Tag: youtube

Google To Make YouTube’s Pre-roll Ads “Shoppable”

Posted on by Lab Team

Read the original story on: AdWeek

Google announced the new ad format at Wednesday’s Ad:Tech SF meeting that adds “shoppable” elements to YouTube’s pre-roll ads, also known as TrueView ads. Now in some pre-roll ads, viewers will start seeing product offers, complete with prices, images, and a link to the advertiser’s website.  Online furniture retailer Wayfair and cosmetics retailer Sephora are among early partners to test this new feature, with both reporting positive feedback. But whether YouTube viewers will click “shop” instead of “skip” is still up for debate and largely depends on the execution.

Overall, the new addition to YouTube came as a part of Google’s recent push for monetization across its platforms. Last week, reports surfaced that Google is planning to add “buy buttons” to its paid search results on mobile devices. Similarly, as part of a new advertising partnership inked last month, the search giant has also tweaked the layout of mobile search results to incorporate real-time updates from Twitter, extending the reach of branded tweets to mobile searchers.

YouTube To Back Its Biggest Stars For Original Series And Movies

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: Deadline

As we reported last week, an increasing number of its most popular video creators are leaving YouTube for competing platforms and traditional media. And now YouTube seems to have found a solution to keep talent on board: the Google-owned company announced earlier today its plan to back original series by four of its best-known creators, Moreover, it is also teaming up with DreamWorks subsidiary AwesomenessTV to create several films featuring YouTube stars over the next two years.

Why Some YouTube Stars Are Leaving The Platform

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original article on: The Verge

Michelle Phan, one of YouTube’s biggest celebrities, might be ready to leave YouTube behind. Phan, who built an online fanbase with her make-up and fashion tutorial videos, is launching her own online network ICON with some other beauty, lifestyle, and health personalities from YouTube. While Phan’s work will still appear on YouTube, new videos will also start appearing on DailyMotion, Roku, and ICON mobile apps.

Similarly, we are seeing more and more content creators on YouTube outgrowing the platform. With newly launched platforms like Vessel and Patreon luring YouTube personalities away with higher incentives, it will be up to YouTube to improve their monetization offers in order to keep content creators on board.

 

Head image taken from ICON website

YouTube Is Ready To Compete With Twitch Directly

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: The Verge

Last year, YouTube was set to acquire Twitch for $1 billion, but that deal fell through, and the live-streaming site was eventually bought by Amazon.  Now it looks like YouTube is ready to compete directly with Twitch in the increasingly popular arena of e-sports streaming with their own gaming-focused, live-streaming service, which will reportedly be unveiled in June at the E3 Gaming Expo in Los Angeles. As e-sports and live-streaming continue to gain traction, it’s no wonder that Google doesn’t want to be left behind.

YouTube’s March Towards Sophistication

Posted on by Lab Team

With over 1 billion users, YouTube has held onto the top spot for video sharing on the Internet since its founding a decade ago. Since then, YouTube has steadily grown and matured, slowly but surely transitioning from a pure video-sharing website into a sophisticated video platform with diversified content and a corresponding monetization system.

Music has long been one of the most popular content categories on YouTube, and in fact, a mid-2012 Nielsen study reported that two-thirds of U.S. teens used YouTube as their primary choice for streaming music. Not surprisingly, YouTube has been building out its music business, beginning last February when it started promoting curated playlists in search results and culminating in YouTube Music Key, its own Spotify-like subscription-based music service in late November.

However, this newfound focus on music hasn’t stopped YouTube from diversifying its content. In fact, earlier this week, the company released a brand new family-friendly mobile app showcasing its kid-friendly content and easy parental controls. The movie rental feature it introduced back in 2011 has also been gaining traction lately, thanks to the online release of controversial movie The Interview. Moreover, it has been credited with revolutionizing modern journalism by reducing entry barriers and the video game industry by enabling streaming commentary.

YouTube is also developing a correspondingly sophisticated monetization system. Besides offering advertisers guarantees on views and chances to purchase Nielsen ratings, its unique Content ID system helps content creators and media owners monetize all videos containing copyrighted material, which accounts for over a third of the monetized views on YouTube. Recently, the company has been criticized for aggressively pushing its monetization system on users and allegedly strong-arming indie musicians into strict contracts, adding to the many growing pains for YouTube on its road to online video domination.

Blurred Lines: Creating Content That Works

Posted on by Lab Team

Click to download YouTube Insights here.

Finding the best way to communicate with your target consumer is one part art and one part science. As an emphasis on cross-screen viewing and digital has become a core part of brand communications, the lines between ads and content have blurred. Google and IPG Media Lab partnered to understand consumer perceptions and effectiveness of branded content and video advertising.

To learn more, download and view the YouTube Insights here.

 

Snapchat Experiments With Original Web Series

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: AdAge

We reported last week that Snapchat is venturing into original content with its new Discovery feature, and now the company is taking that foray one step further. On Tuesday, Snapchat announced a “scripted series” of mini-movies made by social media stars and sponsored by AT&T. Dubbed “SnapperHero”, the soon-to-debut 12-episode original web series marks an important step in Snapchat’s continuing evolution from messaging app to media platform.

Facebook Users Prefer Native Videos Over YouTube Links

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: BusinessInsider

For the first time ever, Facebook Page owners uploaded more videos directly to Facebook than they did via sharing from YouTube, according to new data from Socialbakers. Part of that is due to that fact that videos on Facebook automatically play as a user scrolls through the news feed, and Facebook’s algorithm allegedly ranks posts with natively hosted videos higher in news feed.

Meanwhile, YouTube still has much higher volume, and has recently started rewarding bonuses to its video creators for temporary platform exclusivity. So the fight over the leading position of online video distribution is likely to continue.

 

The Long-Waited YouTube Music Key Is Here

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: The Verge 

YouTube has reportedly struck a deal with rights agency Merlin, gaining music licenses from the thousands of independent record labels. Coming just two weeks after CEO Susan Wojcicki publicly confirmed that a subscription-based, ad-free music service was on the way, this new development definitely sets the stage for its presumably imminent launch. Whether the big mainstream record label would be on board remains to be seen, but given YouTube’s long-time partnership with Vevo, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Update: YouTube has just officially unveiled a subscription-based music service. Named YouTube Music Key, an ad-free music and music videos starting at $7.99 a month. It also comes with access to all the music in Google Play.

Why YouTube Plans To Launch A Spotify-like Service

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: Re/code

Earlier this week at the Code/Mobile event, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki confirmed an ad-free music service is on the way as the company investigates paid video subscriptions. In addition, she also revealed that about 50 percent of views are coming from mobile devices — the limited local storages make streaming a favorable choice for consuming content. As viewers spread across digital platforms and moving towards streaming instead of purchasing content, launching a subscription-based service seems like a good move for the YouTube.