Google is ramping up its push for brand dollars to add to its search pile via a reserved buy model for top YouTube content. The second biggest search engine in the world has launched an advertising campaign pushing the YouTube stars that it is now touting to brand marketers.
The campaign goes live today and focuses on two of YouTube's video stars, Perth born artist and actor Troye Sivan and beauty and American fashion star Bethany Mota.
Google said in all, it has 11 local YouTube stars with over a million subscribers. The company would not be drawn on which of its other local talent roster will feature in future campaigns over the coming weeks
Lucinda Barlow, head of marketing at Google told AdNews that the campaign aims to celebrate what makes YouTube special and was investing in creators "to turn them into even bigger names" as well as bring in a broader audience to the YouTube video network.
The company is also highlighting the symbiotic nature of fan-creator relationships at an even in Sydney next month, and will be bringing in brands, advertisers and agencies to the event, said Barlow. The idea is to replicate what Google already does in the US, where it aligns its content creators and brands, creating both a content creation mechanism, and a revenue generation mechanism.
Earlier this month Google kicked off negotiations with top media buyers regarding its plans to offer advertisers access to millions of Australian YouTube subscribers across the top 5 per cent of its channels via a TV-style upfront (reserved) model.
The seach giant is pushing to bring more brand advertising dollars into online video, and the campaign is part of that move.
Barlow wouldn't be drawn on how much Google was spending on the campaign, nor break it down in percentage terms across channels.
However she said the campaign would run across mobile, video, digital and outdoor in Melbourne and Sydney. Interestingly, there is no TV component to this campaign.
Barlow explained that the success of the campaign would be measured in a number of ways, “We're looking at their subscriber base, their viewership and also the buzz around the campaign,” she said.
When it comes to the debate about YouTube selling its user created content as a "premium" offering Barlow that was up to the audience to decide, not platform owners.
“This audience is very savvy and they choose what is popular and what becomes pop culture. They choose where and what are the new categories that start to thrive and why and this is changing all the time. So ask the audience and they will choose.”
While YouTube has production studios for content creators in the US, plus new facilities opening in London and Japan, Barlow said that there was nothing to announce in Australia just yet. However she suggested there was more than one way to skin a cat.
“We do a lot of work with the creative community, we have workshops and training programs and there's actually a great ecosystem that means they help each other. So the content community is an active ecosystem here which Google helps with in a lot of ways.”
Watch the campaign video for yourself below.
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