YouTube, long confined to the dissemination of content, is today looking to establish himself as an essential player in entertainment, in the same way as Netflix or Disney+. To achieve this, the platform is betting on its creators and offers advertisers new offers, combining original content and partnerships with major cultural events. According to the online media Business Insider, this strategy could well disrupt the advertising codes and strengthen the place of YouTube in the world of streaming.
One of the axes envisaged by the alphabet video platform is played in Hollywood. Studios are increasingly interested in YouTube creators and their power of influence. To seduce advertisers, YouTube therefore now offers sponsorship packages that associate its creators with major events such as Oscars, but also Black Friday or golf tournaments.
Unlike the traditional Hollywood model, YouTube does not directly pay the creators for their content. The platform prefers to provide them with tools (automatic dubbing, TV -style interface, features to comment on live events) and share with them 55% of the advertising revenues generated by their videos. In three years, YouTube claims to have paid $ 70 billion (around 62 billion euros) to the creators, artists and media who published their videos.
Despite these efforts, YouTube is struggling to convince the most prestigious advertisers, often attached to formats close to traditional television. To change the game, the platform recently tested a new format during the PGA championship, an annual golf tournament in the United States, with State Farm as the main sponsor. The insurance company has invested in advertisements on trendy videos, control of golf channels and integration into the new program Caddie & The Kid, Produced by the company of Kevin Hart, Hartbeat.
Always more premium content
YouTube notes that more and more users are watching videos on the platform from their television, even exceeding mobile viewing in the United States. To maintain this growth, the platform put on content close to those of television, especially during major live meetings.
Thanks to partnerships with brands, YouTube seeks to improve the quality of its productions without having to finance the content directly. The selected creators benefit from increased visibility, in particular via dedicated hubs, which facilitates their discovery by new audiences.
It remains to be seen whether advertisers will follow. Some still doubt that YouTube content compete with those of classic television, especially in the face of behemoths installed for decades or already very numerous streaming actors. For brands with more modest budgets, the platform and its audience are nevertheless attractive.
If youtube’s strategy is bearing fruit, it could open new sources of income and partnerships to creators with prestigious advertisers. As Brian Albert, director general of media partnerships within the company sums up: “What changes today is that we structure these opportunities around the great cultural moments of the year.”
With a clear objective: to transform the creators of content into stars capable of seducing brands … and perhaps thus reinventing video advertising.
