Author Archives: Nicole Burgan

Micro-moments: The new battleground for brands

Mobile has forever changed the way we live. When we want to know something, go somewhere, do something, or buy something, we turn to our smartphones.













For consumers, these on-the-go searches are commonplace. For marketers, they’re a new battleground for people’s hearts, minds, and dollars. These real-time, intent-driven moments of need—micro-moments—present critical opportunities for brands to shape decisions and preferences.

Our latest research reveals just how important these moments can be: 82% of smartphone users turn to their phone to influence a purchase decision while in a store. And 91% use their phones for ideas while doing a given task, searching for how-to videos and other ways to learn.

On Think with Google, explore our entire collection of micro-moments research to learn more about this fundamental shift. And there’s more than just data. We talked to real people with real stories about how they used the web in a spontaneous moment of need. Use these statistics and stories to inform your marketing strategy and to ensure you’re connecting with consumers in the moments that matter.

Happy Birthday Brand Lift – We Got You Some New Features

Today’s consumer journey has become fragmented into micro-moments that span many channels, devices and media types.  As a brand trying to reach today’s consumer, it’s more important than ever that you know which moments matter most.  And, because consumers are making decisions faster than ever, you need to be able to make decisions equally as fast.

The good news is that while technology makes the consumer journey more fragmented, it also makes it easier to measure brand impact. At Google, it’s our mission to help you measure all of the moments that matter -- from first impression to final conversion.

That’s why last year we launched our Brand Lift solution, giving you insights into what impact your YouTube ads have on the consumer journey - from awareness, to ad recall, to brand interest - in a matter of days, not weeks or months.

So how is our one-year-old doing?  In the first year, we’ve run more than 10,000 studies on YouTube campaigns.  In April, we published an analysis showing the results Brand Lift has measured on YouTube, and found that 94% of campaigns saw a lift in ad recall, with an average lift of 80%.  Not bad for a toddler!

Today, we are excited to announce that we’re expanding Brand Lift to include measuring lift in consideration, favorability and purchase intent for your ads. Our survey methodology will quickly tell you how your YouTube ad resonates at different points in the consumer journey:

  • Did my ad break through with consumers?

  • Are they more aware of my brand after seeing my ad?

  • Is their consideration of my brand higher after my campaign?

  • Are consumers more favorable towards my brand after seeing my ad?

  • Has their intent to purchase from my brand risen?

And because more than half of YouTube traffic occurs on mobile devices, we’ve expanded Brand Lift to measure the impact of ads served on YouTube’s mobile app as well.  

With these additions, you can measure more of the moments in that make up today’s consumer journey, giving you a more complete view of how your YouTube campaigns drive impact.

Happy birthday Brand Lift!  Hope you like the new features we got you.

Posted by Samir Pradhan, Product Manager, Brand Lift

We asked, you voted: Your favorite YouTube ad of the past decade

The wait is over. The moment has arrived. We’re about to unveil your favorite ads from the last decade on YouTube. But first, we want to thank you. From ad makers to fans, you came out in droves to vote (and tweet) for your favorite ads and help us, in partnership with the Webby Awards, recognize 10 years of great branded videos on YouTube. So in celebration of YouTube’s 10th birthday, we’re pleased to share the results:

Congratulations to Turkish Airlines and the teams at Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Starcom for making your favorite YouTube ad of the past decade: Kobe vs. Messi: The Selfie Shootout.



Kobe vs. Messi: The Selfie Shootout, the follow-up to their 2012 Legends on Board spot, was an instant hit on YouTube. In fact, the video, which pits two of the world's biggest sports superstars against each other in a game of selfie-shooting one-upmanship, skyrocketed to 25M views in the first three days! Cleverly combining the world's newfound 'selfie' obsession with the star-power of Kobe Bryant and Messi, the ad found it's way to the top of both the December 2013 and Cannes Special Edition YouTube Ads Leaderboards.

Rounding out the top five vote-getters:

In second place: Volkswagen's 2011 Big Game spot, The Force (Deutsch Los Angeles, MediaCom), delighted viewers with a little boy dressed as Darth Vader, attracting over 8 million views before anyone saw it on TV.



In third place: Always #LikeAGirl (Leo Burnett, Starcom MediaVest Group) challenged and shattered negative perceptions of what it means to do something "like a girl."



In fourth place: Volvo Trucks' The Epic Split feat. Van Damme (Forsman & Bodenfors) took live truck testing to an epic new level.



In fifth place: Dove Real Beauty Sketches | You're more beautiful than you think (Ogilvy Brazil, PHD, Mindshare), a social experiment showing women that when it comes to their beauty, sometimes they can be their own worst critics.



Combined, these five videos have been watched for over 7.7 million hours1. That's over 875 years people chose to spend watching ads! Congrats to all of the winners and nominees and thanks again to all who voted.

We often get asked: what's the secret to success like this on YouTube? So we took a look at the 20 nominees—20 examples of iconic, breakthrough digital marketing—to see what stood out. From authenticity to interactivity to memes, we identified 10 trends to cap off YouTube's 10th birthday month: A Decade of YouTube Ads: The Top Ads and the Trends That Define Them.

And if you're really feeling brave, find out how well you know YouTube with our 10th birthday trivia game at youtube.com/10.

#10YearsofYouTubeAds

1 Google Internal Data

Join us: A conversation exploring the future of digital in a moments-driven world

Cross-posted from the DoubleClick Advertiser blog

On June 17 at 9 AM ET, we invite you to join a live stream keynote from the DoubleClick Leadership Summit, Google’s annual event exploring the future of digital marketing. You’ll hear from industry leaders on some of the biggest questions marketers, agencies and media owners face today. We'll also unveil new DoubleClick innovations to help advertisers, mobile app developers and publishers win the consumer moments that matter.

Register for the live stream here and join us to learn how marketers and publishers are responding to a dramatic shift in consumer behavior towards mobile. Together we’ll discuss topics including:
  • What the rapid growth of mobile video means for marketing and content creation
  • What’s next for programmatic in its evolution as a brand-building tool for reaching consumers in the moment
  • How the industry can truly understand and measure the full consumer journey when it now happens in moments that are spread across multiple screens and devices
Speakers include:
  • Neal Mohan, VP of Display and Video Advertising at Google 
  • Laura Desmond, CEO at Starcom MediaVest Group
  • Meredith Kopit Levien, EVP and CRO at The New York Times Company
Join the conversation with #DCLK2015 during the live stream - we hope you can attend!

Cast your vote to celebrate 10 years of amazing ads on YouTube

For the past decade, YouTube has connected people with the content they love. Be it the home video that hits just the right tone of adorable and funny, the creator with 9 million fans waiting with bated breath for her next vlog to post, or the epic ad that has people around the world doing splits. On YouTube, people choose to watch content that entertains, inspires and delights them.

Over the past 10 years, brands of all shapes and sizes have come to embrace YouTube as a platform for their own creative expression, by making ads that people choose to watch. During this time, consumers have been watching, sharing and commenting on their favorite ads - ultimately informing which ones end up on our monthly YouTube Ads Leaderboard. Today, we’re taking this a step further.


In partnership with the Webby Awards we've reviewed all of the top Leaderboard ads from the past 10 years and selected 20 finalists videos. Now we need you - the advertising and creative community - to help us celebrate these iconic brands and choose which YouTube ad of the past 10 years is your favorite.

From today through May 28th, visit 10YearsofYouTubeAds.com to vote. Check back here on June 3rd for the final results.

#10YearsofYouTubeAds

How Many Video Ads are Actually Seen? New Infographic and Research for Video Viewability Across the Web and on YouTube

Cross-posted from the DoubleClick Advertiser blog

If an ad isn’t seen, it doesn’t have an impact, change perception, or build brand trust. That is why measuring the viewability of advertising matters. It gives marketers a clear understanding of campaign and messaging effectiveness and allows advertising spend to be allocated to the media where it will have the most impact.

We have long been advocates of viewability as a currency between buyers and sellers, which is why we’ve had viewable-only buying on our network for more than a year and have been investing in our Active View technology.

As a continuation of that effort, today we are releasing new Active View data from across our Google, DoubleClick and YouTube video ad platforms. This new research on the 5 factors of video viewability is being published today on Think with Google to start the discussion about the state of video ad viewability.


In this research we found that only 54% of all video ads served across the web, excluding YouTube, had a chance to be seen! On YouTube 91% of ads were found to be viewable.



As advertisers shift to paying for viewable video ads, rather than served impressions, understanding the drivers of viewability for video ads is more important than ever.

To learn what viewability is and how it is measured, visit our new interactive Active View demo here.

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Sanaz Ahari, Group Product Manager, Brand Measurement
Michael Giordano, Product Marketing, Brand Measurement
Anish Kattukaran, Product Marketing, Video & Brand Measurement


Mother’s Day 2015: Consumer behavior is shifting

What does mom want this Mother's Day?

Between search data and consumer surveys, Think with Google uncovered what today’s moms are really looking for in a new infographic of Mother’s Day gift trends. And the results are clear: Both millennial moms and older moms are looking for an experience.



Dads and kids are responding accordingly. Our data reveals that Mother’s Day is the #1 day of the year for “spa” searches, and the #2 day for searches related to “reservations” (only behind Valentine’s Day). Searches for “flowers,” meanwhile, have dropped 20% over the last four years around Mother’s Day. 

However, one type of bouquet is actually gaining in popularity—the one you can eat. Search interest in “fruit baskets” grew nearly 20% from May 2013 to 2014.

For more consumer trends, explore our new Mother’s Day infographic on Think with Google. And from all of us at Google, have a Happy Mother’s Day!

Celebrating Moms on YouTube



From watching Spongebob clips with the little ones to learning how to survive their challenging teen years, the many stages of motherhood can feel like they whizz by in the blink of an eye. So in celebration of Mother’s Day this year, we decided to explore and pay tribute to some of those special moments in a mother’s journey from new mom to grandmom - and how YouTube hopes to support her along the way.

In addition, to learn more about how modern moms use our platform to learn, share and discover, we partnered with TNS to survey 1,500 women, aged 18-54, all of whom have children under the age of 18 and watch videos online.

The results show that whether it’s to research the next family vacation, get in a quick workout before the kids wake up, or learn how to set up the new printer for her small business, today’s mom is using online video to learn and grow.

But it’s not just advice and how-tos that moms seek. They also turn to YouTube to wind down. In our survey, 74% of moms said they use YouTube for “me time,” watching for entertainment and relaxation purposes. But that “me time” can quickly turn to “we time.” Of the moms surveyed, 87% said they watch videos not just alone - but with their children alongside, too.


For countless reasons and throughout her journey, moms turn to YouTube in their moments of need: when they need a video to watch with the kids, when they need an answer to a question, or when they just need a laugh. And we’re so glad we can be there for them.

Happy Mother’s Day from all of us at YouTube.

                  

Posted by Netta Gross, Consumer Insights, YouTube B2B Marketing

Celebrating 10 Years of YouTube



On April 23, 2005, history was made. An 18-second clip about how cool elephants are was shot at the San Diego Zoo and uploaded to a then-private video sharing site called YouTube.  

That May, YouTube launched in beta before becoming available to the wider public six months later. Ten years have now passed, and that site has grown to become not just the biggest video platform on the web—a community of more than one billion people, where hundreds of millions of hours of video are watched and billions of views are generated every day —but one of the largest and most diverse collections of self-expression in history.

YouTube is a portrait of our global culture, built and supported by an ecosystem of innovative creators, visionary brands and eager users ready to embrace the next wave of great entertainment. It was built by comedians, families, activists, performers, teachers, and pranksters. Built with cats and babies and blenders and (First) Kisses and surprises. It was built on the silly. It was built on the profound. It was built by you--the consumer, the creator, the advertiser.

Today, YouTube creators are some of the biggest names in entertainment. And brands have built some of the most iconic and breakthrough advertising of all time. It's a world where little ideas can bring about amazing things and where amazing things can bring little delights to each of us.

And it's a world that continues to grow:
  • Watch time on YouTube increased 50% in 2014; 90% on mobile devices1 
  • The number of people that visit YouTube per day is 40% larger than it was this time last year2
  • YouTube currently reaching more 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the United States3

So in honor of our 10th birthday, we’re celebrating you, our community of creators, brands and users. Throughout the month of May, we’ll look back at some of the most memorable moments that you’ve created and shared on YouTube in the last 10 years.
You can follow our celebration throughout the month of May on our YouTube Trends blog. And tell us some of your favorite YouTube moments, using #10YearsofYouTube.


1 Google Data, 2013-2014
2 Google Data, March 2015 vs. March 2015
3 Google-commissioned Nielsen study, December 2013 - February 2015. Audience Reach (000) among people 18-49 for YouTube (mobile only) and 124 U.S. cable networks individually (television only)

Insights into the Google Preferred audience on YouTube

Today, viewers have more choice than ever when it comes to watching their favorite video content and TV shows. Whether on their laptops, phones, or connected devices, people are spending less time watching “traditional TV” and more time consuming content on their own terms on the screen of their choice.

To help marketers better understand this online video audience, we worked with Compete to analyze how Google Preferred desktop viewers in the U.S. consume content on YouTube, through online desktop panel and survey data from Compete1. We found that desktop viewers who watch Google Preferred (some of YouTube's most popular channels) tend to be younger, more likely to be online shoppers in market for products, and importantly, and the majority are viewers not reached through other video platforms2.

Reaching viewers who don’t visit other platforms
Marketers can no longer rely on traditional TV alone to reach their audience, as the abundance of content choices to consumers today mean that people are consuming content in more places. In fact, we found that nearly one in 10 Google Preferred desktop viewers do not watch traditional TV at all and 90% of them do not visit any of the top five full episode players3.

Younger audiences are also heavily represented on YouTube and on Google Preferred specifically, where viewers skew younger than the online population. We found that 18-34 year-olds who watch video on smartphones go to YouTube first for online video, 2.3X as likely or more than other platforms4.

Influencing online shoppers through Google Preferred
We also found in our Compete research that Google Preferred desktop viewers are more likely to be actively shopping for products online. They are 2.7x more likely to be in-market online shoppers than the online population. In terms of the types of products they’re searching for, shopping areas span a large variety of products. Of particular note, Google Preferred desktop viewers we studied are 182% more likely to be in market for luxury cars, 166% more likely for apparel, 170% more likely for beauty, 195% more likely for computers and tablets, and 148% more likely for home furnishings, than the online population.

People who watch Google Preferred channels are also more likely to take action. Our Compete research found that Google Preferred desktop viewers are 29% more likely to visit a brand site immediately after visiting YouTube, versus the general YouTube viewers. And they’re 46% more likely to search for a brand on YouTube they’re in market for versus the average YouTube viewer. Google Preferred desktop viewers we studied are 24% more likely to research a product after seeing an online ad on YouTube, than those who watch full episode players3.

To learn more about how Google Preferred can drive effectiveness for campaigns, check out ThinkWithGoogle.   
1. Google/Millward Brown Digital Google Preferred Audience Study (US), February 2015
2. Other platforms include all key online video platforms including full episode players, digital stores, social networks, and streaming sites.
3. Full episode players are Hulu, ABC.com, CBS.com, Fox.com, and NBC.com
4. Google/IPSOS Brand Building on Mobile Survey (US), February 2015. Other platforms include all key online video platforms including full episode players, digital stores, social networks, and streaming sites.