the business side, we know that digital video is an incredibly effective way to reach and engage audiences. And among digital platforms, YouTube stands out – we see it in the data,” said Oates.