WARC Media Platform Insights: YouTube

YouTube continues to command a strong position in the online video advertising market and is actively looking for ways to forge deeper connections with viewers, creators and brands through multi-format video strategies.

Context 

YouTube is prioritising Shorts and CTV engagement, and is innovating with unskippable 30-second ads and “pause experiences” on TV to help marketers engage audiences across screens and achieve both performance and brand-building goals.

Takeaways 

• Ad investment with YouTube is set to rise 4.0% in 2023 to reach $30.4bn

That marks a turnaround from Q4 2022 when ad revenue declined 8.8% year-on-year, as marketers shifted investment to retail media and search. But growth is expected to resume in 2023, at more than double the rate of growth recorded in 2022. WARC Media forecasts YouTube’s revenue growth to accelerate 10.3% in 2024, to reach $33.5bn by the end of that year.

• Commerce brands are expected to spend $4.1bn on YouTube ads in 2023 

This is a 4.6% rise on 2022. Retail remains YouTube’s most important category for ad investment, but growth from other sectors has been harder to achieve. While some categories will see double digit spending increases in 2023, including technology and electronics (+13.9%) and toiletries and cosmetics (+12.1%), figures elsewhere are more modest.

• YouTube advertisers can reach half of all internet users globally. More than one billion hours of video are watched every day on YouTube

YouTube is the world’s most popular online platform, with an adult advertising reach estimated at 2.07 billion people, almost twice as much as TikTok and Instagram respectively. YouTube Shorts (60 seconds or less) will provide more opportunities for marketers to reach new audiences, but its 50 billion daily viewer total is some way behind the 140 billion daily views achieved by Instagram Reels; under-18s, meanwhile, spend on average 60% longer on TikTok than with YouTube content.

• YouTube has overtaken Netflix as the biggest TV streaming platform in the US

YouTube accounted for 22.9% of OTT viewing in March 2023. It is also the most popular channel for US Gen Zs to catch up with sports news, and last year it was the most popular platform for both music and podcast listening in the US.

APAC is a key growth region for YouTube – from live shopping and Shorts to gaming – while in Latin America, YouTube delivers brand impact more cost-effectively than any other video platform, according to research by Kantar.

Platform Insights is a new series of reports exclusive to WARC Media subscribers. These include an overview of platform investments, media consumption and performance insights. More information is available here.

WARC Talks: Driving impact with entertainment

In this episode of the WARC podcast, Rica Facundo, WARC Strategy’s Asia Editor, and her guests discuss how entertainment is changing the marketing and media landscape in Asia and beyond.

Rica is joined by Manjusha Subramanian, B2B Marketing Lead, TikTok APAC, Kunal Sinha, Group Chief Strategy Officer at M&C Saatchi Indonesia and Leah Jackson, Head of Digital Marketing, Goodman Fielder.

Entertaining content can be effective at driving impact across brand and performance, and this episode details long- and short-form video best practices. The podcast also covers regional differences and how marketers can optimise online video for a specific target region/audience.

Listen to the full episode here

Timestamps

02:01 – What is changing in the Asian entertainment landscape?

05:32 – Trends in Indonesia.

08:12 – The view from Australia.

11:16 – How are these changes manifesting in your strategic briefs?

17:17 – Achieving impact across brand and performance.

18:06 – How TikTok drives performance and brand equity.

20:50 – What content connects?

28:05 – Why can entertaining content be so effective across brand and performance?

31:40 – Online short-form video best practice.

36:27 – Long-form best practice.

39:21 – How to optimise online video for a target region/audience.

See the full list of WARC podcasts here

New emotional brand metrics for dark times

Measuring brand metrics that inspire human emotions could sit alongside standard business metrics in future, says a new report from the Wunderman Thompson agency. 

The age of re-enchantment suggests that emotional KPIs that measure “heart swells, goose bumps, jaw drops, spine tingles, and more” will become increasingly important as people look for brands to bring some joy into their lives. 

Context 

War, climate change, disease and economic uncertainty are all contributing to a global mental health crisis, with young people, in particular, more stressed and anxious than ever before. Wunderman Thompson’s research indicates that almost half of people (46%) say they “feel tired and burned out all the time”, and two-thirds (67%) agree that technology is making us “feel more detached from the real world”. 

But 89% also say awe-inspiring experiences make them feel good, and 83% actively seek out experiences that bring them joy and happiness; 77% say “I just want to feel something, to feel alive”.

Why it matters 

There’s an opportunity for brands to step into this doomfest and lighten the load for consumers by giving them the sort of experiences they crave. More than six in 10 survey respondents (3,000 from the US, UK and China) felt brands should make more effort to wow them with spectacular advertising or marketing (67%).

What brands can do 

• Stand up for fun. Not only does fun offer a welcome respite in tough times, it’s a potential triple win for brands – delivering pleasure not only in the moment but also in its anticipation and recollection.
• Prioritise connection. With 85% complaining that we have less time for one another these days, brands can help facilitate meaningful connection via rituals and spaces (both physical and virtual) that bring people together.
• Enthrall the senses. Sixty-three percent wanted brands to provide multisensory experiences – and that applies in digital and virtual worlds as well as IRL.
• Escape the rational. Three-quarters (74%) enjoy an element of mystery and surprise in the things they do. Brands can build in moments of serendipity and the unexpected.
• Strive for better. Just 25% are positive about the way things are going in the world. By applying themselves to solving societal and environmental challenges, brands can foster some much-needed optimism.

Sourced from Wunderman Thompson

Unexpected ads gain attention but make sure it’s the right sort

Salient advertising features, such as using abrupt onset or motion, increase unexpectedness and attract more attention to online advertisements, according to a paper in the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR).

Why it matters

It seems axiomatic that an unexpected advertisement would be more effective in attracting consumers’ attention than an expected one – when consumers ignore online advertisements it’s often because they know what to expect and can easily filter them out. 

But it’s the nature of the unexpected ad that’s important. Pop-ups (abrupt onset) that get in the way of the information people are seeking are hugely annoying; floating ads (abrupt onset and motion) garner attention with less negativity.

Also important is the mindset of the viewer, whether they’re focused on a task or just browsing.

Takeaways 

• Online advertisements embedded with unexpected features – motion and abrupt onset, for instance – attract consumers’ attention in a bottom-up perspective (as opposed to top-down control of attention which is associated with the viewer’s awareness of the stimulus and its features).
• Unexpected advertisements more likely will capture consumers’ attention during goal-oriented tasks than free-browsing ones.
• Consumers are more likely to disengage from central processing during goal-oriented tasks and, therefore, are more attracted by unexpected advertisements than they might be during free-browsing tasks.
• Unexpected advertisements are associated with a more favourable attitude and less perceived intrusiveness than unexpected advertisements that obstruct the web content.

About the study

• How consumers process unexpected online advertisements: The effects of motion and abrupt onset on consumers’ attention and attitude was written by Emna Cherif (University of Clermont Auvergne) and Theirry Baccino (University Paris 8).
• The authors analysed the effects of three levels of advertising unexpectedness: high versus moderate versus low during both goal-oriented and free-browsing tasks. The context was a series of web pages that mimicked the front page of online newspapers.

Sourced from JAR