“It’s impossible,” said Ilana Levin, Executive Director for Sales Strategy and Development at USA TODAY, in a recent Tubular webinar. Therein lies the struggle for so many media sellers today.

“Advertisers want metrics that we can’t necessarily deliver and guaranteed views that we cannot necessarily promise.”

To overcome this, publishers must build confidence amongst potential advertisers. Gannett & Co.’s USA TODAY video property is approaching this with gusto.

The media arm is leading video growth across the premium ad business, thanks to a bold brand identity and a sophisticated video narrative they deliver to media buyers.

It’s about identifying “what is valuable to our readers and intersecting that with what brands and advertisers find valuable and creating this really great marriage,” added Russ Torres, VP of Digital Video Content and Strategy at USA TODAY.

To achieve this, USA TODAY routinely harnesses Tubular data to meet the needs of their bread-and-butter audiences and, importantly, to differentiate themselves to advertisers.

Tubular hosted a webinar with Levin and Torres to unpack USA TODAY’s successful digital video strategy. We’ve consolidated these into five actionable tips on how to boost your media selling:

• Identify your wow factor 
• Ask yourself tough questions
• Solidify your KPI strategy
• Uncover white space you can enter with brand partners 
• Adapt quickly to evolving audience preferences

Read on as we unpack them.

1. Identify Your Wow Factor

Digital publishing today is overwhelming. There is an oversaturation of content to compete with. And there are endless ways viewers can consume videos, from platform (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook), to mobile versus desktop, to CTV (Roku, Fire, Apple TV) and OTT (Netflix, Amazon, iTunes).

One month’s worth of social video data alone is truly an ocean: 2 trillion views. 40 billion engagements. Almost 100 million videos uploaded.

To stand out, media publishers must differentiate themselves to potential advertisers by producing engaging content verticals that draw consistent audiences.

“Identifying those strengths and those differentiating factors is paramount in order to survive and thrive today,” Levin said. It starts by “capitalizing on our franchise that performs well.”

One such franchise is USA TODAY’s successful Humankind brands. Launched in 2015, it includes “Humankind,” “Militarykind,” and “Animalkind.” And in 2019, “we launched ‘KidKind’ thanks to Tubular’s insights about a good area to expand into,” Levin said.

These verticals tell stories about extraordinary ordinaries, people and animals engaging in acts of compassion and social uplift. These are stories that throttle your heart, from soldiers reuniting with their young children to kangaroo rescues during the recent Australia wildfire.

The Humankind franchise garners about 5B cross-platform views in a year, and a consistent 35-40M views on Facebook in a single month, according to Tubular data.

USA TODAY also has live news video offerings and video franchises based after the newspaper’s iconic sections (from the green-collared money section to the purple-tinted life section).

When it comes to populating these feeds with quality content, USA TODAY’s parent company Gannett & Co., which recently merged with Gatehouse Media, has more than 260 U.S. news operations, ranging from small players like the Columbus Dispatch in Ohio, to the Detroit Free Press and the aforementioned USA Today. All of them are “thinking as one newsroom,” explained Levin.

Finally, the media entity has a studio structure called Bluepoint Originals, which is “premium, high-quality, serial, custom-content around passion points,” explained Levin. This is also the focal point for the company’s branded creative content team, which offers a direct in-house revenue portal.

2. Ask Tough Questions

To best drive revenue, Torres routinely grapples with big questions when green-lighting video campaigns.

• Is a video commercial enough for a particular sponsor or brand?
• What does that look like in a consistent, scalable, and repeatable way?
• What is the ideal frequency of a video campaign?
• What platform do you focus on?
• Do you publish certain loss leaders even though the platform doesn’t offer relative compensation, but may offer marketing and reach?

“There are just these strands of unknowns and it certainly does take a little bit of crystal ball reading,” said Torres.

But asking these questions to then set individual KPIs for your different properties can help you gauge success.

3. Solidify Your Strategy and Benchmarks

Before approaching media buyers, it’s important to clarify your sales strategy and individual KPIs. “Are you revenue-based, are you content consumption-based?” Levin said. In the case of USA TODAY, “we want people to consume our content and we want to make money from it.”

The USA TODAY team consists of thousands of media sellers. The majority of those are on the local team representing more than 100 local properties. They also have a 20-person national sales team that focuses on monetizing national campaigns.

USA TODAY’s goal is to keep viewers on the page. When it comes to internal video metrics, the sales and content teams look to video completion rates as a key metric of success.

The team watches “to see if the user gets past the first video into what we’re calling continuous play,” Levin said. Entering continuous play means more ad starts and thereby greater monetization.

Externally, Levin said she gets a lot of questions from media buyers about “which video lengths get more views. I’ll just rationalize that these metrics are not truly indicative of our performance and our success.”

“Video views are vanity,” added Torres. The real focus is time spent. “We use not only the duration (audiences) watched but where they dropped off. That just helps you tighten up the creative and make the content more meaningful to users.”

For those who don’t have fresh metrics when promoting a new venture, another tact is to focus on brand affinity. “When I don’t have the numbers, I just talk about the value of the USA Today Brand. We’re a household name. We reach one in two Americans. That stands for something,” Levin said.

4. Uncover White Space

Explore High-Performing Video Categories

Almost 100 million videos are uploaded to social video platforms each month. These videos range from user-generated content (think: a dog chasing a cat up a tree) to publishers who are creating dynamic lifestyle content at scale.

With such scope and variety, how do digital media publishers keep tabs on new trends and expansion opportunities?

“One of the tools we use is Tubular to really help us identify white space. Particularly in social, where there are so many publishers,” Torres said.

“Tubular helps us to understand who the leaders are in particular categories and that is the way we get at the type of videos that we think our readers will want to watch and consume.”

Consider travel. After seeing great traction in its text-based travel content, USA TODAY is developing a video franchise. They came to this path by “leveraging the data” to see what they were strong at and “comparing that to what’s not being represented well in our channel,” Levin said.

“We went to Tubular and said now that we’ve identified travel as our white space, what specifically about travel? Is it food, is it travel hacks and tips, is it fashion in other countries, is it sports in other countries? What element of travel is going to work best?” Levin said.

Taking on Levin’s process, let’s drill down on Tubular’s Travel & Destinations category. It’s clearly hot. In 2019 the genre earned 15.8B views and 225M engagements on YouTube for 89K videos, and 20.9B views and 559M engagements on Facebook for 99.8K videos.

Among these, experiential travel videos are clearly winning out. We’re talking bucket-list, daredevil travel content. Extra points if they incorporate aerial beauty shots!

The top five most-viewed travel videos in 2019 include going up a narrow set of stairs in Sri Lanka (in freaking flip flops), turning yourself into a human slingshot in New Zealand (ouch), and losing your lunch on the mindblowing 2019 Coachella Ferris Wheel.

Approach Advertisers With Early, Actionable Insights

For USA TODAY, uncovering white space helps better cement their relationship with advertisers.

For example, the media brand’s internal reporting discovered a boost in home renovation interest and spending.

The video sellers took this info and stratevideogized how to communicate this to advertisers so that they “get ahead of what they-don’t-know-they-don’t-know,” said Torres. “That there is this expenditure coming and actually we can get you in front of people who have a curiosity about buying their first home.”

They then follow-up with a strong case for video. “Video is really helpful for that because it is a demonstrative medium. It shows you the hit of the hammer on the nail. It debriefs with construction and carpentry experts,” said Torres.

Methods like this allow USA TODAY to take advantage of a rising trend as well as give advertisers an early buy-in.

5. Adapt Quickly to Evolving Audience Preferences

Audiences are fickle. It’s important to adapt to changing preferences swiftly. Torres has a mantra to this end: Fail fast. Iterate. If something isn’t working, stop.

“You iterate, you study the insights, you make changes based on insights provided and if it’s still a clunker, it’s time to move on.”

Advertisers build trust in your brand if they know you are fearlessly adapting to better meet your audiences’ needs. Torres cites Brighthouse Financial’s recent sponsorship of their World Series Coverage.

“We’re two pieces in and our programming team, which operates with real-time analysis, noticed we weren’t given the expected completion rate.” His team used on-the-ground insights and adjusted their content right away to hook audiences longer.

Ensuring high content performance, and a willingness to switch things up midstream, is a big part of long-term client relationships.

“It’s helpful that Brighthouse wrote a check to help us sponsor that content, but if people are not watching it, shame on us,” Torres said. “We want to make sure Brighthouse will come back because they know when they come to us, we convert people.”

Activating USA TODAY’s Video Playbook

USA TODAY’s approach to media selling is seeing repeatable success. Media sellers, if you’re struggling to make headway with buyers, you should keep USA TODAY’s data-informed approach in mind.

USA TODAY’s final takeaway: The data is clear. “If your story can offer elements of inspiration, you got it,” Torres said. This method resonates with both viewers and advertisers (who have aspirational messaging in their DNA).

Acting on this advice is simple:

• Use video to tell people something they don’t know.
• Offer elements of inspiration, followed by practical tips on how to become better.

Want to learn even more ways to match USA TODAY’s success through data?

The post USA TODAY’s Top 5 Tips for Media Sellers appeared first on Tubular Labs.

It follows that Christmas is also a major event on social video. Brands unroll new Christmas ads with all the festivity of red wrapping paper on a gift under the tree.

And just like Black Friday is to holiday shopping (particularly in the U.S.), these seasonal commercials (particularly in the UK) can do serious numbers for their organizations on social media and the net.

Here are the most widely-viewed Christmas ads of the season across the globe, according to Tubular’s cross-platform intelligence software. Read on to see what they have in common!

Christmas 2019 Ad | John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners

This high-budget holiday ad comes from the John Lewis Partnership, the third-largest non-traded company in the United Kingdom.

From this charming story about a dragon looking for a place to belong, you might not see any direct tie-in to the company’s offerings (department stores, supermarkets, and financial services).

However, it climbed to the very top of Tubular’s Christmas video chart, with 9.6M views, through an abstract understanding of the holiday — a heartwarming story that shows that this season, everyone has something to give.

Nicholas the Sweep | Sainsbury’s | Christmas 2019

In our number two spot with 6.2M views in the past 90 days comes another UK chain. With a setting straight out of A Christmas Carol, supermarket chain Sainsbury’s has developed one of the world’s top Christmas ads that tells a story of justice and redemption.

It’s an atmospheric take on the holiday that tugs viewers’ heartstrings with a portrayal of a simpler time. The main pop of color in the ad comes from oranges, a sweet, simple, and historic Christmas treat — the perfect seasonal callback for this grocery retailer.

With a clear beginning, middle, and end, the 2:30 clip is more like a movie, which might explain its persistent month-long traffic.

Feel the warmth of the festive season | Emirates Christmas 2019 | Emirates Airline

Children discover a winter wonderland on board an Emirates Airline flight in this thirty-second clip. With 5.5M views, it’s the third most-viewed holiday brand video of Christmas 2019, and it owes this engagement partially to its role as an ad that plays before other videos on YouTube.

However, even though the ad is long enough to be skippable, its considerable engagement (with hundreds of likes and comments in the few days it has been up) shows that it’s still catching viewer attention.

Credit the festive color palette, with generous warm reds, and the nostalgic, twinkling holiday music. Though holiday travel can be a slog for many, Emirates uses this clip to align itself with the things travelers love the most about Christmas.

Our 2019 Christmas ad is here! Join us in getting #ReindeerReady

Once again, a UK company (or in this case, the UK branch of a global one) makes the list with a cute animation about two sisters growing closer in the spirit of Christmas.

The younger sister’s overactive imagination is portrayed through high-definition CGI before switching through the older sister’s lens through live-action acting. This play on perspectives draws out a childlike wonder in the mythos Christmas, reindeer and all.

With 4.8M views, it’s clear that McDonald’s has tapped into a nostalgia vein with this family-focused story. Like the other Christmas ads on the list, it’s more of a celebration of the season than a commercial in all but name.

Show your High Street some love and shop local!

Show your High Street some love and shop local!
Watch our Christmas ad featuring real shopkeepers and join us in supporting the High Street because #WhereYouShopMatters this Christmas. pic.twitter.com/16U7c8EAfb

— Visa UK (@VisaUK) November 5, 2019

Perhaps the most culturally emblematic of the top five comes this musical number from Visa UK.

The Christmas ad combines the British concept of a commercial “High Street,” the music of Queen, and real small business owners portrayed as they do the hard, honest work that goes into getting everyone’s Christmas gifts ready for giving.

Clocking in at one minute, it’s netted 4M views on social media. While Visa is far from a mom-and-pop establishment, this homespun-seeming video lends them the authenticity of the shops it portrays.

Takeaway: Christmas Ads Offer Hope Via Unpretentious Messaging

In these uncertain times, the most successful Christmas videos give us hope.

And each of these top five hardly counts as an ad in anything but name. Products, if shown at all, occupy the backdrop while the primary purpose of each spot is entertainment and messaging.

In November when the BBC interviewed viewers about what they liked most about the season’s Christmas ads, people responded, “they’re not too commercial” and “they don’t make me rush out to buy stuff.”

There’s also a recurring theme in each of these Christmas videos that goes deeper — the holiday encapsulates the magic of childhood, the warmth of friends and family and belonging, and the spirit of giving.

This powerful message revitalizes Christmas ads beyond shopping, peddling the positive feelings so many associate with the season.

Even the most self-promotional brands realize that this holiday holds a culturally significant place in people’s hearts: not because of the presents, but because of the way it makes us feel like anything is possible.

What else was popular across social video in 2019? Our newest State of Online Video report has the answers.

The post What 2019’s Top Christmas Ads Reveal About the Holiday appeared first on Tubular Labs.

Now that anyone can be a video creator, there’s more variety in content, more ways to distribute it, and more people willing to watch.

Consider this: a recent GlobalWebIndex report found that around the world, Gen Z is spending almost the same amount of time per day watching content online as they are offline content!

Despite this massive growth, there’s currently a $13B annual gap in the digital video advertising market today.

According to a new study by Vorhaus Advisors in collaboration with Tubular, publishers could potentially earn $21.6B annually across YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, but are only pulling in around $8.2B.

That’s 2.5x more than they currently earn from video advertising on these three platforms!

How did Vorhaus come to this conclusion? Along with Tubular, the research incorporated Tubular’s vast video data and a newly developed analysis system called the Digital Video Realizable Advertising Revenue (DVRAR) model.

DVRAR aims to characterize the current and potential revenue for digital video publishers by estimating the full video advertising revenue potential across both branded content and advertising revenue shares.

Curious to learn more about the DVRAR findings?

The DVRAR model draws on Tubular data across YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. The firm also independently talked with industry experts, who agreed that at least 80% of monetizable video in the U.S. is found on those three platforms.

Vorhaus believes the DVRAR model and its estimated $13B gap is conservative at best. The firm and the independent industry experts posit publishers could, in reality, be earning much more than this figure every year.

So what’s holding the market back? Simply put, it’s a lack of transparency in the video ecosystem and the inability to measure the true impact of video content and advertising.

Because of this dilemma, advertisers aren’t willing to invest in video advertising, even though publishers have the vast digital audiences necessary to support more advertising than they currently have.

Here’s just one member from the Global Video Measurement Alliance about tackling this challenge in the ecosystem:

“(Media buyers) know how to evaluate TV. Social video and branded content (has been) challenging for media buyers. We want to help the buyers spend less time on the justification, so that we can unlock more of the budget.”

– Alana Calderone Polcsa, Senior Vice President, Brand Content and Partnerships,
The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Ellen Digital Network

Unless these issues are recognized and rectified by industry professionals, the video ecosystem risks missing out on this $13B (or more!) based on the true reach and value of publishers’ digital audiences.

Want to learn more about how you can claim some of this $13B?

The post How Publishers Are Missing $13B in Video Advertising Revenue appeared first on Tubular Labs.

Even before the stream begins, however, the social video conversation about the primaries has been buzzing for months. Brands and influencers alike have promoted and panned the frontrunners in a mix of content that spans from analytical to straight-up comedic.

In general, here’s how the frontrunners are navigating the net (and where their constituents like to hang out online) so far:

• Bernie Sanders is sticking to Facebook, where his followers already are;
• Joe Biden is the central topic of a heated left-vs.-right debate;
• Elizabeth Warren is getting ahead of the conversation with her own content;
• Kamala Harris is keeping it brief with Twitter-focused content;
• Mayor Pete Buttigieg is enjoying light coverage of fluffy topics;
• Beto O’Rourke has learned that the f-bomb has its viral perks;
• Senator Cory Booker still needs to move beyond his current role as a senator to get followers serious about his presidential run.

Here’s how some of the most visible Democratic primary candidates are faring in the web’s 24-7 political debate and what it might mean for each frontrunner’s 2020 chances.

Bernie Sanders: Dominating the Conversation

A former 2016 primary candidate, Sanders clearly has staying power and his role in the social video conversation reflects that. Some of the networks and shows with the highest caliber of name recognition, including CNN and The Daily Show, have offered ample screentime to the candidate.

As of today, the top Bernie Sanders videos by views are:

1. “Bernie Sanders – A Progressive Agenda for the 2020 Presidential Race | The Daily Show” – The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (1.5M)
2. “Jordan Pitches Slogans for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 Campaign – The Opposition w/ Jordan Klepper” – Comedy Central (1.4M)
3. “Is Bernie Too Old to Run in 2020?” – Hash it Out (1.3M)
4. “Killer Mike is in for Bernie 2020” – Bernie Sanders (1.2M)
5. “Sen. Bernie Sanders announces 2020 presidential run” – CNN (1.2M)

With every one of these top videos over a million views, it’s clear that viewers have a lot of interest in Bernie Sanders’ next moves. Three out of these five are on Facebook, reflecting how much more pull Sanders has with that platform (26M) compared to YouTube (17.2M).

While the content creators are mainly top networks (along with Bernie himself), viewers tend to have plenty to say, with engagements on most of these videos in the tens of thousands.

Finally, it’s worth noting that many top videos about Bernie Sanders are positive coverage — even “Is Bernie Too Old to Run in 2020?” concludes that his fans say age is just a number. For these reasons, Sanders is already coming out on top.

Joe Biden: A Polarizing Figure

He’s gone from Obama’s loveable sidekick of a VP to serious Democratic frontrunner, and the social chatter suggests voters aren’t sure what to think of that image shift. Compared to Bernie Sanders’ top videos, Biden’s have far lower viewership yet double the engagement, suggesting that those following this candidate are already having debates of their own.

Right now, the top Joe Biden videos by views are:

1. “JOE BIDEN 2020!!!!! (Trump would win 48 states)” – We Got Liberal Trouble (11.3M)
2. “WATCH: 2020 Biden DESTROYED by 2008 Biden on Illegal Immigrants” – White House Brief (2.8M)
3. “Biden 2020 official campaign song, ‘Buy A Shotgun.’” – Second Amendment Institute (1.7M)
4. “2020 is over for creepy Joe Biden before it even started…” – Follow The White Rabbit (1.7M)
5. “Joe Biden Jumps on the 2020 Train with a Whole Lot of Baggage | The Daily Show” – The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (1.3M)

Don’t be fooled by official-sounding names like “White House Brief” or cryptic ones like “Follow The White Rabbit.” All of the top four content creators are far-right Facebook pages. These creators’ political leanings precede the negative analysis they present about Biden’s campaign.

The fact that Biden’s political opponents have dominated his social video tells us two things. First, it suggests that the right sees Biden as a serious contender and threat. Second, it’s a sign that Biden’s campaign ought to spend some time taking back control of the conversation.

The top four videos all come from Facebook, showing a clear platform preference for Biden fans and anti-fans. In the past two years, Biden-related content got 47.4M views on Facebook. The runner-up, Twitter, has just 14.6M — hardly a comparison.

Elizabeth Warren: Activism Online and Off

Since the day she announced her campaign, Warren has been coming up with a plan for every possible policy enactment, and her social video footprint reflects her active role. The coverage appears positive, but that’s no wonder: most of it comes from the Warren campaign.

The top Elizabeth Warren videos by views are:

1. “Weekend Update: Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Running for President – SNL” – Saturday Night Live (1.6M)
2. “A Bipartisan Effort to Help Veterans Get Jobs” – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (1.4M)
3. “Elizabeth Warren Launches Exploratory Committee for President” – Elizabeth Warren (1.2M)
4. “Running for president: that’s what girls do” – Elizabeth Warren (1.2M)
5. “Sen. Warren Grills Housing Nominee On Pro-Big Bank Past” – NowThis Politics (1M)

Two of these videos come from content creators who are consistently in Tubular’s top ten by views and influence (Saturday Night Live and Group Nine’s NowThis). But the other three are Warren’s own: “U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren” is her verified account, while “Elizabeth Warren” is her official 2020 campaign’s.

It’s clear that Warren and her campaign team understand the value of social video and have made efforts to control their own narrative. This may be a factor in why, leading up to the first Democratic debates, Warren is the most-viewed candidate across all social platforms over the past 90 days.

In particular, her campaign’s focus on streaming video has led to a more even level of engagement across Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

Kamala Harris: Quick and To-the-Point

Like Warren, Harris is her own best promoter. Her most popular (and positive) streaming video coverage comes from her own campaign, but she can’t outrun the naysayers.

Right now, the top-viewed videos about Kamala Harris are:

1. “I’m running for president. Let’s do this together. Join us” – Kamala Harris (4.3M)
2. “Harris Questions DHS Secretary Nielsen” – U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (1.8M)
3. “Kamala Harris Condemns Trump’s Behavior Towards Dr. Christine Blasey Ford” – NowThis Politics (1.8M)
4. “Full steam ahead on 2020 – Kamala Harris announced she will run today. She denied Brett Kavanaugh due process in front of the nation, and in so doing has lost my vote…” – Bill O’Reilly (1.4M)
5. “JUST IN: Protester comes on stage and takes microphone from Sen. Harris during a political forum…” – NBC News (1.3M)

Unique to any other candidate, the majority of Harris’s social views come from Twitter. In the past two years, 23.5M came from Twitter, compared to 20.5M from runner-up Facebook.

Twitter sets a max video length of 140 seconds, which means that Harris’s top videos consist of snippets and sound bites that appeal to supporters or detractors, depending. Because of the prevalence of Twitter videos, Harris’s top five videos combined make up the shortest social footprint of any candidate on this list before the first Democratic debates even start.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg: A Youthful Alternate

Out of all the candidates here, Mayor Pete is the one most closely tied to the primary age demographics of people who watch social video most often. Perhaps that’s why content discussing his age is getting more interest than anything else before the first Democratic debates.

The top videos for Mayor Pete Buttigieg by views are:

1. “Pete Buttigieg: The Case For A Younger President (Facebook)” – The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (2.5M)
2. “Pete Buttigieg: The Case For A Younger President (YouTube)” – The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (1.9M)
3. “Amy Poehler says Leslie Knope might support Amy Klobuchar or Pete Buttigieg in the 2020 presidential…” – Variety (1.6M)
4. “2020 Candidate Pete Buttigieg Shares the Internal ‘War’ He Found Before Coming Out as Gay” – NowThis Politics (1.5M)
5. “My name is Pete Buttigieg. They call me “Mayor Pete.” I am a proud son of South Bend, Indiana, and I…” – Pete Buttigieg (1.4M)

The Mayor is enjoying video content on the lighter side, discussing his age and sexuality in a positive manner — plus a fluffy “celebrity endorsement” from the fictional protagonist of Parks and Recreation.

It’s also worth noting that Buttigieg’s two top videos are cross-platform uploads of the same content. With top videos on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, it’s apparent that it’s not the platform that matters, but the casual tone that is quickly becoming Mayor Pete’s MO.

Beto O’Rourke: A Big Mouth Pays Off

Beto O’Rourke is the only candidate on the list with a fan creator’s video listed alongside brands, influencers, and the candidate himself in the top five.

The top videos about Beto O’Rourke are:

1. “I am running to serve you as the next president. The challenges we face are the greatest in living m…” – Beto O’Rourke (5.2M)
2. “Running for president | Beto O’Rourke” – Beto O’Rourke (3.9M)
3. “Beto Announces 2020 Bid and Trump Attacks Him: A Closer Look” – Late Night With Seth Meyers (3M)
4. “Im so f*cking proud of you guys” Beto for president 2020” – Tay (2.9M)
5. “.@BetoORourke to @TedCruz: “If the president attacks you personally…how you respond is your business…” – Texas Tribune (1.5M)

With 2.9M views, the “Im so f*cking proud” video, tweet, and even the user account have all been deleted, a result of the average user being ill-equipped to negotiate viral fame. A version of the video, which is still available on YouTube, features O’Rourke at a rally dropping the f-bomb to thunderous cheers.

Like Trump before him, O’Rourke is finding that crass language comes with positive feedback, and a lot of it: O’Rourke’s top five videos have the most combined views out of any candidate on the list other than Biden — and in O’Rourke’s case, the attention is far more favorable.

Senator Cory Booker: What Presidential Run?

It’s apparent that Sen. Booker has made more waves as the first African-American U.S. senator from New Jersey than he has as a presidential frontrunner — at least, so far.

Leading up to the debate, Senator Cory Booker’s top videos are:

1. “I’m running for president. Join me on this journey.” – Cory Booker (4.1M)
2. “Your silence and your amnesia is complicity”: Sen. Cory Booker unleashes on Homeland Security Secre…” – CNN (3.8M)
3. “Sen Cory Booker Grills Trump EPA Nominee With Chemical Corpora…” – NowThis Politics (3.4M)
4. “I’m running for president.” – Cory Booker (1.5M)
5. “Booker to Nielsen: ‘Your silence and your amnesia is complicity‘” – NBC News (1.4M)

Other than Senator Booker’s own two social video posts about running for president (on Twitter and Facebook respectively), two of the other top videos are remarkably long-lived ones about the Senator’s criticism toward former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen — still viewed regularly even after the secretary resigned in April.

Booker has developed a reputation as a hardline critic of the Trump administration, and the three videos in his top five that aren’t his own reflect that role.

What’s Working Before the First Democratic Debates

On a web where audiences are having an increasingly difficult time choosing which news sources to trust, there’s a common thread throughout all of these candidates’ top video: their self-produced content.

Except for Biden, every candidate has one of their own videos in the top five, showing that voters still prefer to hear about politics from the candidates themselves. While there are a few other themes in these videos (late night comedy and bite-sized news clips from NowThis), there’s something to be said for candidates who work at speaking directly with their constituencies.

If there’s one thing our social networks have taught us, it’s that people value connection more than ever.

Based on social video, which candidate do you think will win the first Democratic debates?

The post Who Won The First Democratic Debates Before They Started? appeared first on Tubular Labs.

When we first reported on the spots listed on USA Today’s Ad Meter, there were 25 publicly-available YouTube videos; now, there are 56 publicly-available commercials on YouTube. According to Ad Meter, voters around the world chose the NFL’s very own “The 100-Year Game” as the best Super Bowl ad of 2019. However, this spot didn’t claim the most online video views, nor the most social engagement. Those honors go to other 2019 Super Bowl commercials, as well as the awards for highest average three-day view counts (V3) and three-day engagement rates (ER3).

Below, we reveal the winners of all 2019 Super Bowl commercials based on these metrics! We’ve only included approved/final spots from brands’ official YouTube accounts uploaded in the last 30 days. Note that not all ads have V3s or ER3s as of yet (we’ll update this article when those are live), but we’ve included the available info we currently have on each clip. All data is accurate as of 12:25 p.m. PT, Feb. 4, 2019. Let’s start with a summary of this year’s ads!

Post Updated: 06/02/2019 11:40 A.M. PT – All stats have been updated to show accurate view counts, engagements, and V3s and ER3s. If available, V7s (average 7-day view counts) and ER7s (average 7-day engagement rates) have been added. Because of these changes, Google used to claim the highest ER3 for its “Job Search for Veterans | Google Super Bowl Commercial 2019” at 1.3x ER3; however, Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame trailer now boasts the highest ER3 at 2x, making it the most-engaged clip on YouTube from all Super Bowl ads! Additionally, in the top five most-watched spots, Amazon Prime Video swapped places with Budweiser to claim #3, while TurboTax‘s robot-inspired ad jumped up a few positions to place #5, replacing the previous seat-holder DEVOUR Foods.

2019 Super Bowl Commercials: Overview and Fun Facts

• Brands submitted 58 official ads to Ad Meter.
• 56 of these are publicly-available on YouTube.
• The brands who uploaded the most Super Bowl spots at four each were T-Mobile and Bud Light.
• The most-represented category was food and beverage with 17 total ads; media and telecom were second with seven ads each, followed by the auto industry with six ads.
• Five of the top ten most-watched and most-engaged 2019 Super Bowl commercials were from food and drink brands.
• An overarching trend was the focus on Millennial-based nostalgia and references (likely because of that generation’s buying power). For example, musicians popular in the ’90s and early 2000’s such as Ludacris, Backstreet Boys, and Lil’ John were featured in this year’s spots, and the traditional kids’ cartoon Looney Tunes was featured in Mercedes-Benz’s ad. Leading talent from top Millennial-era entertainment were also present like Jeff Bridges’ The Dude from The Big Lebowski; featured celebrities were also heavily female-leaning with Christina Applegate from Anchorman, Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw from Sex & the City, and Sarah Michelle Gellar a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
• Amazon claimed the most-watched commercial, with Hyundai, Amazon Prime Video, Budweiser, and TurboTax dominating places 2-5.
• Marvel Entertainment claimed the top two most-engaged clips from this year’s Super Bowl spots, followed by Budweiser, the NFL, and Michelob ULTRA.

Most-Watched: “Not Everything Makes the Cut”

• Released by Amazon
• 38.8M views
• 15.1K engagements
• 14.6M V3, 38.4M V7
• <0.1x ER3 & ER7

Most-Engaged: “Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame – Big Game TV Spot”

• Released by Marvel Entertainment
• 560K engagements
• 2x ER3
• 15.3M views
• 13.8M V3

Highest V3: “Not Everything Makes the Cut”

• Released by Amazon
• 14.6M V3, 38.4M V7
• 38.8M views
• 15.1K engagements
• <0.1x ER3 & ER7

Highest ER3: “Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame – Big Game TV Spot”

• Released by Marvel Entertainment
• 2x ER3
• 560K engagements
• 15.3M views
• 13.8M V3

Don’t forget to check out our rundown of this year’s overall Super Bowl content performance on both YouTube and Facebook (hint: food brands took over YouTube, while media and entertainment scored well on Facebook!).

The post 2019 Super Bowl Commercials: Who Won on YouTube? appeared first on Tubular Labs.

While brands have adjusted the social media formula to create extra content around their product or service, the door has also been thrown wide open for publishers and influencers to maximize opportunities to create content around the tentpole event. For example, media and entertainment companies generated huge views from a range of content around the Big Game and the run-up to it on Facebook in January 2019. We’ve already confirmed that on Facebook, Super Bowl food-focused videos generated 10.1M views last month, 6.2M of which were claimed by media companies. That already gives you a clue as to the blossoming side industry for non-sports related Super Bowl content. Some quick highlights of our findings from Super Bowl views on Facebook include:

• On Facebook, media publishers generated 65% of total views around the Super Bowl in January 2019.
• Of the 80.9M Super Bowl views generated by media and sports media publishers, 18.8M views were for videos between 2 and 5 mins.
• 5.5M views were generated for content that lasted over 20 mins.
• The NFL was the top sports media publisher for Super Bowl content on Facebook last month.

Media Companies Earned 65% of Super Bowl Views

In January 2019, 118M views of Super Bowl content was generated on YouTube, and 123M views were generated on Facebook. On YouTube, brand uploads accounted for 57% of views, with just 12% generated by media companies, but the story is different on Facebook. There, media companies’ views accounted for 65% of the 123M generated! Super Bowl uploads from media companies also generated twice the engagement rate of brand uploads.

We can confirm that Barstool Sports, the NFL, and Delish were three of top media and sports media companies generating significant video views around Super Bowl content:

1. Barstool Sports (7.1M views)
2. NFL (6.8M)
3. Delish (4.3M)
4. ESPN (4.1M)
5. New England Patriots (2.9M)
6. The Herd (1.9M)
7. Skip and Shannon: Undisputed (1.8M)
8. SportsCenter (1.8M)
9. NowThis Weed (1.5M)
10. FOX Sports (1.5M)

So which Super Bowl videos from media publishers were the most-watched on Facebook in January 2019? Let’s take a look:

1. Tom Brady preparing for the 2047 Super Bowl – Barstool Sports (3.7M views)
2. How To Make Sheet Pan Quesadillas – Delish (1.7M)
3. Eagles fan hits wall – ESPN (1.6M)
4. Every other fan seeing the Patriots go to the Super Bowl for the 3rd straight year – Barstool Sports (1.5M)
5. CBS Rejected Acreage Holdings’ Cannabis PSA to Air During Super Bowl – NowThis Weed (1.5M)

Barstool Sports scored two out of the top five most-watched Super Bowl videos uploaded by media publishers in January 2019. With 2.7M followers on the platform, the publisher generated 272M views last month, with its poke at Tom Brady coming in at the 9th most-viewed in January.

Group Nine Media property NowThis Weed generated 1.5M views when they ran with a story about CBS rejecting Acreage Holdings’ bid to air their to their pro-cannabis PSA during Super Bowl LIII. While medical marijuana is legal in 33 states in the US, recreational use is only permitted in 10, so the 30-second commercial was always going to be a risk for the legacy broadcaster to air. Ultimately, they chose to decline, stating that ad was “not consistent with the network’s advertising policies.” While the ad may not air, Acreage Holdings garnered a great deal of on and off-line publicity from the CBS decision. NowThis Weed were one of a number of digital-first news outlets to run with the story on Facebook, but the only one to generate so many views for it:

The post 65% of January’s Facebook Super Bowl Views Hailed from Media Publishers appeared first on Tubular Labs.

1. 36.6% of YouTube Super Bowl videos uploaded in January 2019 were food-related.
2. 43.2M views on food content around Super Bowl 2019 were seen on YouTube in the last 31 days.
3. 42.8M (99%) of those food-related videos were uploaded by brands.
4. The top brand creators on YouTube include Budweiser, Michelob, Tostitos, & Doritos.
5. On Facebook, Super Bowl food-focused videos generated 10.1M views in January 2019.
6. Of those 10.1M Facebook views, 6.2M were generated by media companies.
7. Two of the top five most-viewed Facebook videos were not in the English language.

Using exclusive data, we looked at food content around Super Bowl uploaded to both YouTube and Facebook in January to see which brands and creators generated the most views in the run-up to Sunday’s final between the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots (who happen to have a fantastic social video presence).

Brands Easily Take the Biscuit Across YouTube Super Bowl Videos

In January 2019, 43.2M views around Super Bowl-related food content were uploaded to YouTube, meaning 36.6% of total Super Bowl videos focused in on game day snacks and recipes. Of those 43.3M views, a staggering 99% (42.8M) were accounted for by brands such as Budweiser, Michelob, Tostitos, & Doritos.

YouTube is still the go-to platform for brands to upload their Super Bowl ads before the game, so it’s no surprise that the top five most-viewed uploads in our Super Bowl/food spotlight are all ads. Budweiser takes the top spot with their charming commercial, continuing their legacy of being one of the most-viewed Super Bowl ad creators of all time:

1. Wind Never Felt Better | 2019 Super Bowl Commercial – Budweiser (14M)
2. The Pure Experience – Michelob ULTRA (10.8M)
3. Public Super Bowl Announcement – Millions :15 – Tostidos (6.5M)
4. Chance the Rapper x Backstreet Boys Super Bowl – Doritos (4.6M)
5. Super Bowl Teaser 2019 – M&M’s (4.2M)

In terms of video views, Budweiser scored a total of 14.1M for food-related Super Bowl content last month, with Michelob ULTRA at second place with 11.8M views.30

On Facebook, Publishers Earn Millions of Views for Recipe Walkthroughs

While the top YouTube views of Super Bowl food-related content came from brands, on Facebook it’s a very different story. Of the 10.1M views generated, 6.2M were generated by media and entertainment companies, 2.8M by brands, and 1M by influencers.

With a staggering 69% of views accounted for by media publishers, it’s clear that those creators have tapped into a demand for “how-to” content and food ideas around the Big Game. In terms of the top winners, Hearst Corporation’s Delish was the most-viewed media company with 4.3M views, followed by Kiwilimon with 1.1M, and Twisted with 552K views. In fact, Delish videos accounted for five out of the top 10 most-viewed clips:

1. Albóndigas de Spaghetti a la Boloñesa con Tocino – Kiwilimon (2.1M)
2. How To Make Sheet Pan Quesadillas – Delish (1.7M)
3. How To Make Buffalo Cauliflower Bites – Delish (912K)
4. What happened when we asked Steve Carell to star in our Super Bowl spot – Pepsi (852K)
5. Bye bye vote – Famille du lait (740K)

Interestingly, two of the top five most-viewed Facebook videos were not in the English language. In terms of video duration, the majority of Facebook video views generated around Super Bowl food content were between 30 seconds and 1 minute, which is — pardon the pun — obviously the perfect snackable length for the viewer.

Good luck to both teams on the 3rd! And don’t forget to check out our roundup of brands’ official 2019 Super Bowl ads.

The post 37% of Last Month’s YouTube Super Bowl Videos Featured Food appeared first on Tubular Labs.

To figure out which companies have accomplished this so far, we turned to the 2019 Super Bowl ads listed on USA Today’s Ad Meter and measured how they’ve performed. Out of 25 publicly-available commercials uploaded to YouTube, we discovered six of the top 10 most-watched spots came from the food and beverage industry, with more than half of all Ad Meter’s 2019 Super Bowl ads falling into this category! In addition, a few brands got a little extra boost from releasing trailers of their commercials. Read on for our analysis, or jump to our YouTube rankings below.

Post Updated: 02/02/2019 11:50 A.M. PT – As of this writing, the initial top 10 ads have switched places significantly in terms of most views, as have a few of the ads in spots #11-25. We won’t be updating the initial top five list written February 1 and published below, but the rankings list is now up-to-date! Also, six of the top 10 most-watched ads are still from the food and beverage industry, so that stat is unchanged.

Food & Beverage Brands Dominate 2019 Super Bowl Ads

The most-represented category in this year’s Super Bowl commercials was food and drinks, which accounted for 13 of the 25 ads submitted to Ad Meter. This may not be a huge surprise, considering how many Super Bowl commercials in the past have come from the food and beverage industry; plus, it’s certainly no secret that Big Game parties usually have more than generous spreads, and food is top-of-mind right after the referees’ calls.

The following data is accurate as of February 1, 2019:

#1 Budweiser

The food and beverage brand currently in the lead in terms of views is Budweiser, whose yearly Super Bowl ads tend to be audience favorites as they involve the beer company’s famous Clydesdale horses and dalmatian dog. The brand’s spot was no different, while also including the “do good” announcement of being sustainable by wind power. Budweiser’s ad boasts the most views and engagements of all 2019 Super Bowl ads to date at 14M views and 27.2K engagements since being uploaded on January 23; it also boasts an average 3-day view count (V3) of 1.4M.

#2 Stella Artois

Next up is beer producer Stella Artois with an ad featuring Sarah Jessica Parker and Jeff Bridges reliving their most famous characters but choosing to drink Stella instead of their traditional drinks. With 12.1M views and 14.2K engagements since its upload date of January 28, the spot is similar in nature to Budweiser’s in that it touches on the theme of doing good by mentioning its #PourItForward campaign to bring clean water to those in need. Stella’s ad also currently boasts the highest V3 of available data across these ads at a whopping 12M!

#3 DEVOUR Foods

DEVOUR Foods is currently in third with 11.9M views, 5.4K engagements, and a V3 of 4.8M thanks to its uncensored version of its “frozen food porn” ad, uploaded on January 23. The 30-second version of the spot uploaded on January 31 has also pulled in 4.6K views to date.

#4 Michelob ULTRA

Then, we see Michelob ULTRA’s “The Pure Experience” ASMR-influenced ad claiming #4 with 10.6M views, 3.2K engagements, and a 10.2M V3 since its upload on January 28. Fun fact: Michelob was the only brand to boast two different spots in the 2019 Super Bowl ads list!

#5 BON & VIV Sparkling Seltzer

Last but not least is another liquor-based brand called BON & VIV Sparkling Seltzer, whose mermaid-inspired Big Game spot currently has 9.8M views, 7.6K engagements, and a 491K V3 since its upload on January 24. Maybe it’s doing well because it also involves sharks?

Even More Touchdowns from Early Teasers

Of course, the food and beverage industry isn’t the only one with a huge presence at this year’s Big Game. The rest of the 2019 Super Bowl ads came from the auto, retail, apparel and accessories, tech, telecom, entertainment, and personal care categories. Hyundai, Amazon, Amazon Prime Video, and Olay were the only non-food brands to claim spots in the top ten most-watched spots to date, with Prime Video’s official season 1 trailer for Hanna garnering roughly 8M more views and 600 more engagements than the clip linked by Ad Meter.

However, an interesting trend related to this year’s Big Game ads comes from what brands across all industries were doing before the debut of their official spots. For example, Olay pre-gamed it by releasing an official trailer of its ad on YouTube two days before its official spot; this clip has pulled in 3M views and more than 1K engagements. In a similar vein, Doritos released its Chance the Rapper and Backstreet Boys teaser on January 17 and garnered 2.1M views and 1.5K engagements. And a teaser from M&M’S launched on January 22 and earned nearly 3.9M views and over 300 engagements.

These are only a few examples of brands that released teasers or trailers of their official Super Bowl commercials. This tactic may have helped build anticipation for the official spots; it likely helped both Olay and Doritos, whose official spots now have more views than their accompanying teasers. Just a thought: brands may want to take note of this teaser idea and apply it to their own video advertising campaigns for next year’s Super Bowl.

To finish up, here’s the Ad Meter list of 2019’s Super Bowl ads you can expect to see this weekend, in order of most views. If V3 is available, it’s also included (data is accurate as of 11:45 a.m. PST):

1. Amazon: “Not Everything Makes the Cut – Amazon Super Bowl LIII Commercial” (15.8M views, 4.1K engagements, 11M V3)
2. Hyundai: “The Elevator | 2019 Super Bowl Commercial | Hyundai” (15.1M views, 1.7K engagements)
3. Budweiser: “Budweiser | Wind Never Felt Better | 2019 Super Bowl Commercial” (15M views, 27.6K engagements, 1.4M V3)
4. DEVOUR Foods: “DEVOUR Food Porn | Big Game 2019 Uncensored” (13.3M views, 6.1K engagements, 4.8M V3)
5. Stella Artois: “Stella Artois | Change Up The Usual | 2019” (12.4M views, 14.3K engagements, 12M V3)
6. Michelob ULTRA: “The Pure Experience | Michelob ULTRA Pure Gold Super Bowl 2019” (11.8M views, 19K engagements, 10.2M V3)
7. Amazon Prime Video: “Hanna Season 1 – Super Bowl Ad | Prime Video” (11M views, 1.3K engagements, 9.1M V3)
8. BON & VIV Spiked Seltzer: “BON & VIV Spiked Seltzer – ‘The Pitch’” (10M views, 7.6K engagements, 491K V3)
9. Olay: “Olay Killer Skin | Super Bowl LIII Official Commercial” (9.6M views, 3.2K engagements, 6.8M V3)
10. Doritos: “Doritos | Chance the Rapper x Backstreet Boys Super Bowl Official Video #NowItsHot” (5.5M views, 10.1K engagements, 4.1M V3)
11. Michelob ULTRA: “Robots | Michelob ULTRA Super Bowl 2019” (3M views, 45 engagements, 179K V3)
12. Pepsi: “More Than OK – #SBLIII” (2.4M views, 786 engagements, 114K V3)
13. Pringles: “Sad Device” (960K views, 186 engagements, 275K V3)
14. Expensify: “2 Chainz x Adam Scott | Expensify :30 Super Bowl Commercial 2019” (673K views, 52 engagements)
15. Mercedes-Benz: “Mercedez-Benz 2019 A-Class ‘Say the Word’ Big Game Commercial” (624K views, 566 engagements)
16. Colgate: “All-New Colgate Total SF – Close Talker” (135K views, 95 engagements, 832 V3)
17. Toyota: “Toni | RAV4 Hybrid | Toyota” (96K views, 183 engagements, 73.9K V3)
18. M&M’S: “M&M’S Chocolate Bar Super Bowl Commercial 2019 (featuring Christina Applegate) – ‘Bad Passengers’” (71K views, 278 engagements)
19. Mr. Peanut: “Planters | ‘Mr. Peanut Is Always There in Crunch Time’ | 2019 Big Game Commercial :30” (60K views, 15 engagements, 36.8K V3)
20. Avocados from Mexico: “Top Dog | Avocados From Mexico 2019 Ad | :30” (48K views, 58 engagements)
21. bubly: “Michael Buble vs bubly Super Bowl 2019 Ad” (27.6K views, 50 engagements)
22. Skechers: “Tony Romo – Skechers Big Game ‘Easy’ Ad” (20.8K views, 25 engagements, 12.8K V3)
23. Mint Mobile: “Chunky Style Milk? That’s Not Right | Mint Mobile 2019 Super Bowl Ad” (19.6K views, 344 engagements)
24. WeatherTech: “Scout: WeatherTech Super Bowl Commercial” (15.5K views, 28 engagements)
25. Sprint: “Best of Both Worlds | Sprint Big Game” (15.4K views, 65 engagements)

The post Which 2019 Super Bowl Ads Are Winning on YouTube? Here’s the Full List! appeared first on Tubular Labs.

Despite any personal opinions or feelings viewers may have about Gillette’s ad, this controversy has certainly worked wonders in terms of generating views and engagement for the clip across social video platforms. Let’s take a look at how it’s performing so far, starting with the platform where the ad really took off — Twitter.

Twitter Provides a Conversation Outlet for “We Believe”

Gillette’s distribution strategy for its “We Believe” ad was as typical as any company’s might be — take the 30-second and one-minute-30-second versions of the ad, and post both to Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

However, the results of this strategy were very untypical; not only did the longer versions of the ad gain the most views across all three platforms, but the ad uploaded to Twitter pulled in the most overall views by far. Within one day of going live on the tweeting platform, the 1:30 cut of the “We Believe” ad generated more than 13 million views!

Compare this to 7 million on YouTube for the same time period, and just over 3.2 million on Facebook. To date, Gillette’s ad has pulled in 27.2 million views on Twitter, 19.8 million on YouTube, and 7.2 million on Facebook.

While Gillette has used Twitter as part of its social media strategy before, it’s never seen this amount of success with video on that platform. To put the numbers above into greater perspective, consider that over the last three years, Gillette has posted 184 videos to Twitter, and the brand has used the platform as its main video distribution outlet ahead of Facebook and YouTube, respectively. Those 184 videos have generated around 10 million views to date, but “We Believe” reached 2.4x those views in under three days!

“Boys will be boys”? Isn’t it time we stopped excusing bad behavior? Re-think and take action by joining us at https://t.co/giHuGDEvlT. #TheBestMenCanBe pic.twitter.com/hhBL1XjFVo

— Gillette (@Gillette) January 14, 2019

In a world where Facebook and YouTube claim the majority of online video views (as proven by the billions of views every month we see on the leaderboards), these stats should make all brands take note: Twitter is not a social video platform to overlook. If anything, the Twitter data surrounding Gillette’s ad proves the tweeting site is still a fantastic place to spark conversation around brands’ videos, especially when they hit on controversial topics.

Millions of Engagements Equal High Reach

Speaking of Facebook and YouTube, these two platforms played a very unique role in the way viewers engaged with Gillette’s “We Believe” ad.

While Twitter claimed a good share of the ad’s engagements at 825K favorites, comments, and retweets to date, the spot’s YouTube upload has taken the lead over these last three days and landed at 937K engagements and 2.5x the average engagement rates on that platform.

But the most interesting aspect of the engagements around “We Believe” is the attention the YouTube video received on Facebook when shared to that platform: the non-native shares on Facebook received 1.1 million engagements! Compare this to the ad’s native Facebook upload, which only received about 329K shares, less than half of those seen even on Twitter.

So what does this mean? Essentially, viewers of Gillette’s newest ad have clearly chosen Twitter and YouTube as the primary platforms for viewing and interacting with the spot. Now, unfortunately for Gillette, a lot of these interactions have been negative. Currently, “We Believe” has pulled in over one million dislikes on YouTube, an unparalleled ratio of 2:1 dislikes to likes.

For reference, Justin Bieber’s “Baby” (which held the unfortunate title of the most-disliked video on YouTube for 8 years until December 2018) has a dislike-to-like ratio of 48.94%; compare that to 66.45% for Gillette and you can start to understand the level of negative sentiment surrounding its newest ad.

Gillette Tops Nike’s 2018 Ad Push in Terms of Impact

It’s not all doom and gloom for Gillette — far from it. Many people are comparing “We Believe” to an ad Nike released in autumn 2018 featuring NFL player Colin Kaepernick.

That spot, dubbed “Dream Crazy,” was also highly controversial as it addressed the issue of NFL players kneeling in protest against police brutality and racial injustice. Both ads make very bold statements about divisive social topics, but only Gillette’s came out on top in terms of generating talk, reach, and reactions.

Both Nike’s “Dream Crazy” and Gillette’s “We Believe” garnered similar view counts on YouTube in their first three days: 15.8 million and 14.5 million, respectively. However, Nike’s ad obtained 153K positive likes on YouTube, whereas Gillette’s ad on that platform pulled in 540K positives.

Gillette also managed to generate more engagement and online discussion about its YouTube ad, which saw a solid 2.5x engagement rate after three days (1.5x higher than the platform’s baseline average); Nike’s ad, on the other hand, only saw a three-day engagement rate of 0.4x.

Additionally, when we looked at Gillette’s engagement rates from the last three years on Twitter, the brand has obviously reached far more people than ever before; Gillette claimed almost 43K total engagements over the last three years not counting “We Believe,” but hit 753K engagements on Twitter in just two days, a comparative reach of 1766%!

Sometimes, in the world of the marketing and PR, controversy is what gets your brand to the forefront, and Gillette currently knows this better than anyone. Will the brand choose to release similarly-inciting content in the future? We’ll have to wait and see.

The post Nike Vs. Gillette: “We Believe” Ad Wins Big with Massive Reach appeared first on Tubular Labs.

This year, the speaker who stole the show was Deanie Elsner, President of Kellogg’s Snacks Division, who shared how YouTube has transformed the way they approach their brand campaigns today. Coincidentally, her story also started in 2015.

Now, the $4 billion Snack business unit at Kellogg’s has over 1,000 employees and 8 plants that manufacture iconic brands such as Pringles, Keebler, and Cheez-It. She is a passionate disruptor, taking on the toughest challenges, using her head and heart to set bold direction and inspiring her team to achieve great things. And she has led the turn-around of three businesses across three different categories within both domestic and international geographies.

Her presentation at Brandcast 2018 knocked my socks off. And I knew instantly that you would want to drill down into what she said. (I also knew you’d want to read, “Video trends: 8 critical industry takeaways from NewFronts 2018” first. But, I juggled the order in which I had planned to drill down into some of the events to move this up in the order.)

Now, I’m going to give you a couple of options. You can watch the 7-minute, 13-second long video embedded in my column, you can read the transcript of her remarks below, or you can do both. Hey, it’s up to you. But, you will want to know the Kellogg’s Snacks success story.

Kellogg’s: How YouTube Changed Our Understanding of the Consumer

Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube: Please welcome Deanie Elsner, President of U.S. Snacks for Kellogg’s.

Deanie Elsner: As a 100-year-old company with a portfolio of heritage brands, including Cheez-It, Pop-Tarts, and Frosted Flakes cereal, we never take for granted that we need to be more than just a packaged food company. Kellogg’s is actually an important member of the family at moments throughout the entire day. So, at this point I have to believe the question you’re asking yourselves is: “What the heck could a company like Kellogg’s tell us about technology or how we’re going to connect with consumers in an authentic way digitally?” That’s a very good question.

When I started at Kellogg’s in late 2015, it was a time of transformation. While we participated in the growing $90 billion snacks category, Kellogg’s snacks brands were not keeping pace. Sales were declining and it was clear that the center of our challenge was the fact that we were losing touch with our consumers. We had to embrace the idea that the consumer is the new CEO and is calling the shots. And we had to recognize that they’re turning to social media and digital platforms like YouTube to communicate, engage with their friends, and connect with the brands they love.

But the problem was our presence on many of those platforms was nonexistent. For example, our spend on YouTube in 2015 was zero. We were aware that many conversations about our brand were happening on every platform every day, but we lacked the understanding about how to use that insight to make meaningful connections with our consumers versus just touching them with a banner ad. Our long-term success was depending on shifting to a digital-first communications approach customized to the individual.

Our first opportunity to advance this digital-first thinking was for Rice Krispies Treats. Now, if you ask most kids or adults whether they like Rice Krispies Treats, their faces light up. It’s one of those treats people just can’t get enough of. So in partnership with our creative agency, we created a campaign around the theme of “So much to love.” The first part of this campaign started with changing our packaging so that consumers could write personalized messages directly on the wrapper. However, the breakthrough to this campaign was figuring out how to leverage the concepts from the trend study we did on Google Correlate, which showed a 93% correlation between conversations about school snacks and the concept of parents leaving lunchbox notes for their kids. That insight became the “A-Ha” moment for our digital campaign.

Now, the challenge that was in front of us was: “How do you individualize that idea so that our message resonated with consumers when they’re the most receptive?” We were lucky to be one of the first brands in the US to use a new tool called “YouTube Director Mix,” which allowed us to customize our creative with ease, resulting in over 250 personalized assets that could be delivered to consumers in different contexts on YouTube.

For example, if somebody was engaging in a video about cooking, they might see our six-second ad featuring a text with the wrapper that said, “Food Equals Love.” The best part of this is we were able to do this all within a reasonable production budget, which for us was a home run.

So, did it work? Absolutely! We saw that the director mix ads outperformed our banners ads by 2 times. In addition, it generated a 29% lift in ad recall as measured by Google Brandlift, coupled with a 15% lift in consideration.  What was most compelling is that, we saw close to a 4% lift in our sales and market share growth, despite the fact that we had 20% fewer retail displays.

Rice Krispies Treats went from a brand that had never advertised before to a brand with an ROI that exceeded external benchmarks. Even paying back in its first year. This campaign became the watershed moment for Kellogg’s because it opened our eyes to the power of using Google and YouTube to deliver the right message to the right consumer at the right time. The success became the catalyst for other Kellogg’s brands to rethink their marketing strategies, as well. In fact, the success of Rice Krispies Treats led us to reimagine our strategy for Pringles.

Now, as most of you know, Pringles is a unique chip from everything else in the market in large part because of its insanely accurate flavors and the fact that it’s stackable. In partnership with Google we found thousands of food hack videos on YouTube featuring fans creating their own recipe by stacking their favorite flavors. The Pringles team seized on this insight and created a campaign in the lead-up to the Super Bowl that was grounded in the premise of flavor stacking. We partnered with YouTube to unleash a series of six-second bumpers encouraging consumers to try one of the 286,927 combinations available.

Then, in partnership with SNL’s Bill Hader, we created our hero spots and uploaded them on the platform as part of YouTube’s AdBlitz program. The results were spectacular. In the end, Pringles delivered over 60 million impressions, garnering huge levels of brand engagement and accelerated growth. Beyond that, we found one in five consumers who were aware of the campaign actually did their own flavor stacking.

And it goes from there. Now, brands across Kellogg’s are partnering with our agencies and YouTube to create value for our consumers, while delivering business results.  This is why our ROIs have seen year on year double digit growth and why YouTube has earned the honor of being our #1 online video partner in just two years. These two campaigns not only transformed the way we think about digital – but they completely flipped the paradigm of advertising campaigns across Kellogg’s. We went from spending very little on digital platforms, to now spending 60-70% of our overall marketing budget. In fact, since 2015 we’ve increased our spend on YouTube each year, including a 300% increase last year alone. And, in many cases, our digital campaigns are now driving the creative and strategy behind everything else we do.

Now, there’s no doubt that it’s a challenging time to be a Marketer today. While heritage brands like ours have enjoyed decades of mind-share with consumers, it’s clear we’re living in a time when technology and social media has the power to shift conversations about brands incredibly fast. But the tools we get from Google help us get smarter, engage with our consumers better, and in many ways, improve our strategies for our campaigns overall.

My advice to the senior leaders in this room is to give your teams the runway they need to take calculated risks, to partner with your media and creative agencies to try new things, and to develop new ways to personalize your creative so that you can stay in lockstep with the ever-changing consumer.

NewFronts Presenters: 2018 Video Statistics

Tubular has put together a full ratings sheet with all the NewFronts 2018 presenters top properties listing their Facebook March Views, Facebook V30, YouTube March Views, and YouTube V30. Click below for the full list!

The post Video ROI: Why Kellogg’s Spends 70% of its Advertising Budget With YouTube appeared first on Tubular Labs.

Video as a broadcast medium has never been so popular with viewers than it is in 2018. In Q1 2018 alone,  2.5 Trillion videos were consumed across not only the main social platforms, but also via owned and operated media properties. However, the popularity of ad-blocking software installed by Internet users poses a real threat to brands, video publishers, and the advertising industry. The software threatens traditional interruption advertising, such as pre-roll video, especially as mobile ad blocking reaches mass mainstream penetration. However, sponsored video content (where payment is given to a publisher to create and distribute video content that takes the same form and qualities of the publishers’s original content) is cutting through the noise to reach engaged target audiences.

To date, Tubular has measured over 107K sponsors, 661K sponsored videos and nearly 72B sponsored video views via its Dealmaker product, so let’s take a look at 10 insights into sponsored content that you may not have been aware of.

Video Trends: 10 Sponsored Video Insights

Sponsored video content can have a greater persuasive impact on viewers than a straight sales pitch. Brands have the opportunity to cut through the noise, find the right content opportunities, and grow their target audience by successfully partnering with publishers and influencers who already have that reach online.

#1 In the past 12 months, the top 5 Facebook brand partners have generated 2.4B views, and 36M engagements.

Between them Tasty, VT, Blossom, NowThis, and UNILAD have uploaded 585 videos to Facebook in collaboration with 305 different brand sponsors.

#2 Food content is the most viewed sponsored video category

Between 01/01/2018 and 04/30/2018 food content claimed the number one spot for sponsored video views on Facebook in the US. Using Tubular’s industry standard V3 metric, we can confirm that 460M views were generated in the first 4 months of 2018, with an average 292M views in the first 3 days of the campaigns.

Halo Top Creamery partnered with BuzzFeed’s Tasty to create one of 2018’s most successful sponsored campaigns to date. 9.4M views, and 133K engagements were created on the Tasty Facebook page for the ice cream giant.

#3 Across Europe, the UK is the biggest market for sponsored content on Facebook

Germany, Spain, and Italy are emerging markets in the race for sponsored content views on Facebook, but the UK currently leads with a staggering 2.9B views in 2017.

#4 In 2017, sponsored video content grew over 100% on all metrics across key markets in Europe

Uploads, views and engagement with sponsored content grew an impressive 100% across key markets in Europe such as the UK, France, Germany, and Italy. In France, views of sponsored videos grew by 279% compared to 2016.

#5 In the UK, sponsored video content in the Science & Tech, and Entertainment verticals are growing fast on both YouTube and Facebook.

Food and drink, news and politics, and toys and automotive are also growing categories for sponsored video content across both platforms.

Find out more about the 2018 social video trends & insights across Europe

#6 Influencers are creating new and engaged audiences for brands on YouTube

While brands tend to skew towards digital first publishers such as VT, Tasty, and Tastemade as their sponsored partners on Facebook, on YouTube it is the established influencers like Dude Perfect, Experiment The Crusher, and Ryan ToysReview that are collaborating with the big name brands. Influencers have strong audiences, and they already know the ins and outs of creating catchy video content, still the favored format across social platforms.

In the last 365 days, Dude Perfect has been the top partner for brands on YouTube and has generated 385M views and 8.9M engagements for companies such as Kay Jewelers, Whistle Sports, PlayHearthstone, Ruffles, and YouTube itself. The channel’s most viewed partnership was with Kingsford Charcoal on a ‘Real Life Trick Shots’ walk-through which attracted over 78M views (15M in the first 3 days according to Tubular’s V3 metric):

#7 Media Brands are the most active sponsors of video content

In Q1 2018, 16K videos were created by influencers and publishers in collaboration with 3K different media brands (such as Sky, MTV, Netflix and Marvel).

#8 Between 1st January and 30th April 2018 5,733 brands sponsored 24K videos that were directly uploaded to publisher and influencer properties on YouTube.

Epic Games was just one sponsor who benefitted from working with influencers across the site, particularly on content around one of the most talked-about games of all time, Fortnite: Battle Royale. During the first four months of 2018, Epic partnered with 133 different gaming superstars or top creators like MrBeast, Battle Universe, and jacksfilms to upload walk-throughs, reviews, and other Fortnite-centric footage to reach over 250M YouTube viewers.

Tubular confirms that total all-time views of Fortnite video content across the main social platforms just surpassed a mind-blowing 36B so while the demand for the co-op sandbox survival game is through the roof, it makes perfect sense for Epic to take advantage of this thirst to reach as many viewers as possible through sponsored, authentic, video partnerships. This ‘NERF Fortnite Battle Royale Challenge!’, sponsored by Epic and published on Battle Universe’s YouTube channel has to date generated over 8.3M views for the gaming company.

#9 43% of US advertisers are planning to increase their spending on influencer marketing in the next 12 months

In a recent survey by the Association of National Advertisers, 75% of brands and advertisers polled confirmed they were actively engaged in working with influencers, with 43% planning to increase their spending on it in the next 12 months. The social platforms of choice for advertisers are Facebook (86%) and Instagram (84%).

The survey also found that 66% of brands using influencer marketing are working with ‘mid-level’ or ‘Micro Influencers‘, which keeps cost levels affordable and enables brands to increase reach within niche markets. These highly influential creators can be found across all the social video platforms, and sponsors need to look at employing a multi-platform strategy when investing in video content. Keep reading Tubular Insights to find out which brands are using influencers and winning.

#10 Average view count for top sponsored videos is 10M in first 3 days

In the last 90 days, the top 15 most viewed videos sponsored by US brands averaged 10M views per video in the first 3 days after upload.

Sponsored Video Insights: Further Resources

• Are Sponsored Videos More Effective than Pre-roll Video Ads?
• Tubular Labs Top Sponsored Videos Leaderboard of the Week
• Why Big Brands Need Sponsored Video Not Christmas TV Ads
• How to Increase Engagement on Sponsored Video Campaigns
• Gaming and Entertainment Rule the Sponsored Video World
• Pet Industry Scores Big with 2M Average Video Views for Sponsored Content
• How to Stay on the Right Side of the FTC When Publishing a Sponsored Video
• Video Trends: Why Sponsored Content is the Future of Digital Advertising
• How Jungle Creations is Winning Sponsored Video on Facebook
• Why Paying Celebrity Influencers $500K for a #Sponsored Video Ad May Not Give You the Best ROI

Create Winning Brand Content Partnerships with Tubular & PitchPro

Tubular provides independent analytics for the entire video ecosystem, allowing publishers, agencies, and brands to succeed together – growing organic audience and branded content partnerships. Tubular, has the most comprehensive database of sponsored content on the market today, tracking over 107K sponsors, 661K sponsored videos and nearly 72B sponsored video views . Built for all media companies & publishers, Tubular arms you with the intelligence you need to sell more deals and grow revenue.

The post Video Analytics: 10 Things You Need to Know About Sponsored Video appeared first on Tubular Labs.

According to the Ogilvy/TYT survey, 68% of the nearly 2,400 respondents reported their average online video sessions last more than 30 minutes, with 40% reporting average sessions of over an hour. The data also suggested these are frequently occurring events, with 73% reporting having 30+ minute viewing sessions more than three days a week and 29% saying they view for 60 minutes or more — per session — on a daily basis.

Now, the continuous engagement of viewers over long periods of time is one of the more important trends in the digital video marketing business. The longer and more frequently people watch video, the more fertile the landscape becomes for brands, influencers, and publishers. But, the concept of “session viewing” overturns a lot of conventional wisdom and old habits, too.

Session Viewing and Video Consumers

In a post entitled, “7 Lessons from Established Online Video Viewers,” Rob Davis, the Head of Digital, US at Ogilvy, said, “The data suggests a major disconnect between how consumers watch videos and how advertising is presented to them. Marketers tend to look at advertising on a per-asset basis while quantifying success by tracking views, completion rates and click-throughs of individual videos. This single asset focus disregards the fact that the audience is likely engaged in a session where an advert is just a small part of their overall viewing experience. It may be time for brands to change their thinking from ‘How do I get someone to watch my pre-roll before a video?’ to ‘How do I integrate my brand message into a consumer viewing session?’”

The concept of “session viewing” also has significant implications for the 107,000 brands that have sponsored content as well as the 15,000 influencers and publishers that have sold over 660,000 sponsored videos that Tubular tracks. In fact, it’s probably time to start asking if sponsored videos are more effective in long, cross-platform sessions than just running a pre-roll unit before one of those videos.

Another finding of the Ogilvy/TYT survey provides the likely answer to this question. Online video consumers prefer advertising that is related to the content they are viewing. In fact, three out of four respondents wished online ads were relevant to the shows they are watching when the ad runs. And 57% reported paying more attention to ads featuring talent from the specific video they are watching. That’s good news for content creators and media companies who are working directly with brands and agencies to develop sponsored videos.

In his post, Davis observed, “It harkens back to the earliest days of television when cast members of a show would also be involved with advertising segments. (Online video) viewers respond to the same thing. The viewing audience builds bonds with the talent they watch online; thus advertising featuring that same talent feels more connected to the overall session experience. Given that (online video) is a two-way platform where viewers and talent can – and do – communicate, the more we mix the style and creative of favorite programming into advertising, the more likely the viewer is to feel the ad is an extension of their session rather than a disruptor.” You can watch Rob talk more about the report in this video:

Why The Young Turks Want Your Coffee Mug on Cenk Uygur’s Desk

There was a panel discussion of the findings of the Ogilvy/TYT survey at an unofficial event held during the 2018 NewFronts at the Ogilvy offices in New York. The panel included Davis, Cenk Uygur, the Host and Founder of The Young Turks, and Deanna Brown, the President and COO of TYT Network. The discussion covered a wide range of topics, but here is what was said about why The Young Turks, which has an advertising-supported business model, would really prefer to have your coffee mug on Cenk Uygur’s desk.

The TYT Network includes 30 owned and operated and partner shows such as The Young Turks, What the Flick?!, ThinkTank, TYT Sports, TYT Interviews, TYT Politics, TYT Investigates, Pop Trigger, Nerd Alert and more. Across YouTube and Facebook, the TYT Network has more than 8 billion lifetime video views, gets over 200 million monthly unique video views, and 12+ million total subscribers. According to the most recent comScore ratings, TYT ranks #1 in News and Politics on all digital platforms among the millennial audience (18-24).

Rob Davis – Head of Digital, US at Ogilvy: “How’s it going, in terms of your platform expansion? I know that you started in pre-YouTube days. I know you went from YouTube, the app, and Facebook. What kinds of things are you looking at in order to increase visibility for the TYT Network?”

Cenk Uygur – Host and Founder of The Young Turks: “How much can we say?”

Deanna Brown – President and COO of TYT Network: “As much as you want.”

Rob Davis: “We get the scoop, right here.”

Cenk Uygur: “So, let’s put it this way, we are very seriously looking at the OTTs and the skinny bundles and they are very seriously looking back at us. So, hold for announcements. So, here’s our view of the platforms: We’re platform agnostic. Of course, we care which one is performing better and, historically, YouTube has performed way better. Not just because it’s where we started and it had a lead in terms of video. Facebook, obviously, came much, much later. But, because it provides much longer watch times and more, and deeper engagement. And, by the way, more money. So, that also counts. Now, having said that, we have a huge audience on Facebook. It doesn’t monetize as well, but it is huge. Then, we’ve got Hulu, Roku, and Pluto. We’re on all those. Then you’ve got the OTTs coming up. We just launched our app a couple days ago, so the idea is huge top of the funnel and you get more and more engagement as you go down the funnel.”

Rob Davis: “So, as you’re thinking about those different platforms, are you thinking about different ways to advertise across them? You’ve been trying different kinds of formats. I know that you’ve done it somewhere, you’ve had TYT talent in the ads. That was something that popped up in the survey. What are you seeing, in terms of are there trends that you’re identifying on what you’re being asked to do?”

Cenk Uygur: “Well, Deanna knows a lot better. Let me just give you the historical context. Yeah, we put our host in the ads. And I didn’t have facts and studies to back it up. I do, now, which I feel great about. But, it was intuitive that they came to watch us so if we’re in the ad, they’re far, far more likely to watch it. So, we did a Crunchyroll ad, where I play some sort of cartoon monster or something. And then our other anchors were the reporters. It was just a ton of fun and everybody got that it was tongue-in-cheek. I did an ad for Squarespace where I built my own website, which is miraculous. Because the audience is aware that I suck at tech. Even though we have the longest running show on the internet, I could barely turn on a computer. And the tagline was, ‘So simple, even Cenk can do it.’”

Deanna Brown: “Yeah. I think what this is really about is: What is the most effective sort of messaging for brands? You established this notion of native advertising being kind of the most contextually relevant in session viewing. So, what you saw in the study was very complimentary with the feedback we were getting that the host could do what we’d call a ‘live read.’ That that could be the infamous coffee cup on the desk that he could really bring brands into the conversation in a meaningful way. And we could also then deliver, you know, non-skippable presence for brands throughout the broadcast of the flagship show and throughout, ultimately, all the different shows and properties throughout the network. The other part that we feel very strongly about beyond the native is just the opportunity to sort of amplify or activate. So, what we mean by that is to take this opportunity that appears on the show and then extend it into all of our 30-plus channels, so we really can immediately get to scale very quickly. And then, lastly of course, we have a great partnership with Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, and such. We can package directly to that inventory where they actually give you a very efficient and effective media bite by owning a shared voice and that type of thing. So, it’s early days for us in terms of native plus media, just-media, just-native. But, we’re in business to sort of really partner with brands and it’s an exciting time to be very much in this business.”

Cenk Uygur: “And I would just add, in new media, let the creators play around with your product. I know that it’s sometimes a little hard to let go. So, we have Aspiration Bank as a sponsor and they have the mug that Deanna’s referring to. I asked for a mug. I said, ‘What are you guys doing? I need a mug,’ right? And then the logo on the mug was just too light. So, I kept talking about how you could barely read Aspiration on it. Why? Because it constantly focuses people on Aspiration. It gets them trying to read it. It seems like I’m criticizing them but I’m not. It’s all playful so that everybody can focus in on Aspiration. And, finally, one night, I kept doing it over and over, again. Totally tongue-in-cheek but having fun with it. And tweets started rolling in. The first guy said, ‘Fine, Cenk, you broke me. I’m signing up for an Aspiration account.’ So the second guy responds to that tweet, ‘It was the mug,’ and then a whole bunch of them.”

Rob Davis: “But, when brands like Aspiration come to you and you know the different things about relevance and what works and what doesn’t work with your audience. Do you find that the media agencies are bringing you the ideas or are you now in a position where you’re kind of educating them and it’s more of a collaboration?”

Cenk Uygur: “Well, historically, it’s been largely us pushing it. We know our audience, right? And we know how to connect to that audience and we know what’s going to work and what’s not going to work and what’s going to seem authentic and what’s going to seem fake and is not going to resonate with them. But, I mean if folks have good ideas, we’re super receptive to it. I think it’s just a tiny bit of give and take so that we can craft so that that message is better delivered to that specific audience.”

What should brands, influencers, and publishers do with this strategic insight?

So, what should you do with this strategic insight? Well, if you are a brand, then you may want to put your logo on a coffee mug before you meet with The Young Turks. It will be well worth the investment. And, if you are an influencer or publisher that wants to sell sponsored videos, then you may want to encourage more brands to start asking if sponsored videos are more effective in long, cross-platform sessions than just running a pre-roll unit before one of your videos. Both you and your viewers will benefit if the concept of “session viewing” overturns a lot of conventional wisdom and old habits.

NewFronts Presenters: 2018 Video Statistics

Tubular has put together a full ratings sheet with all the NewFronts 2018 presenters top properties listing their Facebook March Views, Facebook V30, YouTube March Views, and YouTube V30. Click below for the full list!

The post Are Sponsored Videos More Effective than Pre-roll Video Ads? appeared first on Tubular Labs.