It’s no secret the media landscape has changed. This past year alone we’ve seen a rise in short-form video and a breakout in AI-powered solutions. People are exposed to a wider variety of content and new ways to consume it, and one-size-fits-all campaigns are no longer enough.
This year’s YouTube Works Awards winners are blazing new trails by ditching the “matching luggage” approach and accounting for people’s unique needs. From tapping into YouTube trends to designing bespoke creative across formats, these advertisers expertly created unforgettable YouTube campaigns that resonated with audiences and drove results. Here are four lessons gleaned from the winners.
Make ads unskippable with bespoke YouTube campaigns
Life insurance company MassMutual wanted to drive awareness around a bold topic: money. The brand recognized that conversations about finances are important but aren’t always easy to have. It needed a creative way to grab attention and inspire people to tune into the topic. So it created a lighthearted campaign featuring diverse families having conversations about their financial futures amid unexpected events. The result was an intimate, fly-on-the-wall experience.
MassMutual sought to make its ads unskippable by breaking the fourth wall, ingeniously utilizing the first six seconds to deliver different variations of the statement, “This is going to be extremely uncomfortable; you might want to skip this.” This small-but-clever detail showed viewers that MassMutual was directly addressing them, creating a powerful connection.
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The innovative strategy was wildly successful. In a head-to-head test, its 100% watch rate was 14 percentage points higher and costs per view (CPV) were 2X more cost efficient for creative featuring the made-for-YouTube 6-second add-on.
Liv Lewis, EVP of EGAMI Group, praised MassMutual for their authenticity. “Not only did they brilliantly embrace diversity of casting, they embraced diversity as it truly shows up in life.”
Embrace timeless trends across formats
Popular blender brand BlendJet needed a campaign that could drive awareness with new customers and transform existing ones into enthusiastic brand advocates. Its strategy? Create compelling content and engage both audiences. BlendJet tapped into big YouTube trends that have stood the test of time. Assets included YouTube fan favorites such as cake or fakes, bewildering viewers with a blender disguised as a cake, and ASMR videos, soothing them with 10 hours of BlendJet assembly.
Return on advertising spend and scale allowed BlendJet to increase spend by 55% and helped drive a remarkable 66% revenue growth.
BlendJet also mixed things up to appeal to the next generation of YouTube viewers, using the latest video trend: short form. The brand expertly integrated horizontal and vertical assets with long-form and short-form content to connect with audiences across various viewing preferences.
Return on advertising spend and scale allowed BlendJet to increase spend by 55% and helped drive a remarkable 66% revenue growth.
As Jonathan Daly, head of communications strategy at Droga5 raved, “This creative naturally utilizes the super power of YouTube as a social platform. It’s designed to be highly addressable to the audience.”
Satisfy the audience’s desire to go deep with long-form video
On a mission to rev up consideration, eBay Motors sought a platform that would inspire and excite audiences. That’s why it raced toward YouTube, a go-to destination for inspiration. The brand teamed up with Google’s Creative Works to identify trends and insights, landing on one key insight: People come to YouTube to go deep with the creators and content they love. With that in mind, eBay handed YouTube creators the keys and cocreated a masterfully produced five-part series that pitted modded cars against stock cars, with parts all purchased on eBay. Popular YouTube creator and race-car driver Collete Davis hosted each eight to 12 minute episode, featuring a special guest builder representing a subculture and product category.
To maximize viewership, eBay paired episode drops with paid YouTube advertising, and the results were remarkable. The brand grew its YouTube channel subscriber count from 700 to over 37,000 subscribers — 606% above its goal — while generating more than 9 million views across episodes.
Denise Truelove, global VP of brands at Mars Petcare, sang the team’s praises. “This is a perfect example of a brand becoming entertainment.”
Beauty brand Dove also leaned into the power of long-form video to foster engagement. Over the years, Dove has fearlessly taken on the subject of real beauty to address timely issues. Recognizing how important parents’ voices are in shaping children’s self-esteem, the brand created nearly four-minute videos as part of its recent Dove Self-Esteem Project campaign. The videos featured face-mapping technology that put toxic advice into mothers’ mouths, leaving viewers captivated.
For the initial push, Dove used YouTube Mastheads and in-feed video ads with a powerful thumbnail image to get people to click and watch the video. Additionally, it used video ad sequencing to prime viewers with a 15-second clip before serving the long-form version. The results spoke for themselves: 6.2 million lifted users associated Dove with raising awareness about the toxic advice girls are exposed to.
As Lex Beltrone, group creative director of FCB New York, put it, “This type of long-form video wouldn’t feel right on any other platform but YouTube.”
Connect with viewers through precise insights and innovative strategies
Benjamin Moore, a premium paint manufacturer sold at local retailers around the world, faced a challenge. As businesses reopened and people ventured beyond their homes, home improvement took a back seat. Coupled with the economic headwinds, it was more important than ever for the company to support its local retailers. The brand took an innovative approach. It developed creative showcasing unique end cards for over 1,000 local retailers and paint colors, inspired by each region’s stunning color palettes. Embracing the power of granular geotargeting, Benjamin Moore masterfully reached a small radius around a store’s ZIP code in densely populated areas, while expanding reach in sparsely populated areas.
Its colorful strategy paid off. Benjamin Moore achieved an average video completion rate of 55% across all regions, exceeding its 45% benchmark, and an impressive 30.4 million views, which was 215% over planned. With this captivating campaign, the brand flawlessly demonstrated that YouTube can help brands achieve a perfect balance of meticulous focus, expansive reach, and authentic user connection.
Similarly, marketing automation platform Mailchimp embraced a full-funnel strategy to connect with small businesses that grapple with marketing challenges. Aiming to drive purchase intent, Mailchimp designed a whimsical campaign, featuring visuals like dancing rugs, to comically depict the confusion marketers often feel. Knowing that small business owners and decision-makers are at different stages of the funnel, it executed a highly tailored approach.
At the top of the funnel, it harnessed bumper ads and skippable ads, and tapped into audiences using custom affinity audience targeting to amplify brand reach. For the middle and bottom funnels, the brand shifted focus to driving engaged click volume and used Video action campaigns and audiences like custom intent. Lastly, it reached its most engaged viewers with a sign-up call to action. Moreover, Mailchimp embraced the changing landscape of how and where users watch its video content by harnessing the popularity of short-form video and updating vertical creative.
The highly personalized approach paid off, with a 4.2% increase in awareness and a remarkable 34% decrease in cost per paid sign-up year over year.
“The ads helped not only empathize with the marketer’s confusion but also gave them the tools and confidence to make tough marketing decisions” marveled Margaret Johnson, chief creative officer and partner of Goodby Silverstein & Partners.
This year’s YouTube Works Awards winners showcased exceptional talent in tapping into customer needs and implementing innovative strategies to cater to diverse interests. By using the full breadth of YouTube’s capabilities, these brands transformed the platform into a dynamic canvas to showcase their creativity, tell their stories, and authentically connect with their audiences.
