In an effort to encourage big businesses to move their ad dollars away from traditional television, and toward digital, YouTube has launched “Google Preferred.” This new option packages the top 5% of videos in a variety of categories together for advertising. These videos, which get millions of hits each, are high quality, and provide an engaging experience for viewers. This is, of course, very attractive to major advertisers.
Google Preferred is currently available in 14 different categories including beauty, fashion, comedy, food and music, according to Robert Kyncl, the head of content at Google. By offering advertising options on just the top 5% of videos in these highly competitive categories, Google is able to attract big name advertisers. So far, for example, they are working with Johnson & Johnson, Heineken NV and DigitalLBI.
Susan Wojcicki, who runs YouTube, said “We’ve made it easy for you to buy against our top content and talent. We’re in the middle of a big revolution with video. It’s all changing and YouTube is playing a key role.”
Clearly Google is looking to grow their dominant position as the leader in digital ads. They are getting more competition in virtually every area, so offering these premium ad options might help them to continue their growth.
The new premium ad services were announced at the Brandcast event in New York. This will likely be a popular service for many major brands who are looking to keep their products in front of the growing number of people who are consuming more and more video online through services like YouTube.
