With Advertising Week less than a month away, we're excited to announce that voting for the YouTube Battle of the Ad Bands is now open. This competition puts the industry's finest -- musically speaking -- in the spotlight for a chance to be known as advertising's rock 'n' roll kingpins.

Last September, McCann Erickson brought down the house and took home the coveted trophy. Who will emerge as this year's champion? Wunderman with their rendition of AC/DC's "Live Wire"? Lowe NY's version of The Kinks's "You Really Got Me"? It's up to you!

RCKBAND, from Digitas, with their own take on a-ha's "Take on Me"

An independent committee from the Association of Music Producers (AMP) has narrowed the field down to 8-10 bands and singers (see official rules and regulations on Advertising Week's site), and your votes will decide which entrants make it to the finals.

So vote for your favorite act on the official Advertising Week YouTube channel until September 7. The bands with the most votes will live out their rock fantasies at YouTube Battle of the Ad Bands at the Highline Ballroom on September 22 in New York.

Posted by Kristin Kovner, Industry Marketing Manager

We're pleased to present YouTube's first live-streamed concert, featuring selected performances from the Outside Lands Music & Arts festival happening this weekend in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Beginning at 2pm today and running through 10pm on Sunday, tune in to www.youtube.com/outsidelands for the chance to experience a summer music festival without getting tussled by crowds or waiting on line for the Port-O-Potty:



Expect to see live performances from a variety of acts, ranging from the jam rock of Dave Matthews Band to Bettye Lavette's classic soul, from the emerging punk funk of Cage the Elephant to the bluesy rock of the Dead Weather, Jack White's latest project. (Sorry, this content is only viewable in the U.S.) We'll be featuring the choicest moments from the event on our homepage starting on Saturday at 2pm and Tweeting from the festival, too (so follow us on Twitter if you don't already: http://twitter.com/youtube).

In the meantime, check YouTube's Outside Lands channel for the most up-to-date schedule of performances, playlists of bands playing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and a neat-o Twitter gadget that displays a real-time feed of what people are saying about the festival.

Posted by Michele Flannery, Music Manager

We first launched the YouTube Partnership Program (YPP) to help some of our more popular users make money from their videos on YouTube. While we've focused on accepting prolific users who regularly produce videos that reach a wide audience — like Fred and ValsArtDiary — we've occasionally extended the program to include some of the site's more unforgettable videos, such as the Battle at Kruger, David after dentist and Otters holding hands. These individual video partnerships recognize the role popular "one-off" videos play on YouTube, and have helped many people earn thousands of dollars a month as their videos went viral and endured over time.

We decided it was time to spread the wealth. Today we're excited to announce that we're extending the YouTube Partnership Program to include individual popular videos on our site. Now, when you upload a video to YouTube that accumulates lots of views, we may invite you to monetize that video and start earning revenue from it. To determine whether a particular video is eligible for monetization, we look at factors like the number of views, the video's virality and compliance with the YouTube Terms of Service. If your video is eligible for monetization, you will receive an email and see an "Enable Revenue Sharing" message next to your video on the watch page, as well as in other places in your account:

Once you've chosen to enable revenue sharing, YouTube will sell advertising against your video and pay you a revenue share into your Google AdSense account each month. (If you don't have an AdSense account, you'll have the opportunity to create one.) Individual video partnerships will not be eligible for many of the benefits of user partnerships, like enhanced channel features or the ability to monetize other videos in your account, so we encourage you to apply to be a member of the YPP. We'll consider your individual video partnerships when reviewing your YPP application. For now individual video partnerships are available only in the United States, but we hope to roll these out internationally soon.

It's taken us some time to build out the YouTube Partnership Program, our content management tools and other infrastructure to handle expanding the YPP to so many individual users and videos. Now that we're ready to share these opportunities with a wider audience, we're excited to see how individual video partnerships will help even more people make money from their success on YouTube.


Posted by Shenaz Zack, Product Manager

Matthew Yeomans and Bernhard Warner, directors of Custom Communication, are the engines behind YouTube Brandwatch, a bookmark-worthy blog about how companies use YouTube and the effects those videos -- and the conversations surrounding them -- have on brands.

1. Why did you create the blog?

The blog grew out of a feature that we created for Social Media Influence, the conference and site we run. [Slate's] The Big Money liked the concept and invited us to turn the feature into a weekly blog/column.

2. What is Brandwatch's mission?

Brands spend millions each year managing their reputations and promoting their products using traditional media -- advertising and PR. However, the majority of major brands remain tone-deaf to the power and influence of a medium like YouTube despite the fact that it has a community of millions that interacts with it on a daily basis. The irony is that brands are having great difficulty getting consumers to sit through their 30-second spots on television while on YouTube vibrant communities have formed to discuss every creative detail that goes into the making of these ads. Advertisers ignore this feedback at their peril.

3. What generalizations can you make about the impact of online video on brands?

Online video about brands and the commentary that accompanies it is visceral and insightful into real people's perception of a brand (even if you have to wade through a lot of inane comments to get there). For the brands themselves, there's this very recent sensation that YouTube has become too important to ignore...never mind the the lack of control they have over how customers refer to them. From the poll results, it's evident that the public wants brands to be as sophisticated as they are. In other words, brands should be more daring and more creative with their advertising messages, and they should spare us the obvious gags.

4. What is the best use of online video by a brand to date, in your opinion?

Different brands use YouTube to great effect. For a small company like Blendtec, YouTube offered this amazing opportunity to tell an "extreme" narrative through video content. For a huge brand like T-Mobile, the "Dance" series of videos (which were accompanied by a TV advert and an advertising campaign on YouTube) offered an opportunity to show the online public that it understood how people like to share and celebrate common experiences. That said, we still have a soft spot for the "Where the Hell Is Matt?" videos...enabled by Cadbury's Stride Gum. We also like the brilliant editing in a longish, but much beloved video produced for the niche brand, Inspired Bicycles, that has amassed over 9 million viewers since April.

5. What do you think marketers don't get right often enough when it comes to using YouTube?

The marketers that use YouTube to the greatest effect are the ones who build it into their marketing strategy beforehand. It's exceedingly difficult to convey a compelling, entertaining, informative message in 30 seconds for a TV public with a limited attention span. On YouTube, marketers are now uploading the extended versions of their TV spots to provide the fuller story and to invite the public into a discourse. In effect, they want to know, "tell us what you think." That said, many marketers are still missing a big trick with this medium. They are putting the videos up, but providing so little detail about how it's made, who's in it, what's that music playing in the background. For now, the YouTube community is going in and filling in these holes in the detail, but we rarely hear from the marketers again after they post the ad. In effect, they are abandoning their most attentive followers. With our YouTube Brandwatch column, we're aiming to remind brands that we can have this conversation with or without your input.

We want YouTube to be a place where you can find any kind of content you're looking for, from short-form user generated clips to full-length independent films and Hollywood movies and shows. Today, we've taken another step in making YouTube a comprehensive video destination by partnering with Time Warner. With this deal, people in the United States will be able to watch a wide selection of clips from Turner outlets like CNN, the Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim, as well as Warner Brothers movies and hit TV shows like Gossip Girl and the Ellen DeGeneres show. The content will join other Time Warner properties already on the site, such as CNN International (country-restricted) and HBO, whose channel features videos from True Blood, Hung and Entourage.

The flexibility we provide partners in monetizing their content was a key factor in Time Warner's decision to come to YouTube. You'll see a variety of ad formats (like overlays or in-stream ads) on their content, depending on the kind of video you're watching, and both Turner and Warner Bros. will be able to leverage the strength of their sales forces to sell their own ads on the site. We will also be integrating the Time Warner player into YouTube.com.   

We're excited to bring our community a vast and compelling library of Time Warner's premium content in the coming months, and we look forward to building on our partnership in the months ahead. 

Posted by Graham Bennett, YouTube Strategic Partner Manager

Companies large and small look to YouTube as a vehicle to reach their customers; from well-known brands like Carl's Jr, to burgeoning online retailers like ZAGG, businesses are continuing to use video to drive their marketing strategies on YouTube. But we are also increasingly seeing CEOs, business executives, and other company spokespeople look to YouTube as a vehicle for corporate communications. The internet makes it easy for anyone to share their opinions about companies and products, and many businesses are viewing this as an opportunity to respond to and engage with consumers in real time. Whether buying a company, managing a crisis, or simply looking to create a more personal touch, any company can use YouTube for corporate communications.

For example, in Amazon's first communications regarding its acquisition of Zappos.com, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, uploaded a video to YouTube announcing the deal. Through this video, Bezos was able to personally introduce himself to the newest members of his company. And the strategy paid off -- in addition to fulfilling Amazon's goals for internal communications, Bezos' YouTube video served as the company's public announcement, quickly reaching the media, shareholders, and other interested audiences. Statistics & Data on the video show that it was quickly viewed thousands of times on YouTube, before being picked up by press, tech blogs, and social networks:

Sometimes, YouTube can be a useful tool for corporate teams dealing with negative messages as well. When things don't go as planned for a company, YouTube gives CEOs or other spokespeople a platform to speak directly to their customers in a real and genuine way. This kind of transparency can go a long way toward mending public perceptions, and the immediacy of video can make statements feel all the more personable. See how JetBlue and Domino's used YouTube to help damage control difficult situations, and the positive press that resulted from approaching a crisis head-on through YouTube.

Posted by Michael Rucker, Product Marketing Manager

Last week, YouTube joined forces with trends research and consulting firm PSFK to host a "Good Ideas Salon" at YouTube's headquarters in San Bruno, CA. As with other salons, the panel was designed to be a creative exploration of a topic -- in this case, community -- amongst experts in the field. Senior community managers from Digg, Etsy and Flickr shared tips on building, managing, and harnessing the incredible power of vast online audiences. You can watch the video of the panel in its entirety below, or simply read the suggested takeaways:



Community management is the new brand marketing
All of the panelists (none of whom have traditional marketing backgrounds) recognized their users not only as the ultimate ambassadors for their brands, but also as the engines behind them. "[Community] is the brand; it differentiates us," said Matthew Stinchcomb of Etsy. "If not for the community, we'd be 'bad eBay with bad search'." Embrace and empower your users, and let them carry your messages for you.

Keep it real
Stay focused on your users' best interests, stick to your core principles, and always be open and honest. "It's important to be able to make bold decisions confidently," said Flickr's Heather Champ. "Sometimes, you know that you're going to piss off a very vocal minority, but as long you have the vibrancy of the community in interest and are transparent about your vision of the long view, people stay happy."

Don't forget the real world
Online may be where most of the interactions are happening, but the real world is important, too: meetups are a good way for users to meet each other and for staff to meet users, and they can help to deflate any negativity that might persist in places like forums. While the majority of these physical gatherings are user-organized, all three sites partake in events big (Digg's annual SXSW bash) and small (whenever she's in a new city, Champ will go out shooting photographs with local Flickr users; she says it's a great way to see a new town). Etsy even has a work space in its Brooklyn, NY, office for its community to create crafts together.

Set clear rules of engagement
If you're trying to build a community from scratch, it's important to let growth occur organically, but you've gotta have a solid framework while it happens. These usually come in the form of Community Guidelines, and they are a must-have for anyone looking for passionate communities to carry their products forward.

Posted by Mia Quagliarello, Community Manager

We think there is a three-step process for helping our content partners make money from their videos: first, make it easy to control and manage video distribution on YouTube and beyond; second, increase the number of video views; and third, monetize those views effectively. On the second point, we've more than tripled the number of monetized views this past year, in part, by serving ads in YouTube videos no matter where you're watching them. That ensures that our content partners are able to capitalize on their popular videos across the internet.

We recently started testing new channels on YouTube. One feature of the new design is an improved "video navigator" that lets users find and watch many videos without having to leave the channel. More people are watching videos this way, so we've started placing ads on channels, in and around partner videos. You might see the same types of ads that currently appear on the site, like overlays, display ads, or Click-to-Buy links.

Even though its still in beta, over two million channels have already opted into the new design, adding millions of monetized views each week for partners and advertisers. Now, we can make sure that partners generate revenue from each and every view of their content no matter where it appears on our site.

Posted by Zal Bilimoria, Product Manager

Your cheat sheet for everything you need to know about YouTube this month...

1. JK Wedding Entrance Dance Video
Even if you didn't escape from your desk much in the last 30 days, we know you know this video -- this unconventional stroll down the aisle was the #1 Most Viewed, Discussed and Favorited video of the month. Moreover, it sent sales of its soundtrack, Chris Brown's "Forever," soaring despite the fact that the song was more than a year old. Don't miss the Biz Blog's Case Study on how the song's rights holders monetized the video.

2. 3D Video on YouTube
3D video is exploding on YouTube: not only are users experimenting with it and coming up with real works of art and entertainment, but we also made viewing 3D videos a lot easier. As this blog post explains, tagging a video with "yt3d:enable=true" adds a pulldown menu to the video's watch page to facilitate viewing options.

3. Video Quality Goes Up, Up, Up
Earlier this year, CNET crowned YouTube as the best site for HD, and from our stats we can see users are sending us more: For every one thousand uploads in June, twice as many are from HD sources compared to samples of the same size in December, and this rate is increasing. Read this blog post for more information.

4. "United Breaks Guitars"
This viral video comes from United passenger Dave Carroll whose guitar was badly damaged by the airline during a trip from Nova Scotia to Nebraska. After months of frustration trying to get reimbursed for the incident, Carroll wrote this catchy, country ditty, which has been seen by over 4 million people and captured the attention of the airline, who finally offered some compensation for the guitar.

5. User Gets Her Own Makeup Line at Sephora
Lauren Luke, aka panacea81, has built up a huge following on YouTube by creating beauty tutorials that approximate celebrity looks and other cool (and basic) effects. Her hard work -- 198 videos in two years, 253K subscribers -- has been rewarded with her own makeup line at Sephora. It's hard not to feel emotional for her as she visits her endcap for the first time at a Sephora store in Times Square. Experience the thrill with Luke in this video.

Posted by Mia Quagliarello, Community Manager

Since launching Promoted Videos late last year, we've been working hard to build an advertising platform that allows anyone to easily and efficiently find a larger audience for their videos on YouTube. We've made good progress, with thousands of advertisers currently running Promoted Video campaigns every day, and today we're announcing a highly requested change to the product that we think will benefit our entire community.

You may have noticed that Promoted Videos now appear on the watch pages of some partner videos on YouTube, placed within the section for Related Videos. (Previously, Promoted Videos only appeared next to search results and occasionally on the YouTube homepage.)


If you think of the initial launch of Promoted Videos as similar to AdWords -- a search advertising opportunity for marketers on YouTube -- this new feature is a lot like AdSense. For example, while Promoted Videos appearing next to search results are keyword targeted, those appearing on watch pages are contextually targeted based on the video and content of the page, so they are suited to your audience's interests. Also like AdSense, revenue generated by Promoted Videos on watch pages will be shared with the YouTube partner. This is another way we can help partners make money on YouTube, in addition to the display ads we serve in and alongside videos themselves.

As we continue to improve Promoted Videos, we look forward to providing you with more ways to increase your video's reach on YouTube, in ways that continue to benefit users, partners, and advertisers across the board.

Posted by Jay Akkad and Matthew Liu, Product Managers