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Video is everywhere – helping brands find their audience in the era of convergence
Sunday, April 29, 2018
With cord-cutting on the rise, brands have been looking for new ways to connect with an important part of their audience that are harder than ever to reach. According to fresh Nielsen data, more than half of 18- to 49-year-olds in the U.S. are either light viewers of TV or do not subscribe to TV; but over 90 percent of these people watch YouTube.
1
Today we’re introducing a new set of opportunities on YouTube to help brands reach these viewers across content and devices.
YouTube audiences on TV screens
We’re amidst the second major shift in how people watch video on YouTube. In the past few years, we witnessed mobile viewership exceed desktop, marking the first major shift in how people interacted with YouTube. Now, in 2018, viewers are returning to that original, purpose-built device for video viewing – the television set.
At YouTube we’ve brought people back to the big screen by building a rich YouTube experience for set-top boxes, gaming consoles, streaming devices and smart TVs of all stripes. And now TV screens are our fastest growing screen counting over 150 million hours of watch time per day.
2
We heard from advertisers that they want in so we have been working to make it easy for you to find your most engaged, valuable audience while they are watching YouTube on a TV set, with the new
TV screens device type
. In the coming months, we’ll add TV screens – joining computers, mobile phones and tablets – to AdWords and DoubleClick Bid Manager, so advertisers globally can tailor their campaigns for this environment – for example, by using a different creative.
We’ve already seen that people react positively to ads on the TV screen – based on Ipsos Lab Experiments, YouTube ads shown on TV drove a significant lift in ad recall and purchase intent, with an average lift of 47 percent and 35 percent respectively.
3
YouTube audiences on every screen
And for brands who want help reaching cord cutters, we now offer a new segment in AdWords called “light TV viewers.” Advertisers will be able to reach people who consume most of their television and video content online and might be harder to reach via traditional media. This audience is reachable on YouTube across computers, mobile, tablets, and TV screens.
Welcoming YouTube TV to Google Preferred
Last year we launched
YouTube TV
, a new way to enjoy cable-free live TV. Now a year in, YouTube TV continues to gain momentum – we’ve recently added new networks to our service, expanded availability to over 85 percent of U.S. households in nearly 100 TV markets, and announced partnerships with major sports leagues. For the first time, this upcoming broadcast season advertisers will be able to access full length TV inventory in Google Preferred.
Content from some cable networks in the U.S. will be part of Google Preferred lineups so that brands can continue to engage their audience across all platforms. This means advertisers will be able to get both the most popular YouTube content and traditional TV content in a single campaign – plus, we’ll dynamically insert these ads, giving advertisers the ability to show relevant ads to the right audiences, rather than just showing everyone the same ad as they might on traditional TV.
As marketers continue to break the silos and think of holistic media plans, we’re excited to enable the opportunity. Because while TV screen viewing is big and growing fast, video is everywhere and the key is connecting with viewers wherever they watch.
Posted by Debbie Weinstein, Managing Director, YouTube/Video Global Solutions
1
Google commissioned Nielsen custom fusion study. Desktop, mobile and TV fusion. TV measurement of television distribution sources and total minutes watched. Reach among persons 18-49. Light TV viewers represent the bottom tercile of total TV watchers based on total minutes viewed. October 2017.
2
YouTube Internal Data. Global, accurate as of Jan 2018. Based on seven day average of watch time for TV screen devices, which include smart TVs, Roku/Apple TV and game consoles.
3
Google/Ipsos Lab Experiment, U.S., March 2018 (32 ads, 800 U.S. residents, 18-64 y/o)
Introducing new choices for parents to further customize YouTube Kids
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
When we launched the YouTube Kids app three years ago, our goal was to give kids around the world a place to access videos that were enriching, engaging and allowed them to explore their endless interests.
Since then, our team has continued to work to improve the app experience for kids and families around the world. One area of focus has been building new features that give parents even more control around the content available in the YouTube Kids app so they can make the right choice for their unique family and for each child within their family.
We are excited to announce that throughout the year, we will be rolling out three new options in YouTube Kids:
Collections by trusted partners and YouTube Kids
: Starting this week, our partners and the YouTube Kids team will offer collections of trusted channels on a variety of subjects from arts & crafts and music to sports, learning, and so much more. This makes it easy for parents to select only the channel collections and topics they want their kids to access. Just go into Profile Settings, and select from available collections such as Sesame Workshop and PBS KIDS. We will continue to add more partners over time.
Parent approved content
: Parents know better than anyone what they want their children to watch. For those parents who want even more control over the videos and channels in the YouTube Kids app, we’re rolling out a feature later this year that will allow parents to specifically handpick every video and channel available to their child in the app.
Improved search-off control for an even more contained experience
: Parents have always been able to turn search off within the YouTube Kids app, but starting this week turning search off will limit the YouTube Kids experience to channels that have been verified by the YouTube Kids team. This means that search off will not include recommendations from the broader YouTube Kids corpus.
For parents who like the current version of YouTube Kids and want a wider selection of content, it’s still available. While no system is perfect, we continue to fine-tune, rigorously test and improve our filters for this more open version of our app. And, as always, we encourage parents to block and flag videos for review that they don't think should be in the YouTube Kids app. This makes YouTube Kids better for everyone.
It is our hope that these additional options will allow every family to have the experience they want in the YouTube Kids app.
James Beser, Product Director for YouTube Kids, recently watched "
Photosynthesis for Kids
" on the Kids Learning Tube channel with his 2nd grade daughter.
More information, faster removals, more people - an update on what we’re doing to enforce YouTube’s Community Guidelines
Monday, April 23, 2018
In
December
we shared how we’re expanding our work to remove content that violates our policies. Today, we’re providing an update and giving you additional insight into our work, including the release of the first YouTube Community Guidelines Enforcement Report.
Providing More Information
We are taking an important first step by releasing a
quarterly report
on how we’re enforcing our
Community Guidelines
. This regular update will help show the progress we’re making in removing violative content from our platform. By the end of the year, we plan to refine our reporting systems and add additional data, including data on comments, speed of removal, and policy removal reasons.
We’re also introducing a
Reporting History dashboard
that each YouTube user can individually access to see the status of videos they’ve flagged to us for review against our Community Guidelines.
Machines Helping to Address Violative Content
Machines are allowing us to flag content for review at scale, helping us remove millions of violative videos before they are ever viewed. And our investment in machine learning to help speed up removals is paying off across high-risk, low-volume areas (like violent extremism) and in high-volume areas (like spam).
Highlights from the report -- reflecting data from October - December 2017 -- show:
We
removed over 8 million videos
from YouTube during these months.
1
The majority of these 8 million videos were mostly spam or people attempting to upload adult content - and represent a fraction of a percent of YouTube’s total views during this time period.
2
6.7 million were first flagged for review by machines
rather than humans
Of those 6.7 million videos,
76 percent were removed before they received a single view
.
For example, at the beginning of 2017, 8 percent of the videos flagged and removed for violent extremism were taken down with fewer than 10 views.
3
We introduced machine learning flagging in June 2017. Now more than half of the videos we remove for violent extremism have fewer than 10 views.
The Value of People + Machines
Deploying machine learning actually means more people reviewing content, not fewer. Our systems rely on human review to assess whether content violates our policies. You can learn more about our flagging and human review process in this video:
Last year we committed to bringing the total number of people working to address violative content to 10,000 across Google by the end of 2018. At YouTube, we've staffed the majority of additional roles needed to reach our contribution to meeting that goal. We’ve also hired full-time specialists with expertise in violent extremism, counterterrorism, and human rights, and we’ve expanded regional expert teams.
We continue to invest in the network of over 150 academics, government partners, and NGOs who bring valuable expertise to our enforcement systems, like the
International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King’s College London
,
Anti-Defamation League
, and
Family Online Safety Institute
. This includes adding more child safety focused partners from around the globe, like
Childline South Africa
,
ECPAT Indonesia
, and
South Korea’s Parents’ Union on Net
.
We are committed to making sure that YouTube remains a vibrant community with strong systems to remove violative content and we look forward to providing you with more information on how those systems are performing and improving over time.
-- The YouTube Team
1
This number does not include videos that were removed when an entire channel was removed. Most channel-level removals are due to spam violations and we believe that the percentage of violative content for spam is even higher.
2
Not only do these 8 million videos represent a fraction of a percent of YouTube's overall views, but that fraction of a percent has been steadily decreasing over the last five quarters.
3
This excludes videos that were automatically matched as known violent extremist content at point of upload - which would all have zero views.
'These Things Happened': The story of famed rapper G-Eazy's chart-topping journey
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
YouTube is proud to present G-Eazy’s “These Things Happened” -- a new Artist Spotlight Story that depicts the Bay Area rapper’s journey from the anonymous street corners of Oakland to landing multiple chart-topping records and nearly 5 million YouTube channel subscribers.
Directed by Rob Semmer, Creative Director for FADER, “These Things Happened” takes viewers behind the scenes of G-Eazy’s amazing ascent to chart-topping rapper. The Spotlight Story mixes concert clips, backstage interviews, and documentary footage of the rapper’s hometown, including the street corners where he used to hand out mixtapes more than a decade ago. Today, G-Eazy boasts more than 3 billion views across YouTube, with his recent hit “
No Limit
” reaching as high as #3 on the YouTube Music U.S. Top 100 Tracks chart and #1 on Billboard’s Pop Songs chart.
“It didn't work the traditional route until I got it popping on my own on YouTube,” the rapper says. “I'm forever grateful for the opportunity that was presented to an artist like myself.”
Born Gerald Earl Gillum in 1989, G-Eazy was raised by a working-class family in California's Bay Area. As a teenager, he was inspired by the region's burgeoning hyphy hip-hop sound, producing bedroom mixtapes, which he sold along Berkeley’s Telegraph Ave.
After years of self-released recordings and accompanying tours, including tour diaries posted to YouTube, G-Eazy had his breakthrough with “
Been On
.” The song is pure G-Eazy in that its tight lyrics flow over a hazy beat. The video was instantly iconic: a single slo-mo shot of the rapper smoking in black and white. The clip has tallied over 70 million YouTube views, and its success online helped break G-Eazy to the masses. A follow-up video, “
Me, Myself & I
,” featuring Bebe Rexha, landed a top 10 slot on the Billboard Hot 100.
G-Eazy's latest LP, “The Beautiful & Damned,” reflects on the fame that he's achieved since the album release. “These Things Happened” picks up at present day, staying by the rapper's side as he promotes the album and plays shows in support of it. A record-signing event even takes him back to the Bay Area, where he meets fans at Berkeley's Amoeba Records.
“I remember those shows in Berkeley at La Pena,” G-Eazy recalls. “We sold out La Pena with like 200 people. It's not even a venue. They call it a cultural center. They booked me 'cus no one in the Bay would book me.”
“These Things Happened” captivates in part because even in the La Pena days, G-Eazy was documenting himself, shooting footage, and uploading it to YouTube for his fans.
“If you're not active on YouTube, if you're not visible, if you're not giving that window into your life at all, then you're just disappearing,” he says.
For now, G-Eazy doesn't have to worry. “These Things Happened” ends a few blocks from where it started. Back in New York, with G-Eazy all grown up, a star around the world. This time he gazes up again to see himself—and his
YouTube channel
—advertised in a new billboard high above the street.
“It’s the age of access,” says G-Eazy. “YouTube provides a peek into your life, into your world, into your process. You close that window for too long and you run the risk of losing your audience.”
“It’s an honor to partner with and help tell the story of an artist with such a clear vision,” said Lyor Cohen, Global Head of Music at YouTube. “It’s equally rewarding to work with a label like RCA that is so supportive in collaborating to propel G-Eazy and bring context to his journey.”
--YouTube Music Team
Camila Cabello: 'Made in Miami.' A behind-the-scenes look at the 'Havana' star conquering the globe
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
YouTube is proud to present
Camila Cabello
’s “Made in Miami,” an Artist Spotlight Story created in collaboration with the rising superstar that gives an intimate and personal look at her journey, from arriving in Miami to topping the global charts.
Directed by Tabitha Denholm and released today on YouTube, “Made in Miami” is the story of Camila Cabello's path from arriving in Miami as a kid, carrying nothing but a backpack and a few toys, to becoming a global star with over 2.5 billion combined YouTube views and the biggest record in the world.
Boldy striking out on her own this year to follow her dreams, breakout artist Camila Cabello released a stunning debut solo album and created her iconic music video for “
Havana
,” a global smash which has garnered well over a billion views across YouTube since its release.
The unstoppable hit has been the #1 song on the YouTube Music Global Top 100 for every week of 2018 and earned massive views in countries including the United States (332 million), Brazil (132 million), the Philippines (120 million), Mexico (100 million), the United Kingdom (91 million) and Germany (72 million). Cabello’s hit is currently the most-viewed track of 2018 on YouTube, both globally and in over 30 individual countries.
“I knew I wanted to make a song called 'Havana' to honor my heritage — it's a love letter to that,” Camila Cabello explains in her Artist Spotlight Story “Made in Miami.” “I’m super proud to represent the Latin community and just super proud of my family and their story, and of who I am.”
Born in Cuba and raised in Miami, Camila gravitated to singing at an early age, eventually turning to YouTube to help build her audience. “Something clicked for me where I was like — this is a way to get into the singing thing, because you don’t need to have money to post a YouTube video.”
Uploads like her
rendition of Demi Lovato's
“
Skyscraper”
followed, foreshadowing the singer’s future success on and off the platform. “I would get, like, two comments, and I would be like, 'Oh my God!'” Camila explains of those early videos. “Posting those covers on YouTube definitely gave me a little bit more confidence.”
This led to her audition on Fox's talent competition “The X Factor,” which of course led her to being selected as a member of the vocal group Fifth Harmony. Their brassy single “
Worth It
” became the first video by a girl group to reach a billion views, while runaway hit “
Work from Home
” became YouTube's most popular video of 2016.
With the courage and talent to strike out on her own, she left the the group to write and produce her solo debut “Camila.” It is the video for the aforementioned “Havana” that best encapsulates Camila’s transformation to a global superstar.
“She wanted to tell a story,” explains Lyor Cohen, YouTube's Global Head of Music of her video for “Havana.” “She was able to weave that story into her music video, showing how much creativity people can have on YouTube.”
For Camila, it is all part of the ongoing journey. “My family’s attitude of never setting limits on yourself,” the singer explains in “Made in Miami.” “That’s literally the reason there’s a camera here right now.”
“Made in Miami” captures Camila’s story with intimate videos and insights into an artist stepping out onto the world’s stage to tell her story on her own terms, and the world may never be the same.
“Our Artist Spotlight Stories are intimate and personal portraits of artists that give them the unique opportunity to share these special moments with fans,” added Cohen. “‘Made in Miami’ is just that.”
For more on Camila Cabello, stream her Artist Spotlight Story “
Made in Miami
” on YouTube now and tune into
her livestream Q&A about the film with fans at noon ET
.
Updates to YouTube Live streaming
Monday, February 26, 2018
Together, we've experienced the biggest
music
,
sports
,
science
,
culture
and
gaming
events unfold live on YouTube. Now we’re introducing more ways to watch live videos and interact with your community in real time.
Catching up on the latest
Live chat plays a key role in creating connections between creators and their community. Today we are starting to roll out chat replay to YouTube, so you can follow the conversation even after a live stream is over. Live chat replays will show up alongside the video, exactly as it appeared live.
Making live streams more accessible
We launched automatic captions back in
2009
, and since then, we’ve auto-captioned a staggering
1 billion videos
. We’re now bringing English automatic captions to live streams.
When professionally provided captions aren’t available, our new live automatic captions provide creators a quick and inexpensive way to make live streams accessible to more people. With our live automatic speech recognition (LASR) technology, you’ll get captions with error rates and latency approaching industry standards. We'll roll this out in the coming weeks, and will continue to improve accuracy and latency of automatic captions.
More fun features for live streamers
Creators can now
add a location tag
to their mobile live streams and video uploads and share all their favorite hot spots with viewers. You can explore other videos with the same location tag by simply clicking on it. You can also use the location filter on the search results page to find other videos from a specific spot.
Last year
, we introduced a way for
Super Chats
to trigger real life events. Now creators can set this up for their channels using
IFTTT
(If This, Then That). Over 600 internet-connected services and devices (like lights, pet feeders and confetti cannons!) can be connected to Super Chat. Super Chat is already available on desktop and Android devices, with support for iOS devices rolling out starting today.
With live streams, you’ve found more intimate and spontaneous ways to share your thoughts, lives, and creativity. Take these features for a spin and show us your world!
Kurt Wilms, Live Video Product Lead, recently watched "
Falcon Heavy Test Flight
."
It’s time to turn up the music: Watch The BRITs LIVE with Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa, Stormzy, and Justin Timberlake on YouTube
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Do you remember the BRITs, where Ed Sheeran famously
brought Stormzy out to perform
, Adele showed us that she doesn’t like being rushed, and Ginger Spice unveiled her iconic Union Jack dress? It’s almost time for the action to begin again as the excitement of The BRIT Awards 2018 is almost upon us. What memorable pop culture moments will this year bring?
We’re letting you in on all the fun as we’re streaming the BRITs right here live for the fifth year running. Just tune in at
YouTube.com/BRITS
on whatever screen you find yourself closest to: mobile, tablet or TV, on February 21 at 11:30 a.m. PT / 2:30 p.m. ET / 7:30 p.m. GMT. (If you’re in the U.K., you can catch up on performances after the show).
YouTube star and music sensation,
Conor Maynard
is hosting the livestream alongside none other than BBC Radio 1Xtra’s Yasmin Evans. The pair will share all sorts of behind-the-scenes gossip from the show live, so you won’t want to miss it on the night.
This year, nominated stars like
Dua Lipa
,
Stormzy
and
Ed Sheeran
- who got their start on YouTube - are set to grace the main stage, so you’ll want to keep your eyes peeled for brilliant renditions of their hits. And as British hitmakers are not just popular at home, their BRIT performances will be beamed on YouTube to their massive followings abroad. ...
Comedian Jack Whitehall will bring his hilarious antics to the party as host of the BRITs, too, so there’ll be plenty of laughs to go with the great music.
Livestream host Conor Maynard said:
“I’m super excited to be hosting The BRITs coverage on YouTube. My career started on YouTube, so it feels great to be doing something on YouTube and the BRITs. Can’t wait to have an awesome night!”
Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive of The BPI & BRIT Awards said:
“We are delighted to be streaming The BRITs live to fans all around the world with our partner YouTube, for a fifth successive year. We are thrilled to have such popular and talented hosts.”
After the show, you’ll find performances from the artists on a
YouTube playlist
for you to relive and rewatch, plus further catch-up content on the BRITs channel. So, tune in at
YouTube.com/BRITS
on February 21 at 11:30 a.m. PT / 2:30 p.m. ET / 7:30 p.m. GMT for unforgettable performances and must-see shenanigans.
-- The YouTube Music Team
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