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In partnership with The Webby Awards, we selected 30 of the most iconic ads on YouTube from 2017 based on this year’s YouTube Ads Leaderboard. Then, you voted for your favorites across six categories covering all kinds of ads. And now, the results are in. Six winners of #TheYouTubeAd of 2017 contest have proven themselves as the most loved ads on YouTube, and we’re thrilled to share them with you:

Category: #TheYouTubeAd That Goes Straight To The Heart
No, you’re crying—these tears are just allergies. Yeah, sure. Vote for the ad that really moved you.
Winner: The Story of Lucy | Windex | Energy BBDO | PHD



Category: #TheYouTubeAd That’s Your Guilty Pleasure
Cats. Cooking shows. Unboxing. We all have our favorite distractions. Vote for the one you secretly love.
Winner: Hay Day 360 Hug | Supercell | Barton F. Graf



Category: #TheYouTubeAd That Puts Stars In Your Eyes
Who doesn’t love a good celebrity cameo? Vote for the best star-studded spot.
Winner: “Hero’s Journey” Starring Melissa McCarthy | Kia Motors | David & Goliath | Horizon / Canvas Worldwide


Category: #TheYouTubeAd That Knows No Limits
Get inspired, seize the moment—and vote for the ad that made you live for today.
Winner: Clash of Clans : How Do We Get Over There? (Update Teaser) | Supercell | Barton F. Graf


Category: #TheYouTubeAd That Takes A Stand
Ads can be a powerful voice for change. Vote for the one that moves you to work for a better tomorrow.
Winner: Following, Neighborhood of Good | State Farm Insurance | DDB




 Category: #TheYouTubeAd That Has Six Appeal
It doesn’t take long to grab our attention. Vote for the six-second spot that makes a big impact. 
Winner: Dina Tokio Tube Makeup Teaser | Revlon UK | Mediacom


Thanks so much for voting, and congratulations to this year’s winners! If you’re looking for even more great ads, dive into the 2017 Year-End YouTube Ads Leaderboard.

Last month, we held our largest ever Google Partner Summit in New York City, bringing together more than 1,000 executives from Premier Google Partners from around the world. The event featured some of the brightest minds in the advertising industry and allowed attendees to build connections and leave with new insights that can help them walk confidently into the Age of Assistance.



The day kicked off with President of Google Marketing Solutions, Mary Ellen Coe, who shared how customer behavior is changing as the mobile age gives way to automation and how marketers need to adapt. Several senior Google product leads and experts highlighted recent Product launches in mobile, audience, video, local & attribution. And the main stage concluded with Google’s Head of Behavioral Science, Maya Shankar, who spoke on how applying the principles of behavior economics can drive growth for a diverse set of companies.

In the afternoon, attendees had the chance to attend various breakout sessions, which offered a deeper-dive into the topics most relevant to their business. Content covered how science and data apply to hiring practices, utilizing YouTube to not only increase reach but to drive results, and how to lead in an era of complexity.


The day culminated with the announcement of this year’s global Premier Partner Awards winners. The six winners hailed from Thailand, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, India and the United States, and were chosen from hundreds of high quality nominees representing incredible diversity of thought, strategy and innovation. Congratulations to our global finalists and to all regional winners and shortlisted Partners from around the world!


To see more posts and learnings from the event, check out our Twitter Moments collection here, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter at @GooglePartners to continue the conversations started and to build on the learnings shared.


Thank you to everyone that travelled thousands of miles to New York to join us at the event and for all of your feedback. We heard you liked content covering Behavioral Science and new Product releases, while wanting more charging stations and restrooms. We’ll do our best to best to fix this at next year’s Partner Summit.


See you online,
The Google Partners Team


A recent ComScore study found that customers who visit a brand’s website after engaging with that brand on YouTube spend more than customers who come from anywhere else. The same study also showed that 20% of those customers will buy from that brand again in the future.1 As if in response, direct-response-focused advertisers who may have previously scoffed at video are rethinking their strategies. Read on to see how three such advertisers -- ForRent.com, Batteries Plus Bulbs, and CarGurus -- are now using YouTube to reach their highest value audiences.
ForRent.com reaches millennials and empty nesters at the same time
With Mike Bozeman, Vice President of Information Technology
Through their consumer research, ForRent.com found that they could divide their audience into two groups you don’t normally see together -- millennials and empty-nesters. “Though these two audiences may seem dissimilar at first glance,” says Mike Bozeman, vice president of information technology, “their housing spend habits actually look quite similar, and these housing spend habits make them both ForRent.com’s target consumer.”


ForRent.com already knew they’d be able to reach millennials on YouTube, but quickly realized that empty nesters conveniently are also spending more and more time on YouTube. Now the brand turns to YouTube to reach both of these audiences at the same time, with slightly different messages.
“We’re trying to segment and create a storyline that resonates with each consumer and ultimately drives awareness and consideration,” said Mike. To do so, in addition to using keyword and channel targeting, ForRent.com used in-market segments to reach people in-market to rent and lookalike audiences to reach people similar to others that have already visited ForRent.com. “YouTube’s advanced targeting options are working great so far -- so much so that we even stopped all our print advertising in January.”


According to Mike, “We’re still experimenting with formats to figure out what the best mix looks like. But today we lean into TrueView for introducing our brand and bumpers to re-engage people in a nice, quick way. We’ve already seen a 1200% increase in brand interest alone. But beyond that, we’re seeing that about 20% of people coming from YouTube end up searching for an apartment at ForRent.com.”
CarGurus brings an edge to YouTube
With Sarah Welch, Senior VP of Marketing
For performance advertiser CarGurus, YouTube is primarily a top-of-the-funnel, attention-grabbing solution. “Because of its unparalleled reach among video platforms, we rely on YouTube to tell our brand story and extend the reach of our brand in effective and interesting ways,” says Sarah Welch, senior VP of marketing at CarGurus.


CarGurus’ video media strategy relies on using TrueView and 6-second bumper ads to build awareness among In-Market Auto Shoppers who haven’t yet visited CarGurus site. “Car shopping isn’t something people do every day,” says Sarah, “or even every year, so we want to make sure that when people are actually in market, we reach them.” In addition to In-Market Audience targeting on YouTube, the brand is now taking advantage of the newly available option to leverage Google Search data in its YouTube campaigns as well. Employing YouTube’s powerful audience tools, CarGurus reached 12.5 million entirely new users in Q4 2016.


CarGurus’ video creative strategy is still evolving as the brand develops its YouTube presence. “So far we’ve been using our TV spots but with slightly different endings for YouTube to appeal to the slightly edgier humor of our audience there. Our first foray into video was functional and instructional,” says Sarah. “We laid out brass-tacks case examples of how CarGurus can help you decide what car’s best for you. It’s been a nice workhorse piece of content, but now we’re starting to get more creative with our storytelling.”


CarGurus’ new campaign takes one step back before educating about its products and instead focuses on pure and simple name recognition among their highest value audiences. “Our ‘motivational guru’ campaign is all about name recognition. It’s intended to be hard-hitting and humorous. We take the guru concept and hammer it home hard with a bit of edge to build brand awareness for ourselves. And it’s performing quite well for us, based on our video measures of success: view-through rates and brand lift.  Of course we look at ROI too, but our primary goal on YouTube is to capture attention and build our brand among the right people. Then we follow up with them elsewhere via remarketing.”  
Batteries Plus Bulbs takes the “DIY” out of screen repair
With Bob McKinney, VP of Digital Marketing
Performance advertisers are increasingly turning to YouTube to drive lower-funnel actions. In the case of Batteries Plus Bulbs, they used hyper-specific targeting on YouTube to reach people ripe for conversion, and bring them in-store.
“Because Batteries Plus Bulbs stores are located all across the United States,” said Bob McKinney, Batteries Plus Bulbs VP of digital marketing, “we found it very difficult and inefficient to drive awareness on television. Besides, we don’t have 3-5 days to get our audience through the funnel. We have maybe an hour, so our marketing is real time. Right now.”


When it comes to reaching the right people at just the right time, Batteries Plus Bulbs relies on  YouTube. “Our priority recently became understanding how to find an audience currently dealing with a broken device,” said Bob, “So our team created a Custom Affinity segment on YouTube to target individuals researching their repair options. This new targeting solution allows us to marry intent with YouTube’s massive reach.”


According to Bob, “When you break your phone the first thing you do is Google how to fix the screen. People often end up on YouTube looking for videos about how to repair their screen themselves. And that’s our trigger. We reach them on YouTube and use clever creative to quickly demonstrate how much easier it is to let the Batteries Plus Bulbs ‘WeFixIt’ team do the work instead. That’s our whole pitch, the convenience pitch.”
The combination of smart targeting and witty creative with this campaign so far has led to an overall lift of 77% in brand awareness and an 85% lift in purchase intent, in addition to a spike in cold-hard appointment signups for screen repairs.
Conclusion:
Your highest value customers are paying close attention on YouTube, and we have the tools to help you understand when and how to reach them. As these examples show, there’s no “right” way to use YouTube as a performance advertiser. You can think of formats, creative, and targeting as your tools, but you’re the (performance) artist, and your consumer insights are your creative inspiration!


1 Source: Google commissioned Comscore YouTube Value of Audience Study, U.S., February 2017 ↩

Summer’s finally here. And for digital communities across the world, that means sun, sea...and shortlists. Yep, the wait is finally over—as Google announces the agencies and third parties in the running for a 2017 Premier Partner Award. You can see the full shortlist here.

This year, there are six different awards to be won, across categories ranging from innovation in search and mobile, to a wider ‘Growing Businesses Online Award’. Each award recognises Premier Partner agencies and third parties who have used Google’s products to not only achieve marketing excellence through ground-breaking innovation, but also generate outstanding results for their SMB clients.

What’s also special about the Premier Partner Awards, is that the panel of independent judges look beyond the usual campaign performance metrics. For example, they take into account how Partners have managed their creative talent, applied technology in new and clever ways—or even improved their own internal culture as a result of the campaign.
The six winners in 9 regions of this first round will then qualify for the global awards, held in New York on 28 September.
To be part of the Premier Partner Awards, entrants must first become a Google Partner and earn the coveted Premier Partner status. This is Google’s elite programme for agencies, designed to give them the tools and support they need to help their clients succeed with AdWords. By working with a Google Partner, SMBs get access to the very latest digital best practice, and the peace of mind their business (and budget) is in safe hands. Visit the Google Partners website to learn more, or find a digital specialist near you.

See you next year?
If you’re a digital marketing agency or professional and would like to learn more about becoming a Google Partner, please visit the Google Partners website

The Google Partners Team

According to a custom Nielsen analysis, the amount of time adults 18-49 spend on YouTube in a month has grown 54% year over year[1]. And with TV cord cutting on the rise, the YouTube audience is getting larger every day. To help you make the most of YouTube to connect with your audience, we're announcing a new resource: the Playbook for Creative Advertising.

The Playbook is designed around three core themes, full of case-studies, examples and best practices that give you all the tools to run effective campaigns on YouTube.

First, our courses will help you maximize the attention you win on YouTube from your existing and potential consumers.  We’ll help you make sure you’re reaching the people you want to reach efficiently, and drawing on the learnings of other brands and creatives to develop creative executions that resonate with YouTube viewers.

Second, we aim to provide an inside view into the culture of YouTube.  Creators on YouTube don’t just reflect what’s going on in the world; they influence and shape the cultural zeitgeist.  We’ll help you understand how to work effectively with creators so you can best connect with their fans.

Finally, the Playbook will guide you through the best ways to measure your impact.  It provides a deep dive into the reports and metrics you can use to unlock critical data and insights to power creative decision-making and optimization.  

We’ve given a sneak peak of the Playbook to a few industry experts and we’re thrilled by their reactions:

“The information in [The Playbook] is like having a 24/7 Google expert at your fingertips.”
-Brandon Solis, Global Digital Strategy Director at McCann Worldgroup

“Bookmark this resource NOW! It's packed with resources and inspiration to help you take full advantage of both the creative opportunities on YouTube, and the data and insights Google can provide to fuel your next creative idea.”
-Luke Eid, Global President, Digital and Innovation at TBWA\Worldwide

Check out the Playbook for Creative Advertising here for content that helps you understand the YouTube ecosystem, find your audience, make great creative for the platform and measure your impact.



[1] Source: Google commissioned Nielsen study. September 2016 and September 2015 average primetime time spent of all days on YouTube among Persons 18-49 (mobile only), EMM custom analysis.


From combating climate change, to countering xenophobia and extremism, we’ve all witnessed the power of video to spark a dialogue, inspire action and change minds. It’s true for all of us, but perhaps even more so for a generation of young people that grew up alongside YouTube: Gen Z. In a new study, nearly half of Gen Z said they can’t live without YouTube.1

And Gen Z isn’t just tuned in -- they’re fired up. Gen Z are 50% more likely to care about making an impact on the world with their work than their millennial counterparts did at the same age.2  

 That’s why Google is thrilled to join forces with Common Ground and the United Nations for The Common Future Project. The partnership brings together talent from the world’s largest advertising communication groups to use their creativity to mobilize a generation of young people around the global Sustainable Development Goals. These 17 goals represent a common set of interconnected ambitions for a transformed world adopted by the UN in 2015 -- like ending poverty and hunger, improving gender equality and reducing inequalities.

Over a three-day period, teams from Dentsu Aegis Network, Havas, IPG, Omnicom, Publicis and WPP, as well as independant agency Wieden+Kennedy, worked together at the YouTube Space NY to develop big ideas that would tap into the cultural influence and power of video to be a force of social good in the world.

On the final day, the teams had three hours to shoot, produce and edit rough videos in formats that reflect how Gen Z communicates, like YouTube’s new made-for-mobile :06 bumper ads. Each team pitched their campaign ideas to a panel of experts that included UN SDG Advocate Alaa Murabit; Jake Horowitz, Co-founder, Mic.com; Madonna Badger, Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Badger & Winters; and Golriz Lucina, Head of Creative for SoulPancake.

A virtual, cross-agency team will develop the winning idea further to launch later this year on YouTube. To support and amplify the campaign, we are committing media to run the campaign globally.

Take a look at how it all unfolded:

“The Sustainable Development Agenda is the most ambitious anti-poverty, pro-planet agenda ever adopted by the UN. The Common Future Project recognizes the power of young people as global agents of change. I commend the Common Ground partners for this creative effort to transform the video platforms that young people use into platforms for action for a world of peace and dignity for all” says UN Deputy Secretary General Ms. Amina Mohammed. 

YouTube shapes culture not just because millions of people watch a billion hours of video every day, but because it’s a place where anyone can use their voice to generate positive social change. We’re thrilled to be able to shine a spotlight on the great collaboration of these agencies coming together for the common good.

Torrence Boone, VP, Global Agency Sales and Services



1 Defy Media Acumen Survey, March 2017. 
2 Defy Media Acumen Survey, March 2017.

In a few short weeks, representatives from the world’s top agencies will descend on the south of France for the 64th Annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. In an effort to part of the action, 100 young creatives from across the globe went head-to-head in the inaugural Young Lions Bumper Hack to compete for two coveted spots to this year’s festival, and an opportunity to go on to compete in the Young Lions Film Competition.

This wasn’t any ordinary hack; the brief challenged the next generation of creative talent to tell a story to their future selves. But there was a twist. They had to tell this larger-than-life story using a bite-sized format, YouTube’s :06 bumper ad format. Each entry had to include three :06 films to bring their ideas to life.

YouTube introduced the :06 format last year to help advertisers capture attention in today’s mobile world. Bumpers have shown significant impact when it comes to brand metrics like ad recall1, but creatives wanted to put it to the test to see if six seconds could indeed tell meaningful and emotional stories. So we asked creatives and filmmakers to create for the format at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and SXSW, and they illustrated that bumpers were an untapped creative canvas.

But it was time to give the young guns a crack at it. The Cannes Lions jury carefully reviewed the submissions, which included a wide variety of creative interpretations of the brief, furthering the notion that six seconds is limitless when it comes to storytelling. However, the 2 sets of films that stood out to the jury offered sage advice to the future creatives these youngsters aspire to be. “For me, the best ones were from the creatives who shared a message that extrapolates their own ego, but draws attention to something bigger like giving value to people and the planet, for example,” said Yuri Mussoly, one of the jury members and Digital Creative Director at Africa. “For me, this is the future of advertising.”

That theme was clear throughout the films from Vittorio Perotti of Italy, which were a simple testament to not forget important values as his career progresses. The films, appropriately named “Slap Yourself Now,” highlight the importance of relationships, career and ethics and the necessity to not forget one’s values regardless of success. Perotti explained that “the brief made me think about what I want to be in the future and what I should not forget. I'm afraid to lose some important values in life because people often ignore them when they grow up. If I did the same, I would slap myself.”

               "Slap Yourself Now" by Vittorio Perotti, Designer & Art Director, Sagmeister & Walsh, Italy


The submission from Lance Francisco of the Philippines played on the daily demands that creatives are often faced with and flipped them into a positive mantra to remind him why he set out to be a creative in the first place. “By unlearning these learnings, we can get back to the core of creating again,” said Francisco. And going back to basics is exactly what creating for 6 seconds challenged the young creative to do. “Six seconds forces you to be strikingly simple. It is just enough time for you to give out a clear message and forces you to find a clever way to communicate the message.”

               "Untitled" by Lance Christoper C. Francisco, Art Director, Publicis Jimenezbasic, Philippines


“The two winners stood out for avoiding clichés and for delivering on the brief with punchy typographically driven pieces,” said Chris Clarke, Young Lions juror and Deputy Creative Officer at The Guardian. Perotti and Francisco will will get to heed their advice at Cannes Lions this year as they compete as a team in the Young Lions Film Competition. The winning Bumper Hack films, along with many of the other submissions will be featured at the YouTube Beach during the Festival.

While Perotti’s and Francisco’s films took the grand prize, all of the submissions showed the breadth of creativity that six seconds can offer. Take a look at a few other favorites as we applaud these young creatives and their approach to bite-sized creativity.

                                     "Duck" by Ashley Wilding, Copywriter, CHE Proximity Sydney, Australia


                                 “Brevity Can Stir Your Imagination” by Yukina Oshibe, I&S BBDO, Japan

                 "Start Today" by Tristan Viney, Copywriter & Seamus Fagan, Art Director, Ogilvy, Australia
As the world gravitates toward mobile content, creatives will be challenged with telling big stories through condensed formats. The creative revolution has only just begun; who’s in?

Posted by Noël Paasch, Marketing Manager, Agency Marketing, YouTube



1 In a study of over 600 campaigns, 9 in 10 bumper ads measured globally drove a significant increase in ad recall. Across all campaigns measured, average increase was 38%. (Source: YouTube Internal Data, Global, July 2016)↩
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Mobile has fundamentally changed how we live our lives. With our devices never more than an arm’s length away, people can find, watch or buy anything at anytime. That’s why earlier this year we shared that we’re developing a new, cloud-based measurement solution for YouTube, designed for a mobile world. Today, we’re announcing the beta for this solution, Ads Data Hub, to help advertisers get more detailed insights from their campaigns across screens while also protecting user privacy.  

We are also announcing that Ads Data Hub is a solution not just for YouTube, but a tool that offers access to more data and helps unlock actionable insights across Google ad platforms, including the Google Display Network and DoubleClick. And with Ads Data Hub now in beta, we’re expanding who can use it.

Built on infrastructure from Google Cloud, including BigQuery, Ads Data Hub gives advertisers or their preferred measurement partners access to detailed, impression-level data about their media campaigns across devices in a secure, privacy-safe environment. Data from other sources, such as a CRM system or marketing database, can be incorporated as well. With this full view, advertisers or their partners can analyze the data and draw out insights specific to their business.

For example, if an e-commerce retailer wants to understand what the path to conversion looks like, they can bring additional online data about their customers into BigQuery, and Ads Data Hub will enable them to combine that data with their ads data so they can see what a typical journey is from first encountering a user until conversion.

Consistent with our commitment to privacy, no user-level data can be removed from the secure Cloud environment. Impression-level data is only accessible for the purposes of analysis and generating insights. In the future, advertisers will be able to act on the insights they get from Ads Data Hub and buy media with greater precision.

As an early alpha partner, Omnicom Media Group helped to define the solution and has seen significant value from both the amount of data available through Ads Data Hub and the broad set of analyses and custom queries that are possible.

"With the complexity of today's consumer journeys, we are seeing that marketers are looking to solve harder business challenges than ever before. Through our partnership with Google and our use of Ads Data Hub, we will be able to answer a broader range of questions and expand our analytical services." - Slavi Samardzija, Global CEO, Annalect, An Omnicom Media Group Company

With the shift to mobile, consumer behavior has changed for good. Marketers need tools to help them make sense of this new world, and Ads Data Hub is a key step forward.

Posted By: Geoff Samek, Senior Product Manager, Ads Data and Privacy

Kevin Hart. Rhett and Link. Ellen DeGeneres. Katy Perry. The Slow Mo Guys. Demi Lovato. Ludacris.

These amazing stars all have something in common: They're starring in new shows premiering exclusively on YouTube. And since these shows are ad-supported, you—and every single one of our billion-plus viewers—can watch for free.

Bringing even more can’t-miss content to audiences globally

For years, we’ve been proud to work with creators like Casey Neistat, Jackie Aina and countless others who have turned their channels into daily destinations. And with these channels packaged within Google Preferred—our offering that allows brands to advertise on some of the most-loved and most-watched content on YouTube—brands have been able to support the videos you love, so you can enjoy for free.

These channels continue to be hugely successful. That’s why, starting in 2016, we made the decision to take YouTube to the next level. We began making premium original content for our subscription service, https://www.youtube.com/red, releasing 30 series and movies in just over a year. And we kept hearing from brands they wanted to be more involved in these premium series.

Launching new ad-supported shows, exclusively on YouTube

When excited fans, brands, and creators tell us something, we listen. We’re thrilled to announce that beginning later this year, some of the biggest YouTube creators and Hollywood names will be featured in seven new series on YouTube—bringing more can’t-get-enough-of and can’t-find-anywhere-else shows to everyone, everywhere. With these new shows, brands can be a part of content that’s generating buzz around the world.

Check out the must-see lineup:

  • Ellen’s Show Me More Show: Like nothing Ellen has done before, Ellen’s Show Me More Show is a twice-a-week series built just for YouTube, giving fans behind the scenes access to some of the biggest stars and her favorite moments.
  • Good Mythical Morning: Worldwide YouTube superstars—and hosts of YouTube’s most popular daily show—Rhett & Link will go to new heights in a long-form expansion of Good Mythical Morning, giving fans even more of what they crave: larger-than-life stunts, zanier challenges, and over-the-top laughs.
  • Kevin Hart: What the Fit?: Kevin will team up with celebrity friends and YouTube stars each week as they attempt to master a different trending, grueling and sometimes ridiculous workout routine.  
  • I Am: Demi Lovato: Global music sensation and social advocate, Demi Lovato reveals a yearlong personal journey of music reinvention and deep discovery as she dives into the writing and recording of her new album in her new series, I Am: Demi Lovato.
  • Best.Cover.Ever.: From Ryan Seacrest Productions and Endemol Shine North America, Best.Cover.Ever. is a cutting-edge talent competition series hosted by Ludacris where emerging talent from across the globe submit covers to YouTube to vie for the ultimate prize: an opportunity to perform a duet with a superstar artist. Submit your cover now at thebestcoverever.com.
  • The Super Slow Show: YouTube stars The Slow Mo Guys will test the latest in technology to reinvent the way we look at celebrities, music, pranks, comedy sketches and more, giving a one-of-a-kind glimpse into what the world looks like in slow motion.
  • Katy Perry Live Special: It's real. It's raw. It's Katy Perry. Live on YouTube, The Katy Perry Live Special will take you inside of her world, revealing the experiences and emotions she poured into her all-new soul-baring music on the eve of her highly anticipated album launch. With unique access, global reach and surprise fun packed along the way, Katy will break it all down in this album listen-along, and if you stick around long enough, there might just be fireworks.

We’re excited to partner with top creators and world-class production companies to offer these new shows to audiences globally—on the platform where the world chooses to watch over a billion hours of video every day. People turn to YouTube to express themselves, engage with creators, and connect with the thriving communities they’re proud to be a part of.

This vibrant fan and creator community is also why brands turn to YouTube. And we're excited that Johnson & Johnson Consumer Brands will be our first advertising partner of this new content. In addition to a major investment in our creators through Google Preferred, they’ve signed on as the exclusive sponsor of Best.Cover.Ever., helping to make the talent competition accessible to YouTube viewers.

Check out #Brandcast to see highlights from the night and look here to see what new YouTube trends were announced.


Robert Kyncl, Chief Business Officer, YouTube