YouTube Highlights 3/3/2011

This is the latest in our series of YouTube highlights. Every couple of weeks, we bring you regular updates on new product features, interesting programs to watch, and tips you can use to grow your audience on YouTube. Just look for the label “YouTube Highlights” and subscribe to the series. – Ed.

In past weeks, we’ve featured two more YouTube interviews with leaders through the World View program and seen more footage come in from across the Middle East as unrest there continues.

David Cameron and John Boehner on YouTube
In YouTube World View’s second interview, YouTube and Al Jazeera English sat down with British Prime Minister David Cameron. Ten thousand people submitted questions, and in the interview, the Prime Minister shared his thoughts on what should be done in Libya, and talked about increased taxes for banks in the U.K. and Britain’s role in Afghanistan.

And as the budget debate rages on the U.S. Capitol Hill, we asked viewers from across the U.S. and around the world to submit questions to Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH). The final interview will be posted to YouTube on Friday, March 4.

We’ll have another interview in the coming weeks—check YouTube World View for more details soon.



Join us on YouTube for Carnaval in Brazil
An estimated 100 million people travel to Brazil each year to experience Carnaval, the iconic celebration on the streets of Salvador, Bahia. This year, you can join the festivities on the Carnaval YouTube channel via computer or mobile phone. Watch live feeds of Salvador’s multi-day street fest from Thursday, March 3 through Tuesday, March 8. If you’re lucky enough to be there in person, find out how to buy a pass to Google’s street-side camarote (cabin) at the celebration at www.youtube.com/carnaval.

February’s “On The Rise” winner
After tens of thousands of votes, D-trix from theDOMINICshow has been named February’s “On The Rise” contest winner. He beat out tornado chasers, graphic artists and pop stars for the honor. When D-trix isn’t spoofing Justin Bieber, he’s dancing or teaching people how to rap. Congratulations!

Making YouTube seven times faster
To help you better enjoy all the great content that’s uploaded to YouTube every minute, we recently increased speed for uploads and playback. Google’s cloud computing capabilities help us process videos in chunks on different machines—making our video-processing seven times faster than in 2008.

Ad Blitz winner
Super Bowl ads are always a big draw of the game. This year, we added Super Bowl spots to the Ad Blitz gallery so you could vote for your favorites. More than 2.7 million votes were cast, and 3.5 million views took place on mobile devices. This year’s winner, Chrysler, was featured on the YouTube masthead for the Saturday following the game.



This week’s trends on YouTube
Here are a few recent highlights from YouTube Trends:

• Britney Spears built up anticipation for her latest music video.

• Dramatic footage poured in from across the Middle East: Libya, Iran, Algeria and Yemen.

• A funny moment from "Family Feud" got "passed around."


We’ll have another update for you in a couple of weeks. Until then, visit us at the YouTube Blog.

Posted by Serena Satyasai, Marketing Manager, The YouTube Team

4 Year Old Girl Drives Motorcycle — Video

YouTube Highlights 2/17/2011

This is the latest in our series of YouTube highlights. Every couple of weeks, we bring you regular updates on new product features, interesting programs to watch and tips you can use to grow your audience on YouTube. Just look for the label “YouTube Highlights” and subscribe to the series. – Ed.

A lot has happened since our last update, including protests in Egypt, a major U.S. sporting event, the launch of the Google Art project and the Grammy Music Awards—all portrayed in different ways by YouTube and our global community.

Footage of protests in the Middle East on YouTube
Thousands of videos of the protests in Egypt earlier this month were uploaded to YouTube, giving people access to raw footage shot by Egyptians on the ground. People around the world could access these videos by visiting CitizenTube, YouTube’s news and politics channel, or watching live coverage on Al Jazeera’s Arabic and English YouTube channels, as well as Fox News' and Arabic broadcaster Al-Arabiya’s YouTube channels. We’ve also been working with news curation group Storyful to curate videos from the protest movements in Bahrain, Iran, Yemen, Algeria and Libya—you can check out highlights on CitizenTube.

This week’s trends on YouTube
Each weekday, YouTube Trends takes a look at the most interesting videos and cultural phenomena on YouTube. Here’s a sampling from the past two weeks:

• The most popular videos in Wisconsin the day after Green Bay won its trophy
• Gospel music: it’s popular in both expected and unexpected places
• Powerful footage from the protests in Egypt
• University of Connecticut quarterback Johnny McEntee's football skills

2011 Nonprofit Video Awards
For the second year in a row, we’re working to help nonprofits succeed through the DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards, a celebration of the best nonprofit video on the site. Submit your nonprofit’s video at www.youtube.com/nonprofitvideoawards. Prizes include $2,500 grants from the Case Foundation, Flip cams, free admission to the Nonprofit Technology Conference and a spotlight on the YouTube homepage.

Showtime’s “SHORT stories” recruits short filmmakers
Showtime wants to feature cutting-edge web filmmakers through its “SHORT stories” series. If you’re a filmmaker interested in the project, find out more from Showtime's Trevor Noren.

The big game: find out which ads garnered the most views
The halftime ads during the U.S.’s biggest sporting event, the Super Bowl, are notoriously popular—and this past game was no exception. YouTube Trends analyzed which ads were the most-searched commercials in the hours following the big game and compiled the top 10 most-viewed ads the day after.
 We also discovered some fun facts about the big game: Did you know that an estimated 69.6 million pounds of avocados were consumed on that Sunday? Or that this time was the first Super Bowl with no cheerleaders? Check out YouTube AdBlitz to watch any ads you may have missed.

Events worth watching
In case you missed them live, you can still catch up on some of the big happenings of the past few weeks on YouTube:

• The Grammys: Catch behind-the-scenes footage from the Sunday, February 13 awards ceremony on YouTube or visit youtube.com/thegrammys
• Fashion Week: During Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week (February 10-17), we've been bringing viewers the hottest designers’ shows, from Carolina Herrera to Herve Leger to Alice & Olivia; visit www.youtube.com/liverunway for more
• Birthday tribute for the “The Great Communicator”: Sunday, February 6 would have been the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States. Find many of his iconic speeches, such as this message to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as tributes and historical videos on YouTube

We’ll update you again in a few weeks. In the meantime, visit the YouTube Blog for more on ongoing programs such as On the Rise and YouTube Trends.

Posted by Serena Satyasai, Marketing Manager, The YouTube Team

Lay Down Under The World — Video

YouTube Highlights 2/3/2011

This is the latest in our series of YouTube highlights. Every couple of weeks, we bring you regular updates on new product features, interesting programs to watch and tips you can use to grow your audience on YouTube. Just look for the label “YouTube Highlights” and subscribe to the series. – Ed.

Since our last update, we’ve connected you with the U.S. President via an exclusive YouTube interview, brought the Sundance Film Festival to your virtual door and launched a new homepage that’s personalized to your interests.

YouTube World View kicks off
For the second year in a row, President Obama sat down with YouTube for his first interview after the State of the Union speech. The President took the opportunity to respond to the protests in Egypt, address concerns on jobs, debt and health care, and to answer a series of more personal questions that you submitted in video and text via YouTube.

This interview marks the beginning of the YouTube World View program, a series of interviews that will let you ask important questions of public leaders and big thinkers from around the world.



U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner will be doing a YouTube Interview soon, so stay tuned for more news on how to participate.

“Life in a Day” premiered at Sundance
We premiered the world’s largest user-generated documentary “Life in a Day” last week at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. After months of hard work, Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald and a team of editors created a 90-minute documentary film based on thousands of videos uploaded from around the world on a single day—July 24, 2010. The film will be distributed in the U.S. on the one-year anniversary of that date and available on YouTube at the same time. Between now and then, “Life in a Day” will play at film festivals worldwide and international distribution deals will be put in place in other regions.

YouTube and the Sundance Film Institute also teamed up to bring you a collection of past and present short films in the YouTube Screening Room.

The Onion’s A.V. Club “Inventory” lists comes to YouTube
The Onion’s sister publication the A.V. Club debuted a new video series on YouTube called “Inventory,” based on the popular lists that catalog the unconventional—everything from the “19 artists who dramatically reinvented themselves after their early work” to “25 songs about outdated (and soon-to-be outdated) technology.”

YouTube partner Josh Sundquist is January’s “On the Rise” star
Our congratulations to Josh Sundquist, who edged past Luke Conard in the final hours to win this month’s edition of On the Rise, a program in which you decide who gets featured on the YouTube homepage based on a shortlist of channels that have experienced fast growth in the last month.

The “Bobee?” Track this and other trends
Each weekday, YouTube Trends takes a look at the most interesting videos and cultural phenomena on YouTube as they develop. We comb through YouTube's search data to investigate top spiking search terms and the videos they lead to. For example, we've recently come across a new dance craze popping up in Taiwan called "Bobee.” Find out what other interesting trends we’ve uncovered.



New YouTube homepage for everyone
With the new YouTube homepage, rolled out to everyone this month, our goal was to put more of an emphasis on "videos for you.” So we removed or moved some elements of the page to make room for videos that matter more to you—your subscriptions, friends’ sharing and recommendations. We hope you enjoy more videos as a result and are always open to hearing your suggestions for improvement.

Five questions for Jack Conte and Natalie Dawn, Pomplamoose
What you hear is what you get with Pomplamoose, a YouTube musical partner that’s garnered millions of video views on YouTube. Every sound you hear in their music videos is produced by an instrument you see played in their music videos—a refreshingly old-fashioned idea they call the “videosong.” Pomplamoose’s approach to original music has opened up opportunities for them in other arenas like TV (see their Hyundai commercials). Learn how they got their start.



We’ll update you again in a few weeks. In the meantime, you can get frequent updates from the team on the YouTube Blog.

Posted by Serena Satyasai, Marketing Manager, The YouTube Team

Your questions, your State of the Union

(Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog)

It’s the biggest speech of the year, and next Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET, people across the country and around the world will sit down to watch. But as President Obama delivers the 2011 State of the Union Address, which will be streamed live on YouTube along with the Republican response, you can do more than just watch the speech: you can also submit your questions for the President for an exclusive YouTube Interview that will take place just two days later, on January 27.

In fact, you can get started today. Health care. Education. Foreign policy. What would you like to ask the President about the most important issues our country faces? Go to youtube.com/askobama to submit your question now, or watch the speech on Tuesday night with your webcam or video camera nearby so that you can record and submit your question as soon as it strikes you. This year, you'll also be able to ask your question via Twitter: just include the hashtag #askobama in your tweet. And be sure to have your say in what should be asked by voting on questions submitted by others, too.



A few suggestions before submitting your questions:

1. Video questions are highly preferred (though we also accept text). Videos should be about 20 seconds long and be sure to ask the question directly.
2. Speak clearly and try to film in a place with minimal background noise. Keep the camera as still as possible.
3. Feel free to be creative (use props, charts, etc.) to help your question stand out. If you have time, find an interesting backdrop that may help reinforce your message.
4. Submit your question early. The final deadline is Wednesday January 25 at midnight ET.
   

President Obama’s responses to a selection of your top-voted questions will be streamed live from the White House on youtube.com/askobama at 2:30 p.m. ET on Thursday January 27.

This interview is the first in a series of world leader interviews coming to YouTube in 2011 as part of YouTube World View. These interviews will give people around the world the chance to engage in conversation with their elected officials and other influential people from the world of business, philanthropy, technology, media and the arts. Check back on the channel in the next few months for more opportunities to participate.

You have until Wednesday, January 25 at midnight ET to submit your question for President Obama. The YouTube community made history last year when the President answered your questions in the first ever citizen-powered interview of a United States president. If you didn’t get an opportunity to ask the President a question last year, make sure you don’t miss out this time—get your submission in early.

Remember, after the President’s address you’ll have the opportunity to watch Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) deliver the GOP response to the State of the Union as well. And within the month, we’ll be holding a similar YouTube Interview with a prominent Republican leader—more details soon.

Posted by Olivia Ma, YouTube News and Politics

YouTube Highlights 1/20/11

This is the latest in our series of YouTube highlights. Every couple of weeks, we bring you regular updates on new product features, interesting programs to watch and tips you can use to grow your audience on YouTube. Just look for the label “YouTube Highlights” and subscribe to the series. – Ed.

Since our last update, we’ve featured new music programs, brought you closer to what’s going on in government and highlighted some of the best ads of 2010.

Music videos now on YouTube app for Android
We’ve welcomed VEVO’s extensive library of official music videos from artists like Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Kanye West and U2 onto the YouTube 2.0 app for Android, available for mobile phones running Android 2.2 (Froyo). Enjoy!

Broken Social Scene goes live on YouTube
Earlier this week, Canada’s indie rock collective Broken Social Scene kicked off their Winter 2011 tour with a live performance at NYC’s Terminal 5. You can still catch the show on http://www.youtube.com/bowerypresents.



Your window into the 112th U.S. Congress
John Boehner, the new Speaker of the United States House, and House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa are making the activities of the House of Representatives more accessible to U.S. citizens via YouTube. Starting in this 112th Congress, all committee hearings of the House Oversight committee will be available on YouTube, on a new channel called HouseResourceOrg. This was made possible via a Google Project 10^100 grant made to Carl Malamud at PublicResource.org, who will be working with the House to access and upload all of the hearings that the Oversight Committee holds.

Meet the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011
The new members of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 have been selected: 101 people from more than 30 countries around the world are heading to Sydney Opera House to rehearse together for the first time under the conductorship of Michael Tilson Thomas. Come meet the winners and stay tuned for the final performance on Sunday, March 20, which will be streamed live to the world on YouTube.

A sneak peek at “Life in a Day”
In anticipation of the world premiere of “Life in a Day,” at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival next week, we’re releasing a series of clips between now and then. Life in a Day is a documentary film directed by Oscar-winner Kevin Macdonald, produced by Ridley Scott, and filmed on July 24, 2010 by thousands of YouTube users around the world. Watch the first teaser below.



Looking back at the best YouTube ads of 2010
2010 was a breakout year for online video advertising. Earning people’s attention has become ever more challenging—but that’s only making advertising more fun. Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” was ranked number one among YouTube ads in an informal poll of the YouTube advertising team and reporters in the industry. Find out what other ads topped last year’s list.



Until next time, visit the YouTube Blog for news and updates.

Posted by Serena Satyasai, Marketing Manager, The YouTube Team

Air Traffic Over the World

Meet the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011

(Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog)

Your votes are in. The professionals have had their say. And now, 101 people from more than 30 countries around the world are heading to Sydney Opera House to perform together in March as the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011.



These final 101 outstanding musicians—who range in age from 14 to 49, and hail from five different continents—have emerged from the 336 finalists selected last month by partner orchestras worldwide (including London Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker and Sydney Symphony). Your votes on those finalists then helped artistic advisor Tilson Thomas and composer Mason Bates settle on the final line-up.

Among the final group is a vuvuzela-fixated trombonist from Germany, an Arizona-based clarinetist who has never left the U.S. and a Guzheng player from China, whose instrument is one a lot of the world has never seen or heard before. They’ll come together from March 14 to prepare for a final performance on Sunday, March 20, which will be streamed live to the world on YouTube.



We want to open up every stage of the orchestra process. We called for auditions from around the world on YouTube and were blown away by the amazing videos we received in response; the YouTube community voted on their favorites and visited the channel in their millions; and now we’re inviting you to join the winning musicians as they begin their creative journey to Sydney. We’ll post their videos and behind-the-scenes footage of the orchestra—from rehearsal and master classes to performance—to the YouTube Symphony channel, and to our mobile apps (which you can download on the Android Market by searching for [youtube symphony orchestra] or Apple App Store). In March we’ll start broadcasting from Sydney, so tune in!

Next stop: Sydney.

Posted by Jamie Dolling, Marketing Manager

Idiot of 2010 — Video

YouTube Highlights 1/6/2011

This is the latest in our series of YouTube highlights. Every couple of weeks, we bring you regular updates on new product features, interesting programs to watch and tips you can use to grow your audience on YouTube. Just look for the label “YouTube Highlights” and subscribe to the series. – Ed.

Happy New Year! Since our last update, we’ve rolled out some new programs and features to help you share and discover great video content on YouTube. We’ve also got advice and tips on how to succeed as a videomaker, content publisher or advertiser on YouTube.

Sports favorites on YouTube and ESPN
More than 2,000 YouTubers submitted sports videos to “Play of the Year,” vying to make it onto ESPN’s SportsCenter. After closely reviewing thousands of entries, we’d like to congratulate the winner of the latest YouTube | ESPN Your Highlight Presented by AT&T, Jay Fleming of Nashville, TN. In this video, shot by his father, the one-armed swimmer won his heat in the 25m fly at the 2010 Nashville city swim meet. See the runners-up here.



YouTube Trends feature helps you find your favorite content
With 35 hours of video now being uploaded to YouTube every minute, keeping up can be a challenge. With YouTube Trends, you can watch the hottest local videos in your area and see how to stay on top of the latest popular videos and content overall on YouTube. Tune in so you don’t miss YouTube’s best content.

New capabilities for YouTube
We’ve been working to make it easier customize your YouTube experience so you can both discover and share great content.

• Personalize your own YouTube homepage. Opt in to try enhancements such as recommended videos based on your viewing history, what your friends are up to, a single place to view all the videos you’ve subscribed to and more.
• Send a personal video greeting. We’ve made it easier for friends and families to stay in touch through video greetings. Try the “Unlisted” feature to share videos with a specific URL so only those people you want to view a video will see it.
• Customize your personal video greeting using background themes and other bells and whistles. You can quickly make original videos starting with video templates from third-party tools from Animoto, Stupeflix and Xtranormal.

New $1,000+ partner grants
Whether you’re a filmmaker, musician or other content provider, you can continue to build the next generation of media companies as a YouTube partner. To help spur our partners’ success, 500 of our top 2010 partners worldwide received new grants of $1,000 to $5,000 to help fund the necessary tools (cameras, sound equipment, etc.) to produce even higher-quality videos and garner bigger audiences.

Useful advice and tips for filmmakers
The web and YouTube continue to change filmmaking and online video publishing, and you can take part.

• Gain insight and tips on why it’s important to surround your videos with context.
• Filmmaker Sam Kauffmann, Professor of Film at Boston University, has chosen to tell his stories using short documentaries and the web. Find out why.
• Learn how the web has changed film school.
• Learn how to share videos on YouTube courtesy of TeachParentsTech.org.

Ads Worth Spreading with TED
TED and YouTube have issued a challenge called Ads Worth Spreading, and you’re invited to submit an entry. TED’s mission is to spread worthy ideas around the world—and why should advertising be different? We believe that advertising should make you think, respond and want to share—whether it’s a great idea, a product that makes the world better or an initiative that might change the world. So create an ad that makes a difference—see the submission rules here.

We’ll update you again in a few weeks. In the meantime, get more info from us on the YouTube Blog.

Posted by Serena Satyasai, Marketing Manager, The YouTube Team

A sneak peek at “Life in a Day”

(Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog)

In December, we announced that “Life in a Day,” a documentary film directed by Oscar-winner Kevin Macdonald, produced by Ridley Scott, and filmed on July 24, 2010 by thousands of YouTube users around the world, was finished—and would have its world premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival on January 27.

Today we’d like to share with you the first in a series of clips we’ll release between now and the world premiere. In this clip, beautifully shot by Toniu Xou and Patricia Marinez del Hoyoa of Spain, a young girl climbs a human castle in the small town of San Jaume dels Domenys in the Spanish province of Tarragona.



If watching this clip gets you excited for more, subscribe to the Life in a Day channel to be automatically updated when new clips are released.

And, most importantly, don’t forget to tune into the world premiere of “Life in a Day” at 5pm PT on Thursday, January 27, to see the 1,125 clips—out of more than 80,000 submitted—that made it into the final film.

Live in an incompatible time zone? Not to worry. The film will be re-broadcast at 7pm on Friday, January 28, in your local time zone, whatever that may be. This will be your only chance to see “Life in a Day” before it is released later in 2011, so don’t miss out!

And for those of you who want to experience Sundance even more intimately, check out the Life in a Day channel daily from January 24 to January 27 to see on-the-ground updates from Kevin Macdonald and a group of contributors to the “Life in a Day” project whom Kevin has invited to join him for the world premiere. You can also submit questions on the channel during that time for a chance to take part in a live Q&A with Kevin and the 20 contributors following the world premiere.

Posted by Tim Partridge, Product Marketing Manager

Creative Pencil Art — Video

Boy Playing with Lizard — Video

Parrot Crying Like A Baby — Video

Bird Feeding — Video

YouTube Highlights 12/16/2010

This is the latest in our series of YouTube highlights. Every couple of weeks, we bring you an update on new product features, interesting programs to watch, and tips you can use to grow your audience on YouTube. Just look for the label “YouTube Highlights” and subscribe to the series. – Ed.

Since our last update, we’ve taken a look at the year on YouTube, asked for your ideas on how to make the world a better place, launched a series of contests and announced a wave of new features. We have a lot to cover!

The year on YouTube
From videos that blew our minds to ones that made dreams come true, the Top 10 YouTube videos show what video stars captured the world’s attention this year. In the past year, viewers watched more than 700 billion YouTube videos, and uploaded more than 13 million hours of video. See what people watched in 2010:



We are also counting down YouTube highlights for the year with the New Year’s Countdown.

Your ticket to Davos, Switzerland
Do you have an idea about how to close the poverty gap? If so, submit it to the Davos Debates program for a chance to win an all-access pass to the World Economic Forum in Davos. To enter, submit a one-minute video sharing your ideas about the importance of inclusive growth—economic growth that benefits everyone—a key theme of this year’s event. The deadline to submit your ideas is January 14, so visit the Davos channel today.

Your vote counts on YouTube
Your opinion can help determine bragging rights for artists of all stripes. Get the chance to weigh in on your favorite music star, auditions for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra—and find out who won another recent competition.

• Rihanna or Justin Bieber? Show these artists how devoted you are with the MyYouTube contest. Artists score points if you subscribe to their channels and share with your friends. You, in turn, get their latest videos delivered to your YouTube homepage and get to win some great prizes.
• We’re down to 336 finalists from 46 countries for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, and voting ends on December 17. The winners will perform for a global audience at the Sydney Opera House in March 2011.
• The winner of this month’s “On the Rise” competition is the irresistible Jack Russell terrier, Jesse. Check out some of his fun antics.

Creating an efficient, healthy home
Ask any working parent and they’ll tell you they have two jobs: the day job, and the one that takes up all the other hours of the day—that of “Chief Household Officer” (CHO). A new YouTube series from HP takes you inside the lives of women who meet the demands of work and family using new media know-how.

Eating right can also be a challenge for busy families. Sesame Street and Chef Art Smith have teamed up to raise awareness about how families can eat healthy food on a budget. See what Elmo and Chef Art have to say.

New features for YouTube
We’ve made a handful of updates over the last two weeks to make your viewing experience and more robust:

• Enhanced the video discovery experience in Leanback with Personalized Channels.
• Allowing selected users to upload videos that are longer than 15 minutes.

• Improvements to annotations including a new annotation editor and a new title annotation type.

And we announced the three-year anniversary of Content ID, a technology that lets rights holders control their content online.

Google Apps for YouTube
Businesses and organizations using Google Apps can now use YouTube. YouTube can help Google Apps customers in lots of ways—whether archiving company videos, marketing their company through branded video channels, or assisting with private, internal communications.

We’ll update you again in a few weeks. Till then, for more information on what we’re up to, head on over to our YouTube Blog. Happy holidays and see you in 2011!

Posted by Serena Satyasai, Marketing Manager, The YouTube Team

TV advertising -- take another look, you might like what you see

It’s no secret that video consumption is growing. Fast. As more devices find their places in people’s homes and pockets, more video consumption is happening across live and time-shifted TV, computers, tablets, and mobile phones. What is most interesting, is while online video consumption has exploded, time spent watching TV has in fact also continued to grow, with the average US adult clocking in 158 hours of TV time per month.*

People are simply consuming more content than ever before and TV is still the center of that experience, remaining an effective way to broadcast your message to a national audience of engaged viewers. What's more is the link between TV and online behavior continues to emerge and strengthen, especially considering that nearly 60% of people now watch TV and surf the internet simultaneously.* If you're rolling your eyes at the prospect of spending media dollars on a mass medium like TV, hear us out because we believe that television advertising is still relevant and has become better targeted. Whether you’re a seasoned TV buyer or just beginning to think about offline media, a strategic approach to integrating TV into your larger media plan is absolutely critical. When planning, consider the following: marketing objectives, target audience, and seasonality.

Identifying marketing objectives is the first, most crucial step. What are the outcomes you’re anticipating from TV advertising? Is the goal of your campaign general branding or to increase sales of a specific product? As you can tell, different objectives lead to a very different budget allocation, core message (approach to creative), and campaign success metrics. For example, if your TV campaign goal is to sell 1,000,000 units of product X, your creative should contain specific production information, direct calls-to-action and at least one sales outlet (i.e. 1-800 number , a specific website URL, in-store coupon code, or all of the above). Using trackable mechanisms brings a new dimension to ROI measurement in TV, especially with innovations like Google's call reporting feature.

What about targeting? Increased viewership fragmentation within the TV universe (more program/network choices in any given time slot) has actually make it easier to pinpoint your target audience on TV since programming has become so interest specific. For instance, to reach females 25-54 who enjoy cooking and gardening, networks including Food Network and HGTV immediately come to mind. What’s great about Google’s TV Ads platform is that we’ve taken targeting even further by introducing technology and search-based targeting tools to the TV buying process. Google TV Ads allows you to choose specific networks, programs and even defined audiences based on demographics and interests. These features allow you to find and target your audience across 100+ networks reaching nearly 35M homes in the US, or almost 1/3 of the US population through one single platform.*

Lastly, timing and seasonality are of key importance. If your product or service is impacted by seasonality, it’s important to plan well in advance. For example, New Year resolutions bring finances, weight loss and fitness to people’s minds – a perfect opportunity for advertisers in these spaces to increase marketing efforts and reach consumers at this critical time. Planning in advance will allow you to have the required budgets and a sense of which media targets to hit as we ring in the New Year. To learn more about Google TV Ads and how to launch a targeted TV campaign in minutes, please visit www.google.com/tvads.

*Source: The Nielsen Company., Three Screen Report Q1’2010
*Google TV Ads will offer nearly 35M homes in 2011 with the integration of new cable partners DIRECTV and Verizon FiOs.

Posted by Chris Henrotin and Neha Mandel, TV Ads Team

Smart Cow — Video

Double rainbows, annoying oranges and bed intruders: the year on YouTube

(Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog)

It’s time to rewind back through the YouTube videos that people in the U.S. and around the world were watching and searching for in 2010. These lists of most-watched videos reflect the people, places and events that captured our collective attention and imagination throughout the year. During 2010, you all watched more than 700 billion YouTube videos, and uploaded more than 13 million hours of video. We met a bunch of new faces, some new words and phrases entered our shared lexicon, and we celebrated as some new YouTube partners hit the big time with millions of views. Remember these moments?

• It started with a crime scene and ended up on the Billboard chart: when Antoine Dodson met the Auto-tune the News guys, a viral hit was made.
• Columnist Dan Savage took to YouTube to respond to a spate of suicides by gay teenagers by launching the “It Gets Better” project to send messages of hope to bullied gay teens. The campaign went viral, with everyone from President Obama to Pixar employees taking part.
• The next Justin Bieber? That was the buzz, as this performance by 13-year-old Greyson Chance went viral and led to a record deal for this sixth grader from Edmond, Okla.
• He’s an orange and, yeah, he’s pretty annoying. And that’s been the key to this channel’s meteoric rise in 2010: in less than one year, more than 1 million people have signed up for a regular dose of wise-cracking citrus.
• Paul “Yosemite Bear” Vasquez’s emotive footage of a spectacular rainbow in Yosemite National Park caught the attention of a few pop culture sites and comedian Jimmy Kimmel, whose tweet helped make this clip and the “double rainbow” one of the most beloved memes of 2010.

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for … here are the most-watched videos of 2010, compiled based on the view counts of videos uploaded during 2010. In some instances we aggregated totals across multiple versions of the same video to find the most-watched clip that really set YouTube on fire this year.

Globally, as of November 2010, the most-watched YouTube videos (excluding major label music videos) were:

1. BED INTRUDER SONG!!! (now on iTunes)
2. TIK TOK KESHA Parody: Glitter Puke - Key of Awe$ome #13
3. Greyson Chance Singing Paparazzi
4. Annoying Orange Wazzup
5. Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
6. Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow 1-8-10
7. OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
8. THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE - Trailer
9. Jimmy Surprises Bieber Fan
10. Ken Block's Gymkhana THREE, Part 2; Ultimate Playground; l'Autodrome

And globally, as of November 2010, the most-watched major music label videos were:

1. Justin Bieber - Baby ft. Ludacris
2. Shakira ft. Freshlyground - Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) (The Official 2010 FIFA World Cup Song)
3. Eminem - Love The Way You Lie ft. Rihanna
4. Eminem - Not Afraid
5. Rihanna - Rude Boy
6. Justin Bieber - Never Say Never ft. Jaden Smith
7. Justin Bieber - Never Let You Go
8. Lady Gaga - Alejandro
9. Justin Bieber - Somebody To Love Remix ft. Usher
10. Lady Gaga - Telephone ft. Beyonce

The most-searched for queries on YouTube during the year show what was on our collective minds as 2010 played out. Like Google Zeitgeist, these lists reveal the interests, issues and entertainment that connected us.

January - haiti
February - luge
March - eclipse trailer
April - ipad
May - eminem not afraid
June - shakira waka waka
July - double rainbow
August - bed intruder
September - halo reach
October - whip my hair
November - firework

For more reminders of the people, places and events that played out on YouTube during 2010, visit youtube.com/rewind or check out YouTube Trends for more detailed lists.

Posted by Mia Quagliarello, Community Manager, YouTube