Media agency bosses were largely impressed by the collaborative cast and humble sentiment at this year's Brandcast event, but felt the case studies failed to provide enough context around the role of YouTube in the broader marketing mix.
The Sydney event drew 1,900 of the industry's finest from creators and marketers, to industry bodies and senior agency folk.
The annual showcase is an opportunity for Google to showcase the power of YouTube as a media and marketing platform to key decision makers.
Among these are media agency's top brass who hold the purse strings to the Australia's biggest advertisers.
The past year has been difficult for the world's largest online video platform with several blue chip companies stopping investment on the platform amid brand safety concerns.
Fittingly, Google CEO Jason Pellegrino addressed the issue in his opening address and offered a conciliatory tone to the typically brash event.
PHD Australia chief executive Mark Coad tells AdNews he is pleased with Google's focus on improving brand safety and measurement.
“I thought last night was good. It's a big statement and they've made some progression on measurement, which was terrific. Their continued stance on improving brand safety will put them in good stead,” Coad says.
HM Communication Group founder and principal Virginia Hyland tells AdNews she was impressed by the Customer Affinity Audience announcement.
“They're joining up all of the parts of the Google offering so we have a single customer focus in the journey,” she says.
“I was also impressed by the Director Mix, taking one single asset and being able to create hundreds of versions; it's very exciting what they are planning for the future.”
Case studies lacked context
Hyland says Brandcast can refine the way case studies are presented to focus how YouTube or Google assets contribute rather than examples that have a wider marketing mix.
“I challenge Google to talk to us more about case studies that are purely linked to a Google play,” she says.
“For example, National Australia Bank is an advertiser that spends tens of millions of dollars so it is difficult to take out the YouTube component believe that is what is delivering great sales for NAB. “I'd like them to focus on case studies that show the customer across the Google network and how that's impacted sales in a bubble compared to an ad campaign that runs across every channel of media.
“That's the one challenge, but overall a great night.”
The lack of context within the case studies was an area that Carat Australia chief investment officer Ashley Earnshaw also picked upon in his assessment of the night.
“It would have been really interesting to understand holistically how those campaigns worked across platform a bit more. In the same way if we just focused on a television campaign for a given brand, I felt like it didn't tell the whole story of how it made those campaigns effective. I would have found it interesting to understand the wider communication mix and how it was made to work with that,” Earnshaw says.
“It was a positive step to get Vijay from the IAB up there but I don't feel like we learnt a lot that we didn't know already know.
Earnshaw was impressed by the mix of clients, creators, agency folks and other industry figures drawn to Brandcast.
“The first thing you think about when you walk in there is the breadth of people that they've got in the room to talk to,” he adds.
“It was positive that from the get go they addressed the brand safety challenges we've had in 2017 with extremist content and our clients brands being put alongside unsavoury content.
“That was addressed rapidly by their leadership but I would have liked to see more detail to that, it left me wanting to know more about what has that meant on platform.”
'It's like the Sydney NYE fireworks'
Perhaps the best description of the glitz and glamour of Brandcast fell to Maxus national head of investment lead Ricky Chanana.
“It was huge, I always think Google Brandcast is like Sydney's New Year Eve fireworks; it's always bigger and better than the year before,” he says.
“They brought together CMOs, industry bodies, measurement bodies and media agencies to deliver a more humble message – that we are now listening, we are happy to change and we want to work with you guys. That's a different sentiment than previous years.
“It feels like this is almost a new beginning for Google. They don't need to try hard, they have an incredible platform, which delivers. All they need to do is listen and I liked Jason's empathy from the beginning.”
Chanana would like to see more of is “what the next six months to a year looks like, the roadmap, and how working with the agencies will evolve”, but overall was impressed with the whole show.
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