A week or two ago, the talk of the web was focused on how Apple’s iOS 6 will be excluding YouTube as a featured app. Amongst other things, many people think the main reason is simply that YouTube is owned by Apple’s top competitor in the smartphone market. However, as always, Google knew exactly what to do upon finding out that their YouTube app would not be included. Now, they have announced their new ad supported YouTube app that is available in the Apple App store. No matter what, Google was going to find a way to keep YouTube on the iPhone, and I am sure that consumers will be glad that they put in the effort, being that YouTube is the most popular video streaming platform out there.
The good news for marketers is that the app will now be ad supported. Mobile YouTube advertising will now be flourishing, even with mobile video advertising being such a new marketing technique. Traffic levels will be changing as well, hopefully for the better. This will be a direct result of the brand new format and features that are available with Google’s new YouTube app. In their blog announcement of the new app, YouTube promises things like thousands of new videos, a new YouTube channel guide, faster video browsing, and more ways to share videos with friends and family through social media platforms.
What better way to show Apple that they can’t keep YouTube off the iPhone than to come back with a free, ad supported, and improved version of the app they decided to exclude. In their blog, YouTube states that:
There’s even more to explore with the new YouTube app for iPhone and iPod touch, available for download from the App Store today. We’re working on an optimized version of the YouTube app for iPad in the coming months, and stay tuned for more details.
Marketing on YouTube has often proven to be a very successful method, but now YouTube will be relying on marketers to keep their app running on Apple devices. Even though Android has long been in the lead in the smartphone market, Apple keeps a close second place. It is very important to keep the app on Apple devices, considering the amount of people that used Apple for their mobile needs. Now that YouTube and Google are relying on marketers to keep their app running on the new iOS 6, there will hopefully be a huge boost in YouTube mobile marketing. It is kind of a “you scratch my back, I scratch yours,” situation.
Advertisers should be excited about an ad supported YouTube, considering YouTube’s popularity with consumers. However, the consumers can be excited too, knowing that their beloved video streaming app will remain relevant on Apple devices. YouTube concludes their blog post by stating:
You’ve already shown us you love YouTube on mobile—to the tune of 1 billion mobile views a day—so we can’t wait to see what you think about this new experience.
