Youtube: Standing the test of time on Social

Today's social AND digital world is all about video. TikTok capitalised on this during the pandemic, driving the move to video-first and laying the foundation for a hyper-engaging social formula. And over the past 2 years, platforms have followed suit to optimise their feeds for 9:16 videos. So, it's understandable to see TikTok as the catalyst for this change. But, if you look beyond the two or so years TikTok has dominated the scene, Youtube stands as the bastion of video on social media.

On top of all this change, Social is increasingly chaotic. Whether it is Musk vs Zuckerberg fighting it out for the latest text-based platforms, Meta’s historical Cambridge Analytica scandal, or TikTok’s Enshittification concerns, YouTube is the platform that has remained consistent over the past decade. Within this distributed, decentralised, and fragmented social world, we suggest brands take a moment to step back and look at the bigger picture away from the latest twitter alternative and the newest TikTok trend. Here, you’ll find Youtube - THE platform that has not only stood the trials and tribulations of the digital age but is also THE place that gives brands varied touchpoints on one platform.

THE all-purpose platform

Youtube is a multifaceted platform that unlocks opportunities for both paid and organic content. To get the maximum out of the platform, treat each placement as a touchpoint to tap into communities and initiate actions from the people your brand reaches.

Think about where the content will sit - it could be anything from a TrueView Placement, a bumper, a short, an embedded shoppable feature, or even an organic video on the platform itself. After this, think about how your brand can be present in new spaces by considering the medium, the audience you want to recruit and the content or topics to align with your brand.

The possibilities are endless - Finding a worthwhile combination of features for your brand’s objectives will be crucial to the most effective application of strategy. And to top it all off, Youtube doesn’t start and end with your mobile: computer, mobile, TV, and game consoles are all available, meaning you are exposing alternative users to your content, not just your traditional social media audience. This not only maximises reach potential over other platforms but is something that is increasingly more valuable as touchpoints become more diverse, and audience attention is diverted elsewhere as fewer people use the ‘big’ social platforms.

Performance 🤝 Branding

Balancing long and short business objectives is no mean feat but Youtube brings them together seamlessly. Performance branding ensures that brands are in the mind of the consumer ahead of the sales activation - resulting in effective brand building moments whilst unlocking scale and conversion in one fell swoop.

Youtube gives you the best of both worlds - Ads that feature detailed, focused product USPs woven into emotional brand messaging captures the attention of consumers, resonates and converts. This strategy not only accesses further reach but also improves ROI, and cost per action - win-win.

Unlock unprecedented scale

YouTube is basically like TV on the internet, right? Wrong. Post-pandemic, TV has had its lowest viewership figures ever, whereas YouTube continued to grow. Viewers capitalised on the enormous catalogue of content available to watch on demand, and with the opportunity to discover content they would have never come across on standard television channels, time on the platform increased dramatically and communities grew. Afterall, Youtube is considered the second largest search engine in the world, and its discoverability is a key part in what keeps people on the platform for longer - an advertiser’s dream!

Two billion users sign in to YouTube every month, with one billion hours of video watched every day. So what can brands do in the space to stand out to this large, dedicated audience?

In short… everything - The audience is diverse, and it's a reflection of the variety of content on the platform, with different subcultures ranging from music videos, memes, tutorials, highlights, reactions, and commentary (the list goes on). Subcultures evolve on YouTube around the content itself. If you start to tap into your range of audiences in the way they want to be spoken to, there’s potential to reach them in a meaningful way just before, during or after the content they chose to watch in the first place.

Check out our award-winning work TrueView placement with Dettol below:

Foster brand loyalty with Creators

No other platform builds communities and scales subcultures like Youtube. From gaming, to sports, to fashion, to music and everything in between, it's truly been nailing the subculture game, all thanks to Creators.

Also known as the drivers of these subcultures, these highly influential people shape culture and determine the way brands interact with consumers. Brands should look to these people to spot opportunities to work with them and for them to represent their brand. These collaborations align highly influential people with the brand, and unlock a host of loyalty as consumers want to align themselves with leaders of relevant subcultures.

Take Emma Chamberlain as an example - Both Louis Vuitton and Vogue leveraged her rise to popularity in the late 2010s by creating partnership videos on Youtube. Both brands successfully aligned themselves with a younger generation and remain relevant to the next generation of beauty and fashion buyers. Similarly, both SkySports and FootAsylum have recruited a younger audience by activating on Youtube by leaning into fan favourites, leveraging influencers and, adding greater credibility in culture, all to reinforce popularity and market share.

Conclusion

Despite Youtube’s longevity, it is an ever evolving social landscape with plenty of brand building opportunities and it has stood the test of time to prove it. This has made Youtube the most brand safe option out there for video-first content. Regardless of TikTok or Twitter’s fate in the world, it is without a doubt that Youtube is a rewarding platform to add to your social roster to start tapping into subcultures at scale, building with communities through creators, and achieving both long and short business objectives.