How November Will Be Won: By the Numbers

Did you know that 1/3 of people who see a campaign ad on YouTube have not seen it on TV? We recently shared this on our Politics & Elections Blog. You can read an example of the types of things we talk about on that blog below. For more information about marketing a campaign on YouTube visit our YouTube for politicians website.


Earlier this year, we introduced “Four Screens to Victory”, a framework for political campaigns that outlined how Google can help make the web work for candidates and issues groups up and down the ballot. With these digital platforms, campaigns can build their organizations, define the issues, persuade the electorate and - importantly - get the vote out and win the moment that matters in November on Election Day.

Access to political information no longer comes from one place - or one screen. In just the four years since the last presidential election, the continued growth of the web and the proliferation of mobile devices has radically transformed when, where, and how voters access political information.

The numbers are in, and savvy political campaigns need to take notice. The rules of reaching voters have changed and new approaches are warranted because:

• More than 80% of eligible voters are online
• Similarly, 83% of mobile phone owners are registered voters
• 1 out of every 3 likely voters in November say that they didn’t watch tv in the past week
• Voters are spending more media time on their mobile devices than newspapers & magazines combined

(Click the infographic below to get a larger version)

If you’re as inspired as we are by some of the data and the implications on your own political campaign, check out the “Four Screens to Victory” site to spark some ideas of your own and see how you can make the web work for your campaign.

David Kaufman, Google Politics & Elections Team, recently watched "i like ike"

Helping every business play big on YouTube

When Paul Eichen of Rokenbok Toy Company noticed that specialty toy shops were shuttering their doors, he started looking for a new way to introduce customers to his construction toy sets. Paul filmed and uploaded his first video to YouTube, and now it’s become his most effective form of advertising with 50 percent of all customers introduced to his products through YouTube.

With a global audience of 800 million monthly visitors to YouTube, every day can feel like you’re advertising in the Super Bowl, and one video can launch a business. To help even more businesses play big with video, today we’re introducing a number of new products, resources, and tools:

Google AdWords for video is now available to all. Similar to search advertising—where you pay for clicks and set budgets with bids—we created a new model for video advertising. With Google AdWords for video, you only pay when someone chooses to watch your ad, and you can create and manage video campaigns from the same platform as your search and display ads. You can create an account and start promoting your first video in less than 5 minutes. With AdWords for video you can:

• Find the right audience: AdWords for video provides a range of options to reach the right audience. For example, you can promote your video by keyword to appear in YouTube search results, or you can choose to show your ad against content your customers are most interested in - such as sports or music. Connect with your audience on YouTube and the Google Display Network, which includes millions of websites. AdWords for video links to your YouTube account so you can easily start a video campaign with your existing videos. 
• Measure the effectiveness of your spend: On average, we’ve found that YouTube video ads drive a 20 percent increase in traffic to your website and a 5 percent increase in searches for your business (Google Campaign Insights, 2011). With AdWords for video you can find out how viewers are engaging with your brand during and after they watch your ad. You can see how many viewers watched your entire video, visited your website, stayed on your channel to watch another video, or subscribed to your channel, after viewing your ad. 
• Only pay for engaged views: With TrueView video ads you only pay when viewers choose to watch your ad so you aren’t charged when viewers skip your ad if they aren’t interested or have already seen your video. This means your ad budget is focused on viewers interested in your video. By displaying a call-to-action overlay on your video you can talk about a sale or specific offer to your viewers, share more information about your business, or drive traffic to your website. 

$50 million in free advertising. We’re giving away $50 million in free Google AdWords advertising to help 500,000 businesses get into video. If you are new to AdWords, you can receive a $75 credit when you sign up. To put that into context, with $75 your video campaign can reach more than 1,500 of your most valuable customers on YouTube for one month. Request your free credit here.

Advertiser Playbook and support. To share best practices and tips on how video can be a core part of your business toolkit, we created a YouTube Advertiser Playbook. The Playbook covers everything from creating interesting content to promoting your video with ads. If you need help making a video, our My Business Story is a free tool you can use to create your first video. AdWords advertisers can also call our free phone support line, 866-2-GOOGLE, to get started with AdWords for video.

YouTube Ambassador program. To recognize business owners that are already using YouTube to grow their business, we’re naming 9 businesses from across the country to our first ever YouTube Ambassador program. These businesses have seen outstanding success in reaching new customers, building a brand, and engaging their fans with video. Hear their stories and learn more about the YouTube Ambassador program.



If you have a video you want to promote, get started with AdWords for video. And, join our YouTube for Marketers page on Google+ to stay up-to-date on our latest video marketing innovations.

Baljeet Singh, YouTube group product manager, recently watched “Guitar Lesson from Spinal Tap's Nigel Tufnel.”

Infographic: YouTube Ad Blitz post-game report

From brewskies to Bradshaw and celebs to salsa, the 2012 Super Bowl brought millions of you from across the globe to YouTube's Ad Blitz channel to vote on your favorite commercials. When the final tallies came in, Ad Blitz saw more than 89 million views worldwide, and the day after the game, 26 percent of those came from outside the US.

The Ad Blitz team was so excited by all of you that participated, so to thank you we pulled together an infographic about the activity from the big game.

If you’re as inspired as we are by some of these commercials, check out more creative campaigns on YouTube to spark some ideas of your own.

Lexi Turpack, YouTube interactive programs analyst, recently watched ‘Vitalic - Poney Part 1.’

Motorsports brands kick into high gear on YouTube

Having spent years living in North Carolina, I witnessed first-hand the passion of NASCAR and motorsports fans. So it’s not surprising that auto and motorcycle racing videos are some of the most searched and viewed on YouTube. Now that racing season is in full swing with the first Daytona 500 kicking off just days ago, fans have plenty to discover on YouTube - making it the ideal arena for marketers to capture consumer attention. Here are a few brands making the most of fan interest online.

Like many businesses, RevZilla, an online retailer of motorcycle riding gear, dove into video production with nothing more than a Flip camera and an idea. While they have a showroom in Philadelphia, they were challenged to reach their online customers' need to “look under the hood” of motorcycle gear. So they turned to video to showcase detailed breakdowns of motorcycle gear -- from helmets to gloves and riding jackets, and share their deep product knowledge and how-to content.



Meanwhile GoPro, the makers of HD video cameras and accessories, use racer’s eye view of tracks like the Infineon Raceway captured by CEO Nicholas Woodman to reach fans. By building a library of videos created by the people using their cameras, GoPro was able to provide the ultimate product demo to their audience.



Even racing greats like Richard Petty of The Richard Petty Driving Experience are on YouTube to give customers a behind-the-wheel look at racing 165 mph in a NASCAR race car. The Richard Petty Driving Experience pushed the sales needle by creating a Summer of Speed package they promoted during slow summer months with YouTube video ads.



With millions of auto enthusiasts and racing fans coming to YouTube for entertainment, try out some of these ways to reach people on YouTube. Happy riding!

Baljeet Singh, group product manager on video monetization at Google, recently watched “Team Hot Wheels - The Yellow Driver's World Record Jump”

And the YouTube Ad Blitz winners are...

While America’s feelings were divided on the outcome of the game, there’s one aspect of Super Bowl Sunday that crosses team loyalties and brings us together — the commercials. This year’s commercials had something for everyone, from cute dogs to talking babies to Adriana Lima. After a week of intense competition in the YouTube Ad Blitz contest, the votes are in and you voted M&M’S “Just My Shell” commercial as your favorite ad of the Super Bowl!



Rounding out the top five commercials of the big game are spots from Chrysler Group, Bud Light, Chevy Silverado and Doritos:

2. Chrysler Group “Halftime in America”
3. Bud Light “Rescue Dog”
4. Chevy Silverado “2012”
5. Doritos “Man's Best Friend”

Give me the stats!
In its fifth year running, YouTube Ad Blitz has already surpassed previous years with 133M views from fans worldwide, up 43 percent from last year (as of Sunday, 2/12)...and still counting! In fact, during game time roughly 6 percent of all U.S. YouTube traffic came from people watching Super Bowl commercials on Ad Blitz.

The days that saw the highest volume of views were Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, making up 82 percent of total views received over the week. And it wasn’t just fans in the states seeking out the commercials — nearly 18 percent of all views came from outside of the U.S. Other interesting stats include:

• The most popular ads drove the majority of views - 65 percent of video views came from the top ten commercials.
• Google searches related to [Super Bowl commercials] peaked on Monday, but continued through the rest of the week.
• More than 32 percent 
of all mobile votes occurred on Tablet devices, our first year running Ad Blitz on a tablet-optimized channel.

Tune into the YouTube homepage today to check out the top five spots!

Mike Yapp, director, YouTube Creative Content, recently watched “The Jeremy Lin Show at MSG!”

How to shape up your video marketing strategy in 2012

Did you vow to get in shape in 2012? Maybe you committed take your business to the next level this year, too. Keeping either resolution can be a challenge, so we wanted to call out a few YouTube fitness Channels doing great work both with their videos and their advertising—without breaking a sweat.

Mike Chang has a growing following on YouTube thanks to his easy-to-do workout videos, steady stream of new content and special seasonal discounts offers on his Six Pack Shortcuts program. This January he gave YouTube subscribers 70 percent off from his new Insane Home Fat Loss program. He also uses YouTube TrueView video ads to reach new viewers, and now has more than 370,000 Channel subscribers interested in rock solid abs.



The Flex Belt and TRX Channels use their YouTube Channels to host tons of video content for beginners and experts alike, many featuring celebrities like Next Top Model winner Adrianne Curry for Flex Belt or NFL superstar Drew Brees on the TRX Channel. Talk about motivation. Through the power of video, Flex Belt and TRX can capture an audience’s attention, show how their products work, and then tell viewers how to buy the product with banner ads on their brand Channels or call-to-action overlays over their videos. TRX’s YouTube Channel banner ended up being responsible for 7 percent of all holiday sales through paid search Channels in December 2011.





If you’re a business owner, musician, filmmaker, fitness expert or all of the above, you can build an audience with YouTube video advertising tools by getting started with Google AdWords for video today.

Baljeet Singh, group product manager, recently watched “S*&t Silicon Valley Says.”

Ads Worth Spreading 2.0 - get your entries in!

With only two weeks left for submissions to Ads Worth Spreading 2.0, TED is asking for your support in their search for innovation, ingenuity and intelligence in advertising. The dream behind the initiative is to find companies that want to communicate ideas to their consumers in the same way that TED wants to communicate with its audience.

What makes ideas powerful is that they have a life of their own; an idea can reset someone’s worldview and even begin a domino effect as they pass it on to friends. Ads Worth Spreading is TED’s initiative to recognize and reward innovation, ingenuity and intelligence in advertising -- the ads that people want to see, and share with their friends.

One of our favorite entries so far has been Chipotle's "Back to the Start" campaign, which champions the idea of a return to small, sustainable farming.



Another lighthearted piece we love comes from UK brand Cravendale. "Cats With Thumbs" has the kind of creativity and humor that inspires people to share an ad with friends.



YouTube has been helping to promote and showcase the Ads Worth Spreading entries online with a dedicated channel at http://www.youtube.com/adsworthspreading. Visit the channel and upload your video, or simply add your existing YouTube video to the channel before December 31, 2011. Agencies, brands, producers and individuals are invited to submit their best work of 2011. There is no fee to enter work. Submissions must be: less than five (5) minutes in length, created and aired between January 2011 and December 2011, and entered by an authorized agency, brand or producer. We look forward to seeing the submissions continue to come in!

Ronda Carnegie, Head of Global Partnerships at TED, recently watched, “Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world.”

Ads that entertain: YouTube’s top spots of 2011

Editor’s note: Yesterday, we looked back on the “most viewed” YouTube videos of 2011. Today, we invited Advertising Age’s Michael Learmonth to reflect on the most viewed video ads of the year.

We always knew people liked to watch the ads. At least some ads, like the great ones people talk about after the Super Bowl. Then YouTube came along in 2005 and brought with it the notion that ads can be great content that earn their way onto screens of all types, spread by consumers who vote, share, like, comment, blog, plus-one, or even create response videos or spoofs.

YouTube is the ultimate meritocracy for video, and advertisers are adapting to this world by creating content that people want to share. It’s no surprise, for example, that among the top-10 most-watched ads on YouTube in 2011 are two Super Bowl ads.

Most watched video ads of the year (eliminating music videos and trailers):
1. VW - The Force
2. T-Mobile - Royal Wedding
3. Chrysler - Imported From Detroit
4. DC Shoes - Ken Block's Gymkhana Four: The Hollywood Megamercial
5. smartwater - Jennifer Aniston goes viral
6. Team Hot Wheels - The Yellow Driver's World Record Jump
7. Old Spice - Scent Vacation
8. Apple - Introducing Siri on iPhone 4S
9. Samsung - Unleash Your Fingers
10. adidas - D Rose: adiZero Rose 2 The Bull

What is surprising is that the majority of YouTube’s top “ads” of 2011 (seems strange to call them that) never appeared on traditional TV at all.

Videos like T-Mobile’s Royal Wedding, itself a spoof of the JK Wedding Dance, were made for the web and made to amuse, entertain, and to be passed around, as are mini-movies like DC Shoe’s Gymkhana Four, stunts like Hot Wheel’s record jump, and Old Spice’s “Scent Vacation.”

Even the two Super Bowl ads making the list, Chrysler and Volkswagen, were part of elaborate campaigns made to live significant lives on the web. In the past, advertisers treated their Super Bowl spots like state secrets, but Volkswagen posted “The Force” on YouTube two weeks before the Super Bowl last year, and had 10 million views before the game began. Chrysler took the opposite approach, but created a video four times the length of a typical TV ad, perfect for extended watching on the web after the game.

For brands, creating great content—advertainment, if you will—isn’t just for big TV events like the Super Bowl anymore. Increasingly, advertisers and their agencies are focusing on the content and the strategy, and letting that content distribute itself. That doesn’t mean they aren’t doing traditional advertising. Indeed all of these campaigns were backed up by significant spending to seed and promote these videos on YouTube and elsewhere. But paid media only gets you so far. In the end, it doesn’t matter if they paid $3 million for 30-seconds in the Super Bowl or much less to get the conversation started. In the end, it’s the content that counts.

Michael Learmonth, Senior Editor for Advertising Age, recently watched, “Sesame Street: Smell Like a Monster.”

What makes an ad worth spreading? TED to recognize 10 prime examples

Today we bring you a guest post from Ronda Carnegie, Head of Global Partnerships at TED, a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Carnegie explains how TED and YouTube are teaming up for the second year to present a challenge called 'Ads Worth Spreading.'

Last year, TED kicked off a challenge to the advertising industry called Ads Worth Spreading, our global search for innovation, ingenuity and intelligence in advertising. The winners can be seen on the front page of Show & Tell, YouTube’s gallery of clever and effective creative marketing.

This year, we are delighted to announce that we’re now accepting entries to TED’s Ads Worth Spreading initiative through a channel on YouTube. The YouTube channel will help promote and showcase submissions, as well as spark conversation. Even if you’re not an advertiser, you can visit the channel and comment on your favorite campaigns. Which ads are thought-provoking, funny, honest, warm, informative or creatively brilliant? We want your feedback, and the channel is our medium for hearing your voice.

One of the most common questions we’re asked about Ads Worth Spreading is: “Why? Why does TED support an initiative around advertising?” TED’s Curator Chris Anderson explains it this way -- “TED’s mission is ‘ideas worth spreading.’ The dream behind this initiative is to find companies that want to communicate ideas to their consumers in the same way that TED wants to communicate with its audience. What makes ideas powerful is that they have a life of their own; an idea can reset someone’s worldview and even begin a domino effect as they pass it on to friends.”

TED will curate a final selection of ten campaigns from 2011. The results will be announced at the TED2012 conference in Long Beach, Calif. in March, and showcased on TED.com and YouTube.

If you’re an agency, brand, producer or individual who’s created an ad worth spreading this year, now is your chance to have your work recognized. Visit the Ads Worth Spreading channel and upload or add your YouTube video to the channel before December 31, 2011.

We’re looking forward to finding 10 new winners to celebrate.

Ronda Carnegie, Head of Global Partnerships at TED, recently watched "Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 days."

Update on YouTube’s Promoted Videos

Update: As of December 1st, 2011, you will start to see Promoted Videos referred to as TrueView in-search and TrueView in-display.

In November of 2008, we began to dabble with a feature that you and advertisers could use to make videos easier to find, since at the time you were uploading 13 hours of video every minute. The feature was Sponsored Videos, and we soon changed the name to what you know today as Promoted Videos. Flash forward to 2011—we're talking about 48 hours of video uploaded every minute, and Promoted Videos have now reached one billion views globally.

Whatever your search, companies and creators across all genres are using Promoted Videos to bring content to your attention. Maybe you’re a little self-conscious about your breath and Orabrush can help you out using Promoted Videos to demonstrate their tongue cleaners. Perhaps you’re a skater and Original Skateboards are bringing you the latest in longboarding technology. Or maybe you’re seeking the infinite grilling wisdom of the BBQGuys, and their Promoted Videos around the Superbowl can bring you the perfect smoked brisket recipes.



If you're interested in learning more about Promoted Videos, we recently announced some updates so hop on over to the Inside AdWords blog for the full details.

Jonathan Goldman, YouTube Software Engineer, recently watched “The Grand Rapids Lip Dub (New World Record).”

Ads Worth Spreading

People use YouTube to create original content that will connect, inform and inspire others across the globe, and we encourage advertisers to do the same. It is our goal to recognize and give praise when brands create content that people seek out, love and share with others. TED, the organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, announced a similar mission late last year with their inaugural Ads Worth Spreading challenge, designed to solicit best-in-class ads that raise the bar, elevate the craft and invent new forms of engagement, both online and in general.

Beginning in early January, TED and YouTube began the call for submissions. In less than a month, nearly 1,000 ads were submitted from around the world, varying in length from 30 seconds to five minutes. The winners were selected by a diverse judging panel made up of 24 artists, business people and thought leaders, including Robert Wong from Google’s Creative Lab and YouTube creative champion Terrence Kelleman of Dynomighty. One-third of the entries came from outside of the U.S., across a wide variety of brands and causes.

In early March, Chris Anderson announced the 10 winners of the challenge from the stage of the annual TED conference in Long Beach, California. The winners represent some of the most creative, compelling and out-of-the-box executions of the past year. They embody a new paradigm for advertising creative, pushing the boundaries on what will move audiences and spur action by embracing longer-form storytelling as advertising.




Video is a powerful medium for spreading ideas. Our mission--like TED’s--is supported in part by advertising. Any great video--whether original content or advertising--should make you think, make you respond, and make you want to share. We hope to continue to see more enthusiasm and more passion in online advertising, solidifying it as the medium that elevates the craft and practice of brands spreading ideas.

The 10 winning Ads Worth Spreading are:

• Chrysler: "Born of Fire" (Wieden+Kennedy)
• The Nike Foundation: “Girl Effect, The Clock is Ticking” (Wieden+Kennedy)
• Dulux: “Dulux Walls” (Euro RSCG London)
• Intel: “The Chase” (Venables Bell & Partners)
• Nokia: “The World’s Smallest Stop-Motion Character Animation” (Wieden + Kennedy London)
• Hornbach and HEIMAT Berlin: “Infinite House” (@radical.media)
• The Topsy Foundation: “Selinah” (Ogilvy Johannesburg)
• Batelco: “Infinity” (FP7/DXB, Bahrain)
• Savory Institute: “Changing Our Future” (Foresight Multimedia)
• Target: “Kaleidoscopic Fashion Spectacular” (Mother NY and Legs Media)

The winning videos can be seen today on the YouTube homepage, and you can also take a look at behind-the-scenes commentary on YouTube Show & Tell, our resource for the best creative marketing on YouTube.

Mark Sabec, Product Marketing Manager, who recently watched “Rory Sutherland: Life lessons from an ad man”

Good Work – Enjoy the spotlight at the Cannes Lions Festival for a good cause

We know creative people on YouTube love turning an idea into a brilliant production. We also know they want their work to matter.

With this in mind, we’ve partnered with the 58th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on Good Work, a new program that gives creative professionals the opportunity to use their skills to make a difference and gain recognition for their work. Learn more in this video:



Through Good Work, nonprofits from all over the world can submit a brief for a video ad promoting their cause. These organizations often lack the resources and time to create a truly great ad for their cause -- and this is where you can help. Pick a brief you want to work on from the Good Work briefs gallery and make an ad for that organization. Your ad can be inspirational, thought-provoking, funny, or serious -- just make sure it’s also innovative and compulsively watchable.

If you succeed, you might be strutting your stuff at this year’s Cannes Festival - five talented people will win a trip to Cannes and have their work showcased there. Could it be you?

The deadline to submit your entry is May 9, 2011. A jury of top industry experts chaired by Craig Davis, Chief Creative Officer Publicis Mojo and founder of Brandkarma, will announce the winners on May 21, 2011.

Supriya Sharma, Product Marketing Manager, recently watched “WaterAid Cracker Challenge.”

Ad Blitz winner revealed

It's been about two weeks since the Super Bowl aired, but our ears are still ringing from the noise of advertisers jockeying for position in Ad Blitz, YouTube’s contest to find the best Super Bowl ad. Last Sunday, we added Super Bowl spots to the Ad Blitz gallery as they aired on gameday, and people could come to the channel (or even hop on their mobile devices) to vote for their favorites.

We’ve tabulated the final votes, and are pleased to announce that the winner is...



It was a great Super Bowl for mobile this year, with over 3.5 million views of the Ad Blitz channel happening on mobile devices. We received over 2.7 million votes, and in the first 30 hours after the game aired, commercials were viewed 47 million times.

As the winner of Ad Blitz, Chrysler will be featured in the YouTube masthead all day today. Hats off to them for being voted the top spot by the YouTube community.

Suzie Reider, Advertising Director Display, recently watched, “Steelers versus Packers - Super Bowl XLV and ESPN.”

Partners, please join us for the first virtual meetup

January is a generally a cold month, so rather than getting out your winter coat and travelling to a partner meetup, we thought we’d kick off 2011 with live event on the YouTube channel. This meetup will be product-focused and near and dear to many of your wallets: we’ll cover how to make money on YouTube, advertising options, and some new innovations coming your way soon.

YouTube Product Manager Phil Farhi will be leading the discussion, so make sure to round up all your money- and ad-related questions on the YouTube channel now. You’ve got until Monday, January 17, to submit your question, and then we encourage you to watch what Phil’s got to say during the live event.

Date: Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Time: 2 p.m. PST
Web address: Live streaming at www.youtube.com/YouTube

During the stream, you’ll be able to ask follow-up questions via Twitter using the hashtag #YTPartner. We’ll monitor these tweets and address as many questions as we can during the live stream.

Looking forward to meeting up online!

Margaret Healy, Strategic Partner Manager, recently watched “Kauai - The Lost World - Canon 5D Mark II.”

TrueView Video Ads give viewers choice and control over ads

Advertising is what allows many of YouTube’s most creative video producers to keep producing their great material - it directly funds their creative process. And advertising is evolving. Increasingly, we’re seeing the distinction between advertisements and ‘regular videos’ blurring as advertisers start to make ads viewers want to watch.

We think that giving viewers a choice of which ads they want to watch means it’s even more likely that they’ll be engaged with the ad, and that advertisers will get their messages across to the right person. So YouTube has introduced a new kind of ad, known as TrueView Video Ads, which you’ll start seeing on the site today. It works like this: when you see an ad start to play, look for a 5-second countdown button that will allow you to “skip” it. If the ad doesn’t seem relevant or engaging to you, skip it and continue to the video you wanted to watch. Not every ad you see will have this “skip” option but we are working to bring you more choice and control in advertising where possible.


More compelling ads and viewer choice about which ads to watch (and whether to even watch an ad) means a more engaging, interactive, customized experience for both viewers and advertisers -- a true win-win for all.

If you’re an advertiser, please visit our InsideAdWords blog for more information on this announcement.

Phil Farhi, Senior Product Manager, recently watched “Danny MacAskill - Way Back Home”.

Tricking and treating with Disney this Halloween

We’d like to welcome today’s guest blogger, Annjanette Isorda, Senior Manager of New Media Business Development at the Walt Disney Company. Annjanette works with Disney Consumer Products, a division that extends the Disney brand to merchandise ranging from apparel and toys to books, magazines and even food. Today, she shares her experiences on how they use their Disney Living YouTube Channel to engage fans and communicate about holiday promotions.

The Disney Living channel was born in March 2009 when we realized that YouTube could provide a great way to answer the growing demand for entertainment and information on Disney products – everything from bridal fashion shows featuring gowns inspired by our Disney Princesses to sneak peeks of our latest toys and tech gadgets. We’ve found that YouTube has broad appeal and, unlike virtually any other channel, YouTube videos allow us to tell stories that we couldn’t convey in print or other online media. We create original content that you can’t see anywhere else for YouTube fans and the active blogger community.

As we go into the holidays, YouTube has emerged as one of the best ways for us to engage directly with a wide audience. For example, Halloween is an especially fun holiday for us at Disney. To make this year’s festivities unique, we created fun activities for the family on YouTube. We produced a "Disney Store 30 Costumes in 30 Seconds" YouTube Halloween Sweepstakes and have also set up a Halloween Dress Rehearsal Party for families to show off outfits in person (and receive free prizes!). The Disney Living channel helps us easily bridge the online and offline worlds.

Additionally, Disney Living is tricking and treating YouTubers to three scary movie spoofs, inspired by the flicks The Shining, The Ring, & The Sixth Sense. These Ghoulish Greetings are short e-greetings made to delight and surprise our audience. We hope fans will have a laugh and be inspired to share them with family and friends and participate in our Halloween contest with a video response of your own. We’ll choose five lucky winners after Halloween to win a $100 gift card to the Disney Store. We will continue to produce content like this for our YouTube channel because it is a powerful platform that allows us to create value for our subscribers and audience.



Finally, our last advice to anyone else considering building a presence on YouTube: connect it to your other social marketing efforts. We always connect our content to our Facebook fan page and share it in our tweets from Twitter. We’ve promoted the videos to the YouTube community as well to help connect more people to some of our most popular content. We have found using a mix of social media and paid advertising helps us reach both core Disney fans and newcomers.

We’re genuinely excited about engaging with our fans on YouTube and carrying on the Disney tradition of inspirational storytelling. Stay tuned — there will be more YouTube fun as we move into this year’s holiday season!

Jacques Hebert, Google AdWords Account Manager, recently watched “Disney Halloween Spoof: Ghoulish Greeting #3.”

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million

Editors note: Today’s guest bloggers are Troy Olson, Digital Advertising Manager, and Jeff Loquist, Search Marketing Manager, for ShoppersChoice.com. ShoppersChoice.com owns and operates a family of web stores with a wide selection of products, from barbecue grills and accessories to patio sets.

We sell everything from home furniture and fireplaces to kitchen cookware, but our true passion is barbecuing and grills. We’re in BBQ country, where people are fanatical about barbecuing and smoking. We’ve found that the best way to connect with customers is to provide them with great videos – grill reviews, how-tos, and recipes – presented on our branded YouTube channel, YouTube.com/BBQGuys.

We started with instructional videos to address customer service. Then our attitude toward video morphed when our CEO was on a business trip 1,000 miles away from home and was recognized as the “Barbecue Guy.” We saw how great YouTube could be for reaching many people at once and conveying our company image. Our important performance indicator is our relationship with viewers. It excites us when we see comments such as, ‘Great recipe! I tried it a few days back, loved it.’

In 2009, we brought on Chef Tony. He knows Cajun food and has a gregarious personality that our viewers love. We get hundreds of thousands of views whether we’re showing how to smoke a brisket



or how to make honey-glazed sweet potatoes



We want our customers to love our grills, and the way we do it is to give them recipes that make them proud and happy with the results they can achieve.

Through Promoted Videos, there have been almost 100,000 views on our YouTube channel and more than 15 million impressions of our brand name – all at the most competitive cost-per-click you will find anywhere online. Our campaign is easily managed in the Google Adwords interface. Every tool we need is there to grow quickly and manage easily our video efforts. So far this year, we’ve had over 2,200 visitors to our BBQGuys.com site from YouTube. We’ve also seen a significant increase in subscribers across all our social media channels since we started using YouTube.

Online video advertising is central to our business. For this past August, our revenue was up 48%. Our videos were viewed 94,000 times during that month alone. Overall traffic to BBQGuys.com is up 20% from last year.

We’ve been so successful on YouTube that we are now planning to extend our YouTube presence to our SportsmanGuys brand and beyond.

For us, video is our secret sauce. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million!

Serena Satyasai, Marketing, recently watched “Homemade Pizza Dough”

Your questions about ads and advertising answered

For the next edition of “YouTube Answers,” a series in which you’re invited to ask us questions on a broad topic, we’re tackling your queries about ads and advertising. You submitted nearly 50 questions about our ad business, and here we have Rick Silvestrini, Product Marketing Manager, addressing the seven most popular:



Next up: head over to the YouTube channel where we’re using Moderator to collect questions on the topic of “Building an audience on YouTube.” This is a good opportunity to ask about how to build a robust subscriber base and how to engage those viewers, and to get answers from partners who’ve already done this well, earning hundreds of thousands of subscribers in the process. We’ll be taking questions until Wednesday, October 13, and then we’ll be back as soon as possible afterward with a new illuminating video.

Mia Quagliarello, Product Marketing Manager, recently watched “Star Wars Tai Chi.”

YouTube Homepage: Promoted Videos advertisers can get it while it's hot

This post is part of the “BizBlog Series,” which was formally its own blog. Check back each week to see articles about partners and advertisers on YouTube, or search under the label 'BizBlog'.

Update: As of December 1st, 2011, you will start to see Promoted Videos referred to as TrueView in-search and TrueView in-display.

For big advertisers on YouTube, the YouTube homepage is often seen as the holy grail. It's the highest-profile placement on YouTube, providing marketers with the ability to deliver a big impact and drive attention to content, trailers or advertising. To give you an idea of the scale we’re talking about, the homepage has been delivering nearly 45 million impressions per day and 18 million unique visitors a day in the U.S. — that's the equivalent to the ratings of several top-rated prime-time television shows combined. While impressions and unique visitors are never guaranteed, users who visit the homepage are actively looking for the next video to watch, so advertisers naturally want to be part of the action.

A little known fact is that a few days each quarter, we open up the YouTube homepage to Promoted Video advertisers. These companies end up getting a bit of extra exposure from their campaigns. There are a couple of ways to make sure your ads show up on the homepage, should the opportunity arise. First, log into your AdWords account, and under "Campaign Settings," consider the following:

• In order for Promoted Videos ads to appear on YouTube browse pages, watch pages, and on the homepage, select "Display Network" 
• To appear *only* on YouTube placements, select "Relevant pages only on the placements I manage" and add youtube.com as a managed placement. 
• To appear *only* on the homepage, select "Relevant pages only on the placements I manage" and add youtube.com::pyv-top-right-homepage as a managed placement 
• Set a specific bid for the homepage and keep in mind that it is a more competitive placement 
• Please note: this feature is only available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the U.K., and The U.S. 

Because the dates we run Promoted Videos on the YouTube homepage vary, we unfortunately don't have a set schedule to provide to our advertisers. However, we typically know about 48 hours in advance. If you have a managed account, you can ask your Google representative to let you know when these opportunities arise so that you can increase your bids to improve your chances of showing up.

Several advertisers – large and small – have found great success showing Promoted Videos on the homepage. One YouTube advertiser, Dynomighty Design, grew their entire business by using Promoted Videos and getting placements on the YouTube homepage. Founder Terrence Kelleman says: "YouTube helps us sell our product, learn about our audience and build a strong brand image. And as a small company with a limited advertising budget, YouTube has become our main advertising strategy. Not only are costs low with Promoted Videos, but healthy conversions also make YouTube our #1 referring site in terms of traffic and revenue." To read more about Dynomighty's story, check out their original YouTube video and their feature on the Official Google Blog.

The YouTube homepage has a captive, engaged audience and it's our goal to let advertisers understand how best to reach customers that would be interested in hearing from them. For more information about advertising on YouTube, visit youtube.com/advertising, and for more information on Promoted Videos, check out ads.youtube.com.

Mark Sabec, Product Marketing Manager, recently checked out YouTube Show & Tell, home of the best creative marketing examples on YouTube.

YouTube answers your questions about “YouTube Worldwide”; next topic is advertising

“YouTube Answers” is a series we began in April to introduce you to a variety of people who work here and give you the chance to ask us questions about a broad topic relevant to the site. Camille Hearst and Shenaz Zack bravely went first, to answer your questions about partnerships. Next, we recruited Brian Truong, Product Manager; Shalabh Chaturvedi, Software Engineer, and Victoria Grand, Head of Policy, to tackle your queries about our international sites and policies:




Big thanks to everyone who asked a question! We saw a three-fold increase in questions and votes this round.

Next up: head over to the YouTube channel where we’re using Moderator to collect questions on the topic of “Advertising on YouTube.” This is a good opportunity to ask about how advertising on YouTube works, what the different ad formats are, what advertisers are looking for, and ways you might be able to connect with them. We’ll be taking questions until Monday, July 26, and then we’ll be back as soon as possible afterward with two new staffers in the hot seat.

Mia Quagliarello, Product Marketing Manager, Community, recently watched “Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow 1-8-10.”