January 25, 2023
YouTube High-Profile Moments In Ad Formats Lift Brand Visibility
- by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, February 9, 2024
The Super Bowl's big moment for television also affects brands and consumers in search. Branding works, but advertisers need to prove performance to justify ad streaming budgets and spend.
In what
YouTube calls First Position Moments on Google's video platform, the offering allows advertisers to be the first ad viewers see in a watch session for their launches or cultural moments on
YouTube Select content.
As a viewer’s first ad watch, this technology supercharges audience engagement with moment-focused relevance to drive higher awareness for businesses. The Super Bowl is an example.
The 2023 Super Bowl game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles ranked as the second-most watched Super Bowl ever, behind only Super Bowl XLIX between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks in 2015.
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Advertisers can pair the media in ad package containing a Branded Title Card and optional Masthead placement.
Sometimes it takes more than one type of ad or marketing strategy to make a meaningful impact. First Position Moments allow brands to effectively reach their target audiences, and Content Takeovers assist brands align with popular content and creators.
As an example, Booking.com wanted to take advantage of travel surges during the holiday season. The brand used paid advertising to get its highly ranked Adblitz ad to a larger audience through YouTube's First Position Moments.
The process is intended to deepen the brand's association when consumers search search for vacation-related information. While is often requires paid search, the methods requires using multiple strategies and techniques to reach a larger or more targeted audience with the content.
YouTube data shows in Brand Lift studies that advertisements with first position moment targeting had an average brand awareness lift of 16.55%.
Booking.com, as a result, saw strong performance, with a 21% relative lift in ad recall, more than 6% above their benchmark, according to Kristen O’Hara, vice president of agency and brand solutions at YouTube, who wrote the blog post.
O’Hara also pointed out that Content Takeovers, a feature that launched in 2023, is used by brands to gain a
higher share of voice of channels like New Heights, hosted by NFL stars Travis and Jason Kelce, or halftime show star Usher’s online content.
"We are evolving the package to offer more inventory and faster speed to market to help advertisers surround popular content and creators in real time," she wrote.
IHG Hotels & Resorts wanted to raise awareness with luxury travelers and used First Position Moments and Content Takeovers alongside NFL and Formula One racing content.
The campaign delivered unique reach over linear TV and drove lifts in IHG brands for ad recall and brand awareness that achieved two times the YouTube benchmark, according to O'Hara.
“YouTube is a prime destination for viewers during popular moments,” IHG Hotels & Resorts Vice President of Paid Media Chris Copp told YouTube. “We’re excited that Content Takeovers unlock more opportunities to easily align our brand to the culturally relevant content that viewers love.”
