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.”

---

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)^↩

Measurement has been top of mind in our recent conversations with advertisers, and for good reason. As we’ve said many times, “If you can’t measure it, how do you know it worked?” Committing to measurement is critical, but just the first step. We believe that that the industry needs metrics that are trusted, transparent and easily verified. Today, we’re pleased to share several updates on the work we’re doing with third party verification and audit partners to ensure that the metrics available from Google are objective and accurate.
Transparency and trust are the core principles of our measurement strategy. We strongly believe in the need for third-party accreditation through the Media Rating Council (MRC). We gained our first accreditations back in 2006, and for over ten years we’ve partnered with the MRC, advocating for standards across the industry and contributing to ongoing discussions that set guidelines for measuring the effectiveness of ads. We currently maintain over 30 MRC accreditations across display and video, desktop and mobile web, mobile apps, and clicks, plays, impressions and viewability.

MRC accreditation for 3rd party viewability reporting on YouTube

Since 2015, we've completed integrations with Moat, Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify to enable third-party viewability reporting on YouTube. These integrations offer advertisers additional choice for measuring viewability on YouTube, alongside Active View.
Today, we’re announcing that each of these integrations will undergo a stringent, independent audit for MRC accreditation. The audit will validate that data collection, aggregation and reporting for served video impressions, viewable impressions, related viewability statistics and General Invalid Traffic (GIVT) across desktop and mobile for each integration adheres to MRC and IAB standards. In short, advertisers will have even greater confidence in the metrics returned by these third party partners about their campaigns on YouTube.

“Google’s announcement that they are undertaking an independent audit of their 3rd party viewability reporting integrations is a positive step forward for marketers. At the ANA, our goal is to create transparency for the advertising supply chain. This action from Google today demonstrates their commitment to partnering with us to deliver this goal."
—Bob Liodice, President and CEO, Association for National Advertisers

New MRC accreditations for DoubleClick and AdWords

Our commitment to MRC accreditation goes beyond our media to include our platform solutions as well. We maintain several accreditations for DoubleClick already, and today we’re announcing that we are now fully accredited for video impressions and viewability statistics for desktop web, mobile web and mobile app in DoubleClick Campaign Manager.
We are also seeking MRC accreditation for video impressions and viewability statistics and GIVT detection for display and video in both AdWords and DoubleClick Bid Manager. These MRC audits will span across all video available through these buying platforms — including YouTube and partner inventory.

"Google's commitment to MRC's initiatives has been unwavering over time, and their participation in industry standards projects has been helpful. We look forward to working on these new audits and expanding the industry's trust as it relates to YouTube's third party integrations and DoubleClick Bid Manager."
—George Ivie, CEO and Executive Director, Media Rating Council

“Google’s announcement to bring more media transparency is important progress that will help move the industry forward. At P&G, we are encouraged by Google’s actions, which should make a positive impact on creating a clean and productive media supply chain.”
—Marc Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer, Procter & Gamble

With so much activity underway, we know that it can be difficult to stay current. For an up to date list of all MRC accreditations, click here.
Transparency and trust are fundamental to measurement, and they’re fundamental to our strategy for giving marketers and publishers the metrics and insights they need to make better decisions. A solid foundation has been created, but there is much more work to do. In 2017, we’ll continue to seek ways to raise the bar on transparent and trustworthy measurement, and we welcome your partnership along the way.
Posted by Babak Pahlavan, Senior Director of Product Management, Analytics Solutions and Measurement, Google

When two creative teams from the U.S. arrived in Singapore last month, they knew they’d be facing stiff competition and absurd deadlines. The teams from Deutsch and Grey had just flown halfway across the world to take part in the inaugural YouTube Creative Hack competition as part of Spikes Asia.

Spikes Asia is a yearly event comparable to Cannes Lions that brings together 2,000+ industry leaders from 26 countries to celebrate creative excellence across the Asia Pacific region. This year, the conference focused on YouTube, celebrating the most creative and innovative campaigns on the platform.

Creativity was on display throughout the conference’s keynotes and award presentations—never more so than during the YouTube Creative Hack competition sponsored by YouTube and Young Spikes. Fourteen teams of young creatives came together from across Southeast Asia, Japan, India, and the U.S. for some friendly competition.

The structure was simple: Teams of two had to concept, write, and produce a mini ad campaign in just seven hours. They would create three ads to fit YouTube’s new six-second bumper ad format, all using existing long-form video assets from a brand whose name, objectives, and target audiences were kept secret until the competition briefing session.

Right before the clock started, the client was revealed: the Singapore Tourism Board. In just seven hours, all 14 teams, including the jetlagged U.S. duos, had to present their ads to a panel of expert judges who would determine the winners.

Neither of the teams from the U.S. had ever been to Asia, and now they had to create ads convincing people to come visit Singapore.

The team from Deutsch based their ads on the insight that millennials like to show off to their friends when they’re having a great time. “We started concepting around this feeling of travel envy—that jealousy you feel when looking at pictures and videos from your friends’ awesome vacations. We all hate those friends. That shared hatred/jealousy led us to the line, ‘Singapore. You can be mad, or you can be here,’” shared Andrew Kong, copywriter at Deutsch. Kong and his partner, Curtis Petraglia, art director were able to turn this simple insight into a fun and polished six-second ad, which showcased fun things to do in Singapore while getting the message across quickly.

Alternatively, Grey used the fact that this was their first time in Asia to land on a simple insight: Singapore is very similar to some of the world’s other big cities like New York, London, and Los Angeles, but with particular advantages. “The creative hack was a fun challenge that forced us to trust our guts and whittle down the ads to the core insight," said Will Gardner, art director at Grey. Their scrappy campaign portrayed that simple message through clever supers and playful iconography. The six-second ads were designed to target users by home country.
The results? The teams snagged first and second place, making the Creative Hack a huge success for the U.S. teams. Despite the challenges a new country and new ad format presented, the team from Deutsch won the jury over, taking top honors unanimously. The Grey campaign also impressed the judges, with its relatable and dexterous execution, earning the team the second place honors. "Initially, we had no idea what to expect from bumpers and this opportunity showed us the possibilities of being creative within constraints. We're excited to expand on the experience and take what we learned back to our teams,” said Robert Jencks, designer and junior art director at Grey.

Leaning into the creative constraints of the six-second bumper ad format helped the U.S. teams transcend language barriers and local nuances. Having just six seconds to play with meant the teams had to focus their creativity and create pithy ads rooted in simple human truths. Regardless of platform, audience, country, brand, or time limit, that’s the kind of creativity that will always win.

Posted by Noël Paasch, Agency Marketing Manager, YouTube

If you can’t measure it, how do you know it worked? With this simple principle in mind, we’ve been investing in a broad set of measurement solutions for brands through a combination of product innovation with our own solutions like Brand Lift and Active View and partnerships with leading third parties like comScore and Nielsen on GRPs.

Viewability has long been a focus for us. Built on the foundation of our Active View technology, we launched the ability to buy only viewable impressions on the Google Display Network back in December 2013 and recently completed moving over the last advertiser campaigns from CPMs to viewable CPMs. We’ve worked to ensure viewability rates on YouTube are amongst the industry’s highest. And Active View now works seamlessly across video, display, mobile web and mobile apps (on YouTube and for publishers using DoubleClick for Publishers), and has been adopted by over 80% of advertisers using the DoubleClick platform.

With the MRC-defined industry standard as a base-line for viewability, we are also helping advertisers and agencies go beyond transacting on the industry standard to also measure individual viewability objectives. In order to support this we have begun launching supplementary metrics in Active View, like the ability to see average viewable time and soon when an ad is 100% in view for any length in time. These are the first few in a lineup of supplementary metrics that will provide advertisers with additional data points relevant to their specific campaigns and needs.

Announcing 3rd party viewability reporting on YouTube - bringing you more choice

Today, we're continuing our approach of driving product innovation and supporting choice by announcing that we're broadening the options for advertisers measuring viewability on YouTube. Along with Active View, advertisers will also be able to choose from third party vendors.

Moat, Integral AdScience, comScore and DoubleVerify are a select set of third party vendors that have been approved to report ad viewability on YouTube, beginning with Moat in early 2016. Through these partnerships, we’ll continue to expand measurement options for marketers on YouTube, while maintaining the highest levels of security and privacy for users, advertisers and creators.

“Independent 3rd party verification is extremely important to ensuring that our clients’ media is running as effectively and efficiently as possible. As a long-time partner, IPG Mediabrands is pleased to see Google continue its work to move the industry forward on viewability by allowing independent verification of YouTube, and applaud this recent decision.”
Mitchell Weinstein, SVP Ad Operations, IPG Mediabrands

Keith Weed, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Unilever added:

"Having partners like Google address these challenges helps to push the entire industry forward. This move will generate better industry-wide standards across viewability and third party verification practices and continues the momentum in the right direction."
Keith Weed, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Unilever

Stay tuned for continued investments in the viewability space, including ongoing product innovation updates to Active View as well as additional partnerships. Together with our partners, our goal is to help our clients measure every moment that matters.

Posted by Sanaz Ahari
Group Product Manager, Brand Measurement, Google

In December, we announced the 2012 YouTube Ads Leaderboard, a celebration of the ads that people chose to watch on YouTube last year. Now, we’ve invited the creators behind these ads to share their story on the Creative Sandbox, our gallery of campaigns that make the most of the digital canvas. Explore the behind-the-scenes take on how these agencies created content so compelling, users chose to watch, engage and share.



Hear how #3 Volkswagen tee-ed up their ‘12 Super Bowl spot with a web trailer worth barking about. Or how #15 Sauza Tequila mixed up a new cocktail for success with a fireman and a cat. And how #18 Fiat launched a ‘bad boy’ car with the ‘bad boy’ of Hollywood.

Stay tuned this Friday for the next YouTube Ads Leaderboard on Think with Google, a celebration of ads people chose to watch in January 2013.

Posted by Justin Joy, Marketing Manager, Agency

For a window into culture and content, go to YouTube. You'll see what people love now — reflected in what they are watching and sharing. One of the areas where this is especially the case is media and entertainment. Devoted fans race to watch the latest teaser, extended trailer, or gameplay demo as soon as it's available. These coming-soon clips have become can't-miss content. And for brands, they serve as a powerful barometer of audience appetites.


We created the 2012 YouTube Top Trailers Leaderboard to recognize the U.S. trailers that audiences chose to watch this year. As with our 2012 Ads Leaderboard, we compiled this list by tuning into YouTube’s strongest signals of viewer preference: number of views, view rate (how much of an ad people choose to watch), and percentage of organic views (at least as many as paid). The resulting list reflects content that got rave reviews from U.S. audiences and shows why online video is key to any successful entertainment launch strategy.

Posted by Tara Walpert Levy, Director Ads Marketing, YouTube

As the year comes to a close, check out the 2012 YouTube Ads Leaderboard, a celebration of the ads that people chose to watch and share on YouTube this year. As ad formats like TrueView continue to grow on the YouTube platform, we’re moving to a world where users choose the ads they want to see. The Leaderboard reflects that new world, compiled using some of YouTube’s strongest signals of viewer choice – number of views, view rate (how much of an ad people choose to watch), and percentage of organic views (at least as many as paid).


As you can see, people chose ads of all stripes – long form and short, from big brands and smaller businesses, some adapted from TV spots and some built specifically for YouTube. Some of these ads are still seeing hundreds of thousands of views, embeds, and shares many months after the initial upload, a testament to your passionate activity on YouTube and the stickiness of great brand content. Stay tuned throughout the new year as we recognize new ads you love each month. We can’t wait to see what you choose in 2013!

Posted by Tara Walpert Levy, Director Ads Marketing, YouTube

YouTube is home to some of the most creative, daring and talented content producers in the world. There’s something for every person and passion, which translates to hours of viewing pleasure -- 3 billion hours a month, in fact -- all at the push of the play button.

The power of play isn’t just about compelling, on-demand entertainment, however. It’s also about precision, generating word-of-mouth, and business impact.

As of today, there’s a new way to leverage the power of play -- the updated Advertise on YouTube Brand Channel. Think of it as a single destination for all of YouTube’s brand building resources. On the “Build Your Brand” tab, you can check out featured channels, the latest market insights, and find inspiration for what’s possible on YouTube and the web.

Our most recent research videos can be found here as well, including highlights from our just-announced Generation V research project, a multidimensional study of Men 18-34 and Women 25-49. You can watch and listen to consumers discuss their changing media habits and how on-demand platforms like YouTube are becoming the preferred viewing model. Plus, discover what people in other demographics are watching by viewing the videos from the Google Presents YouTube Brandcast event - all of which are posted on the channel.

Popular YouTube partners like DC Shoes and Blendtec have joined us to highlight the power of play in building brands.



We invite you to subscribe, and come back to our channel weekly to check out new videos from partners like Tony Hawk’s RIDE Channel and the Spangler Effect as they demonstrate what play can mean for your business. And if you’re interested in staying up-to-date on all the latest YouTube news and advertiser trends, also be sure to subscribe to our YouTube for Marketers Google+ page.

Posted by David Mogensen, YouTube Product Marketing Manager, recently watched TippEx Hunter and Bear’s 2012 birthday party

YouTube’s Promoted Videos recently passed the 1 billion mark in the number of video views delivered to advertisers. Promoted Videos allows any advertiser to promote a video against search results on YouTube or against related videos on YouTube or content across the Google Display Network. Search engine marketers already skilled with Google AdWords have used YouTube Promoted Videos to increase brand awareness and drive sales.

If you're as excited out about all things digital as we are, then you're probably also excited about Internet Week going on now in New York. We, in particular are looking forward to hearing the latest in the world of online video from the best and the brightest, including our own Baljeet Singh, who is about to deliver the keynote speech at OMMA Video. As Senior Product Manager for YouTube advertising, Baljeet has some exciting insights about how online video is getting bigger, smarter, and better. He'll give audiences a view into why online video is increasingly valuable, how it reaches new audiences, and how it gives viewers choice.

Specifically, Baljeet will walk through YouTube's TrueView video ads which let users decide whether to watch or skip ads, and unveil First Watch, our latest offering reaching 15M people per day.Not familiar with First Watch? Think of it this way - every advertiser knows that YouTube’s homepage is a great way to reach a massive audience at scale. In fact, a daily reach of 50M impressions in the US, rivaling that of Glee's season premier this Fall. Yet many people don't immediately go to YouTube homepage, or come directly to video watch pages, missing the homepage entirely.

Now with First Watch, advertisers can make sure they capture people coming through the ‘side door’, as they watch their first YouTube video of the day. We developed First Watch as a broad reach opportunity for advertisers to engage with viewers at the start of the video viewing experience. First Watch displays an advertiser's InStream or InVideo ad on the first YouTube partner video a viewer sees.

We're thrilled to see the industry innovating in the online video space, and even more excited to be a part of that by bringing you new ways to reach your audiences. Are you at OMMA Video today? Make sure to ask Baljeet about First Watch or TrueView Video Ads.

Posted by Neha Mandal, YouTube team

We hear it constantly from all sides, “Consumers are spending more time than ever online, and digital advertising is the wave of the future.” We hear this, and yet, it still seems like businesses face obstacles in bringing their promotion online. With research backing the consumer patterns of time spent online, the question we’re left with is not whether advertisers will move dollars from TV to online, but how quickly?

On April 4, 2011, Suzie Reider (YouTube Advertising Director of Display), debuted findings of IAB research entitled "An Inside Look at Demand-Side Perceptions of Digital Video Advertising." The study was conducted by Advertiser Perceptions and explored the gating factors to digital advertising at the IAB Digital Video conference. To find the obstacles, researchers gathered 500 agency and marketer decision-makers representing a variety of verticals and asked them about their perceptions. The full results can be viewed here, but here’s a snapshot of the findings:

• Types of Digital Video Advertising Used Past 12 Months – Overall, the only type of DVA used by a majority of media purchasing professionals (57%) during the past 12 months is Pre-Roll, however the gap between agency respondents (66%) and marketers (36%) is vast. In-banner has been used by more than four in ten (46%), overall, while expandable banner with video (34%) and rich media overlay (34%) have each been used by just over a third of respondents.
• Types of Digital Video Advertising Will Use in Next 12 Months – The landscape over the next 12 months will not look all that different from the past 12 months; the only type of DVA that respondents will reportedly be used by the majority of media purchasing professionals (58%) is Pre-Roll. The gap between agency respondents (64%) and marketers (42%) is still wide, but narrowing. In-banner (48%), expandable banner with video (40%), and rich media overlay (35%) will all be more widely used, while mobile video (35%) will see some serious growth.
• The majority of respondents planned to increase digital advertising spend (on average, by about 22%) - Respondents noted increased reach, ROI, and higher engagement levels as their rationale.
• The majority are likely to migrate a portion of their TV Ads budget to digital video - Overall, respondents noted track-ability, targeting, and efficient spend with less production costs as their rationale. Marketers skewed towards ROI as the reason for the shift, while agencies will shift TV ad dollars to online in an attempt to follow their target audience.
• The DVA format of choice was a :15 pre-roll on a CPM basis - When forced to select a single favorite or preferred DVA type, not surprisingly, pre-roll, the most used as well as the most planned to use, is the most preferred (30%) holding a two-to-one advantage across the board with all respondent groups over the number two type, expandable banner with video (14%).
  

Overall, the research supports optimism for DVA in the industry, and highlighted where progress may be slowing. Agencies and marketers believe that digital video may have better ROI and engagement but both alike want more measurability and better metrics. We’re demanding more from our campaigns, and the future is bright for digital advertising.

Posted by Suzie Reider, YouTube Advertising Director and Co-Chair of the IAB Digital Video Committee

Sites like YouTube are like large global focus groups. They can launch people, videos and ideas into fame faster than ever before. If you've ever wished for a way to explore and understand what is happening in real time, then you'll love YouTube Trends.

Stay on top of what's happening on YouTube and around the world -- from pop culture to breaking news -- through daily blog posts about the latest video phenomena and new content feeds like Most Shared, Trending Videos, and Trending Topics. Twice a day -- at 4am ET and 4pm ET -- we also highlight four videos receiving buzz around the web.


Dig Deeper
Using the new YouTube Trends Dashboard, discover what people are passionate about across demographics in different corners of the world. Explore the Most Shared or Most Viewed videos by location, age group and gender*. Compare three different sets of videos: e.g. find out what's popular with teens in Birmingham versus Hawaii or Poland.
(* demographic data based on self-reported, logged-in users)


How Does It Happen?
Using YouTube data, we can learn a lot about how videos get viewed and shared. Throughout the week, we look behind the viral successes and examine the phenomena trending within the YouTube community to better understand the content people love to watch, whether it’s a funny home movie, breaking news footage, or a popular new TV ad.

Sample some recent posts:

1. What Ted Williams Does for Your Macaroni Commercials
2. The Super Bowl Ad That Went Viral Before It Even Aired
3. Inside YouTube Search: Super Bowl Ads After the Game

Find it all, every day, at YouTube.com/Trends



Posted by Kevin Allocca, YouTube Trends Manager

In 2011 TV and video viewership continues to climb in the US across numerous devices. This trend increases the importance of video for businesses. With that in mind, we’re excited to announce Google’s extended partnership with SpotMixer which allows Google AdWords and TV Ads customers to create custom ads absolutely free of charge.

This offer represents our increased commitment to advertisers who want to leverage video to increase brand awareness and ROI. Read more on the Google TV Ads blog.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

Creative people on YouTube love turning an idea into a brilliant production. They want their work to matter.

With this in mind, we’ve partnered with the 58th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on Good Work, a new program that gives creative professionals the opportunity to use their skills to make a difference and gain recognition their work. Learn more in this video:



Through Good Work, nonprofits from all over the world can submit a brief for a video ad promoting their cause. These organizations often lack the resources and time to create a truly great ad for their cause - and this is where you can help. Pick a brief you want to work on from the Good Work briefs gallery and make an ad for that organization. Your ad can be inspirational, thought-provoking, funny, or serious - just make sure it’s innovative and compulsively watchable.

If you succeed, you might be strutting your stuff at this year’s Cannes Festival - five talented people will win a trip to Cannes and have their work showcased there. Could it be you?

The deadline to submit your entry here is May 9, 2011. A jury of top industry experts chaired by Craig Davis, Chief Creative Officer Publicis Mojo and founder of Brandkarma, will announce the winners on May 21, 2011.

Posted by Supriya Sharma, YouTube Product Marketing Managaer

Editor’s Note: Brian Shin is the CEO and founder of Visible Measures, a firm that measures and reports on the universe of online video performance for advertisers and publishers and publishes the weekly Viral Video Chart with Advertising Age.

Visible Measures is working with YouTube this year to understand the social video performance of Super Bowl ads across 200+ video sites, including YouTube. What is social video? Social video means that people are not just watching but engaging with video by sharing, copying or re-posting, commenting or rating, and much more. And that activity can lead to what we call “earned media” for an advertiser - essentially additional video views driven by word-of-mouth.

In just 10 days, ads aired during this year’s Super Bowl generated 230M views -- more than all previous Super Bowl ad views combined. We project that 2011 views will eclipse the total combined view counts for the Super Bowl ads from 2009 (99 million views) and 2010 (150 million views).

As you might imagine, the data for the entire flight of the 2011 Super Bowl ads continues to grow and evolve. But we can provide an early snapshot of the overall ad performance and trends to see who came out on top.

Read initial results at our blog where we look at:

• What drives video views and what best practices can an advertiser adopt?
• What does it take to earn a Top 10 spot and how has that changed over the years?
• Which is growing faster: online or broadcast viewership?
• Who came out on top: auto or CPG?

We’ll continue to watch the online battle and report back in a few weeks. In our experience, 50% of earned media typically occurs after the first week of the campaign -- now, essentially -- and of course, video views aren’t the whole story. We’ll have a sense of which videos have been more engaging over time and which ones rate more positive in sentiment analysis. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, to see more in-depth results and understand what other dynamics we continue to monitor, please visit our blog.

Posted by Serena Satyasai, Marketing Manager, YouTube

Earlier in December, YouTube announced that it is teaming up with TED’s Ads Worth Spreading challenge, which will reward advertisers for innovation, intelligence, authenticity, humor, and craft. With less than one week to deadline, TED is making a final call for submissions to the Ads Worth Spreading challenge -- an initiative to find, recognize and reward campaigns that people want to watch and to share.

Whether you’re a well-heeled creative professional or an indie media whiz, if you’ve created a piece every bit as compelling as your favorite TED talk, submit your entry here by Monday, February 7. If you’ve recently seen work that inspires you, nudge its creators to do the same.

TED is looking for a range of submissions. Yours might be:

• a beautifully produced, :60 cinematic TV spot for a top brand
• a long-form 3-minute video too long for network but perfect for online
• a spec spot that has a hugely compelling idea or new use of technology
• an online video of your CEO giving a short, TED-like talk about your company's idea to change the world
• a PSA that makes you cry and click Share

The 10 best campaigns will be announced on the main stage at TED2011 in Long Beach, get incredible exposure on YouTube's home page and spend a week on TED.com as post-roll. One member of each winning team will spend a day at TED2011 in Long Beach and attend an exclusive celebration in March in New York, thrown through the generous support of YouTube. For more information, visit Ads Worth Spreading on TED.com.

Posted by Mark Sabec, YouTube Product Marketing Manager, recently watched Life In A Day at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival

Ads are enjoyable content, too. Well, sometimes. Our friends at YouTube took an informal poll across their owns teams and industry reporters to determine their favorite ads on YouTube from 2010. With audiences, platforms, and devices continuing to fragment into more specific niches, earning people’s attention has become challenging. So it's no small task that these ads successfully found their audiences and broke through all the noise with content that people seek, love, and share with others.

Visit the YouTube Blog to see which ads made the cut and draw a little inspiration for your own work!

Posted by Katie Wasilenko, Agency Marketing, who recently watched Poor Huemul:(

Video is a powerful medium for spreading ideas. Over the past four years, TED has posted over 800 TEDTalks on TED.com and on YouTube. We've been thrilled to see the world respond -- watching the videos more than 375 million times.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team