Brandcast 2023 showed advertisers how YouTube can cut through the complexity to reach Australians and achieve business and brand results, as Australians’ viewing habits become more fragmented.
Brandcast was held at Hordern Pavillion in Sydney (Warrane) and celebrated creators, shared the latest viewer trends and product updates, and showcased where the video platform was delivering major results for leading brands, including Uber and Mondelēz International.
It was revealed that YouTube reached more than 17 million Australian adults in June 2023 – more than 85 percent of the Australian population. More than 11 million people watched YouTube on their TV in Australia in June 2023, 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.”
Google is investing in 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 allows for an advertiser’s best-performing video and image assets to be integrated across Google’s most visual, entertainment-focused touchpoints, giving advertisers the best opportunity to find and drive consideration amongst potential customers.
Oats said: “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.”
Caroline Oates
New ad solutions were announced to help advertisers and brands connect with viewers via Connected TV and through short form video formats. This includes:
• 30-Second YouTube Selects Non-Skips, only on Connected TV – allows advertisers to put a 30s non-skip ad in front of YouTube’s most popular content – from top creators to the biggest content moments including the livestream of events like Coachella and highlights of the country’s biggest sporting moments including the AFL, NRL, Australian Open, and more. Drive brand awareness, as viewers stream their favourite YouTube Select content, in a format viewers already expect and experience on the big screen at home. Launches October this year.
• YouTube Select Shorts Line-Up – with 50 billion plays every day on YouTube Shorts globally, and average daily views of YouTube Shorts up by 150 percent year on year in Australia, YouTube Select is being expanded with a new Shorts line-up in October. Advertisers will now 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 this fast growing format.
• YouTube Connected TV Pause Experience – to help brands drive awareness and action during a user-initiated break in a viewer’s streaming session, new Pause experiences will be brought to Connected TV in 2024. This is seamless for viewers and allows them to learn more about a brand – while creating further opportunity to drive saliency with relevant audiences.
Mark Ritson with Kathy De Lullo and Lucinda Barlow
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 to test a hypothesis that TV sized scale in digital drives TV sized results.
They ran YouTube TrueView ads, building creatives with YouTube Creators. They found that YouTube effectiveness trumped TV effectiveness by 36 percent, while helping deliver a 13 percent growth in retail sales value, and growing their market share by 5 percent. (1) Ms Barlow pointed to Uber’s marketing activity being focused on educating people about their brand as it evolves.
De Lullo 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 – with awareness of Groceries on Uber Eats increasing by 6 points (2). It is now being scaled globally.
Oates said: “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.” A Nielsen MMM meta-analysis found that YouTube is 67 percent more effective than linear TV, delivers an average ROI that is 43 percent higher, and is also 40 percent more effective than other digital channels.
Ash Chang
Ash Chang and Mike’s mic
Ash Chang, culture and trends lead for YouTube APAC, was joined by creator Mike’s Mic (YouTube creator with 914,000 subscribers) for a discussion about the latest YouTube trends and how viewers were using the platform to pursue their deepest interests and passions across different formats.
New research from Kantar found that YouTube was seen by Australian viewers as the number one platform for allowing people to access a wide variety of content types.
Chang said: “Australia’s audience is diverse, and so is the content they watch. YouTube has the breadth and depth of content that no matter what you’re interested in or how you identify, there’s something for everyone. YouTube is video for all – all users, all creators, and in a world that’s less top down than ever, it’s video for all tastes.”
Entertainment at Brandcast was provided by Cub Sport, Cat and Calmell, and a Decade DJ set by Flight Facilities.
Flight Facilities