Youtube advertising – case studies

Following the online craze around the Old Spice ads,many are questioning the benefit of an ad campaign like this. In steps a new service from Youtube that aims to look more closely at the effect of youtube advertising. They have just announced the launch of their new channel – Bubble. Youtube bubble showcases the best examples of advertising on youtube as well as research into youtube advertising with useful stats. For those that work in the media industry, or are generally on the lookout for case studies and media research, this is an absolute goldmine. The video below shows an example of what you can expect to find on the channel. It’s obviously a bit ‘salesy’ but useful nonetheless.

Do youtube ads actually work?

One of the most interesting stats from the video is that purchase intent on Youtube increases by 14% than the average for TV, as well as a 15% increase in the likelihood to recommend a brand advertised on Youtube. While the video reaches the inevitable conclusion that youtube is the perfect way to advertise your brand (shock horror!) , I would agree with the’ intent to purchase’ findings. I wouldn’t argue that this is the case for pre-roll ads, as I think you’ll find that people really find these annoying, and switch off as they just wait for their video to start. But personally I find ads such as mastheads on youtube have a bigger impact on me, as I respect the brand for choosing an outlet like Youtube. And the effect of a homepage takeover on youtube is very powerful. From a very basic point of view, I think that users are more engaged with youtube ads than they realise, for the simple fact that you spend more time staring at a video than you typically would on a normal website, so you absorb more of the advertising without realising it.

There’s an interesting case study available here (links to PDF) for the homepage takeover by 20th century Fox, for XMen Origins : Wolverine. At the time it was Youtube’s biggest ever homepage takeover deal. The research is the result of a joint study by 20th Century Fox and Google, so again expect a little bias. What’s interesting though is the findings on users propensity to share the Wolverine content – with 1 in 5 users doing so. This is  surely one of the major advantages to advertising on Youtube.

I think we’ll see some great examples of advertising on youtube, as people continue to push the boundaries between opting for standard pre-rolls. Interactive ads will also probably play a big part here and I think it marks an interesting time for online advertising – the standard ads just don’t work anymore.