• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, March 28, 2010

Hoping to forge deeper ties with creative agencies, YouTube has tapped the Art Directors Club to showcase marketers' most successful branding efforts using the video hub.

Designed and built by Barbarian Group, a Show&Tell "channel" will feature the best creative marketing executions on YouTube, including home page and interactive units, viral videos, and brand channels. ADC is curating content, as well as facilitating commentary from a range of top creatives, and the broader creative community.

"YouTube had the idea to try and showcase what their platform could do," said ADC President Doug Jaeger. "I believe it's a great marketing platform, and the goal is to help the creative community understand how to use YouTube as a platform -- there's still a lot of learning that needs to happen."

In the selection process for content development, YouTube will be guided in its selection of the mention-worthy by page view numbers. The ADC will assemble reviewers and experts comprised of leading industry creatives.

"There are no official winners or prizes," said Jaeger. "This is about investing in the education process, and building intellectual capital ... and about breaking down the wall between Google/YouTube and the creative community."

Google has long struggled with monetizing YouTube as advertisers balked at associating their brands with random user-generated content. But that has begun to change with an influx of higher-quality material and a Web video audience that doubled in 2009.

Run-of-network pre-roll ads on YouTube now typically command double-digit rates of $10 to $15 CPMs and daily ad buys on its home page range from $200,000 to $300,000, according to new research from The Business Insider. Overlay ads, meanwhile, are getting $8 to $10 CPMs. Revenue for online video more broadly is expected to grow 30% to 50% this year, driven by YouTube's improving fortunes.

Show&Tell is expected to be an ongoing program with a new round of reviewing taking place quarterly.

YouTube will be marketing the Show&Tell effort with paid placements on "standard trade players," according to Jaeger.

More broadly, Jaeger says it has been "a really tough two years" for the advertising business, but he has high hopes for the future. "The definition of a successful agency model is changing, but there will be a lot of success."