YouTube announced on Sunday three new TV-focused ad offerings as part of its ongoing effort to lure TV brand advertisers, which are slated to spend $68 billion in the US this year. This story was delivered to Business Insider Intelligence “Digital Media Briefing” subscribers hours before appearing on Business Insider. To be the first to know, please click here.
YouTube announced on Sunday three new TV-focused ad offerings as part of its ongoing effort to lure TV brand advertisers, which are slated to spend $68 billion in the US this year.
The company’s announcement is timely, coming just ahead of this week’s 2018 Digital Content NewFronts in New York City. Alongside other digital companies like Twitter and Vice, Google will be making presentations at the NewFronts to woo marketers.
Below is a closer look at YouTube’s new ad offerings, and why these are attractive to TV advertisers:
The ability to target viewers watching YouTube on TV sets. Previously, advertisers could only target YouTube viewers on smartphones, tablets, and desktops. The option to target YouTube viewers on TV sets will roll out over the coming months, and this is important as TV becomes more of a destination for YouTube users. TV is the fastest growing surface for YouTube viewership, with viewers watching over 150 million hours of YouTube on TV sets every day.
The option to target a new audience segment that consumes most of its video content online. “Light TV viewers,” as YouTube refers to them, might be harder to reach via traditional media as these users favor accessing TV and video content online. Brands will have the ability to target light TV viewers across mobile, TV, tablets, and desktops. Helping brands reach this segment is significant because over 50% of US 18- to 49-year-olds are light TV viewers, but 90% of this group still accesses YouTube, per Nielsen.
The ability to buy ad inventory on YouTube TV, the company’s skinny bundle. YouTube is making YouTube TV ad inventory available for purchase for the first time this upcoming broadcast season. For context, YouTube TV has over 300,000 subscribers and is available to over 85% of US households. The ad inventory will be available for purchase through Google Preferred, which allows brands to run ads on YouTube’s top creators’ channels. This means brands will be able to purchase ad space on content from linear TV and YouTube’s most popular user-generated content in a single campaign. Increasing the ways that brands can advertise next to premium content is imperative as YouTube continues to struggle with brand safety issues.
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