As the official outfitter of the NBA, adidas used All-Star weekend to debut their newest basketball shoe, TS Supernatural. To show off the brand's innovation (both online and off), adidas turned to four-time All-Star Dwight Howard -- and to YouTube -- to create a series of videos and run a campaign that highlighted their goal of making the world's athletes "stronger, lighter, and faster."

Lots of advertisers talk about making "engaging" creative, but not everyone takes it so literally. Working with YouTube, adidas built a custom video player that allows users to truly interact with the content they're watching: users can make Dwight Howard fly higher, increase the intensity of his dunks, and even choose different angles to view the videos themselves.

After the excitement of All-Star weekend died down, we had the chance to interview Lia Vakoutis, adidas' Global Digital Lead for Basketball, about the needs of basketball consumers, the impact of YouTube on TV campaigns, and the creative opportunities the site offers sports marketers.

1. Adidas' brand channel really takes video engagement to a higher level. What did your creative and development process look like?

We are constantly striving to take communication with our consumers to the next level and are especially happy with the results of our 2010 NBA All-Star campaign featuring Dwight Howard. The creative process didn't change all that much for our brand channel. We always begin with our consumers and our product. We talk to teens, we know what they want and we know where they spend their time online. This knowledge drives all of our creative development. For our latest campaign in particular, this meant focusing on a Texas-inspired NBA All-Star uniform, the TS Supernatural, and of course we partnered very closely with YouTube during the development of our brand channel. The entire YouTube team was fantastic in helping us bring our vision to life and making it work within the YouTube environment.

2. What is the specific benefit of YouTube to sports marketers like adidas?

The big benefits are flexibility, reach and participation. YouTube gives us a platform to reach our consumers with content we know they are looking for -- video. For the last couple of years, we have focused on the innovation of our brand channel to meet the ever evolving needs of our consumers. The YouTube platform is really flexible and has played a large part in some of our most recent initiatives. Like the adidas 2010 NBA All-Star campaign and the adidas "It's on Me" campaign that launched this past fall. We like that YouTube allows us not only to reach our consumers on the site, but also syndicate our content out to the rest of the world. And of course, the participation aspect -- our consumers can view, share, rate and comment on everything we post. We love that they're in control and it's always great to receive the continual feedback.

3. How has YouTube affected the way you build campaigns for TV, and vice versa?

When we create content, we definitely take into consideration the "YouTube factor." You must have a strategy in place to drive the creation of shareable content. With our most recent NBA All-Star campaign, we had to consider how to break through to the consumer. We did that through an interactive experience that put the consumer in control. Rewarding viewers for interacting with our content is not something we have done before and we are pleased with the results.

4. Who is your target audience and how will you drive traffic to the channel?

From a basketball perspective, we talk to basketball players and leverage global digital and [traditional] media buys to drive traffic to the adidas Basketball brand channel.

5. What's your favorite YouTube video?

I would say the Chinese Backstreet Boys. You gotta love their passion for their team -- and of course, the Backstreet Boys.

Posted by Andy Tress, Display Senior Account Executive

Once upon a time, there was a single day when people anticipated big-budget Super Bowl® commercials -- sometimes even more than the football game itself. Fortunately for advertisers, that day has not gone away, but it has expanded into weeks, months and even years online.

We developed YouTube Ad Blitz™ -- our contest where people vote on their favorite Super Bowl commercials -- in recognition of this trend, and by voter and advertiser request, we expanded our 2010 contest to one full week. Any in-game advertiser could opt in to YouTube Ad Blitz, which made the opted-in commercials discoverable immediately after they aired on Super Bowl Sunday. Directly after the game, and ending on Monday February 15, 2.9 million votes were cast on favorite Super Bowl commercials.


The winners of Ad Blitz -- who received glory and placement in today's YouTube homepage ad -- were no strangers to the extension of Super Bowl Week. In fact, many of the winners had strategies that pre-empted Super Bowl day, some which began as early as summer 2009. E*TRADE, who placed 2nd, had a strong pre-game strategy with teasers of the beloved E*TRADE babies, as well as social networking engagement opportunities related to the popular campaign.

More than ever before, advertisers were ready for the online expansion this year. YouTube saw queries containing the brand term SNICKERS rise by 18,000% days after the game, and on YouTube Mobile, queries containing DORITOS rose 5,000%.

It wasn't just the winners who prepared for the trends this year. Several advertisers focused heavily on Promoted Video strategies. Many in-game advertisers bid on their own brand terms, as well as general SUPER BOWL related queries, to make their videos discoverable and to capitalize on increased search traffic. (Clicks on Promoted Videos were up almost 100% from the Saturday-to-Monday of Super Bowl weekend.) Even non-Super Bowl advertisers wanted to get in on the action. Pre-, post-game and not-even-close-to-the-game advertisers also leveraged Promoted Videos to take advantage of the huge search query volume on general terms related to the Super Bowl.

But just as Super Bowl day isn't the only time to watch the ads, YouTube.com/AdBlitz wasn't the only destination to vote on them. We launched several new features this time around -- voting from within a YouTube homepage ad, as well as voting overlays on embedded videos -- which meant people could cast votes in any place they shared and found the video, including YouTube, Facebook, and across the Internet. People were also able to tweet about the ads directly next to the videos themselves, and we saw thousands of tweets around #youtubeadblitz during the game.

We wanted to thank all participating advertisers who extended the life of their Super Bowl spot, teasers, contests and related videos on YouTube. And congratulations to DORITOS, E*TRADE and SNICKERS for placing in our Top 5!

Posted by Danielle Uhlarik, Ad Programs Senior Associate

In honor of great YouTube channels (like yours!), we're trying to start a movement. But we can't do it without you.

In the spirit of #followfriday and #musicmonday, we're anointing Saturday #subsaturday (ie, "Subscription Saturday"), whereby people on Twitter shout out the YouTube channels they think are worthy of subscribing to. Here's an example of what this could look like, from Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

We're hoping you can join us, and on Saturday Tweet 1-4 of the YouTube channels you want the world to know you love. For example, it could be a good way of generating awareness for your own YouTube channel and/or other channels in your portfolio. Whatever you decide to do, please don't forget to include the #subsaturday hashtag so everyone can see the full force of our effort and easily discover new channels to watch.

Mia Quagliarello, Product Marketing Manager, recently watched "Xeni Jardin: YouTube Guest Editor intro (Boing Boing Video)."

At YouTube, we love to see videos that engage and often inspire viewers. Some of the best content on our site comes from advertising agencies, who flex their creative muscles to build inventive campaigns that help clients make a human connection with consumers.

While agencies combine their understanding of client brands with a healthy dose of imagination to conceive these campaigns, YouTube works to connect science and art by building open technology platforms on which these campaigns can be executed in a scalable, measurable way. Doing this well involves a lot of collaboration with -- luckily for us -- some of the smartest, most creative agency minds out there, to make sure our platforms are addressing the most critical agency and client issues.

For our latest installment in the Five Questions series, we talked to Rob Davis, Leader of Ogilvy's Interactive Video Practice, to get his take on the role of online video in client campaigns, the myth of "viral videos," and the tools that make his job easier.

1. Ogilvy has worked with several clients to launch brand channels on YouTube. How do you work with clients, Google, and YouTube to come up with an idea, and ultimately build and run the channel/campaign itself?

Ogilvy's philosophy is to integrate interactive video work into the core creative and strategic elements of the agency. Therefore, when we are working on a YouTube brand channel or campaign, we take a team approach that includes the client, YouTube, and Google as part of the working unit. Initial ideas may come from anyone on the team, but it's when we start ideating with YouTube that the big ideas gel. We look across all the YouTube offerings, from paid media and takeovers to annotations and widgets, to make sure we are crafting an experience that meets the expectations of the audience and makes full use of the latest toolsets.


2. What have you learned about video advertising from YouTube, and how has this affected how you build campaigns for your clients?

YouTube is an integral part of paid and earned media strategies. Integrated VSEO (video search engine optimization), VSEM (video search engine marketing), and display planning allow us to take advantage of YouTube in a mix that is right for the client. Not everything warrants a YouTube homepage ad, and not everything can live on VSEO alone. The trick is to find the balance that builds the audience -- the right audience -- that the client is looking for. How we achieve that balance is part of our secret sauce, but I can say that it stems from a "one Ogilvy" approach where our different disciplines unite to do what is right for the project.

3. Google and YouTube provide lots of tools that help agencies build creative campaigns. Which tools do you find most useful or valuable?

YouTube Insight and the Keyword Suggestion Tool are obvious answers for marketers, but for creative campaigns we look to the value that annotations, captioning and widgets like YouTube Direct can bring to a campaign. Our multi-discipline approach gives us a fresh perspective on all of YouTube's offerings. Ironically, one of the most valuable tools is the simplest, but in our opinion, the most overlooked: the playlist.

4. How important is it to have an engagement component in an online advertising campaign? Is that more or less important than the content itself?

Nothing is more important than content. That said, our multi-discipline, integrated approach allows us to consider engagement on the same level as content. Both need to be equally well-planned and executed. Engagement can be big, like a contest or a vote, or it can be as simple as content so compelling, so noteworthy, that is gives people a reason to share it. In that sense, content itself can equal engagement.

Defining the kind of engagement appropriate is a key element in success. I don't believe in "viral videos." The "post 'n' pray" fantasy of putting a video on YouTube and having it magically spread to a zillion users ignores the importance of engagement and placement. I guarantee you that the million-views-a-day video has good content and at least one of three other elements: a channel with an existing audience, a strategic placement (paid or earned), and the appropriate level of engagement.

5. What's your favorite YouTube video?

I have a life-long passion for railroading, especially when it involves steam locomotives. This has led to many adventures, not the least of which was joining 49 folks of similar interest in Michigan last summer to rent two vintage locomotives for a dawn-to-midnight weekend of private photo runs designed to recreate railroading from the 1950s.

I am primarily a still photographer, but I did shoot some movies that weekend. However, YouTube user JoMiFu, an under-20 artist with a tremendous eye for the moving image, captured the weekend with one of the most stunning railroad videos I have ever seen. Don't miss the sunset scene at 7:20. I can't stop watching it.

Posted by Lisa Green, Senior Agency Relations Manager

We talk a lot about how content partners -- from major media companies to individual users -- are finding an audience and making money on YouTube. But there are also a number of ways for nonprofit organizations to partner with us and leverage the power of our platform to create meaningful social change. In 2007, we launched the YouTube Nonprofit Program, and today thousands of nonprofits have joined the program and are using YouTube to raise awareness about important issues, fundraise for their causes through call-to-action overlays, and engage with their supporters via free brand channels.

But even with these perks, finding the resources to create good video content is often still difficult for nonprofits. that's why we created the Video Volunteers program, which matches organizations that need help making videos with skilled individual filmmakers on the site. The program has in many ways become an "activist marketplace," where the video needs and interests of YouTube users and nonprofits can easily be met. This month, we're asking users to create videos for nonprofits working on health issues. Learn more from our guest curator Jesse McCartney:



Through the Nonprofit Program and Video Volunteers, our goal is to build a vibrant community that draws attention to the world's most pressing issues. Nonprofits and activists can learn more about these programs and get involved here.

Posted by Ramya Raghavan, Nonprofits Manager

Periodically we come across advertisers on YouTube who do more than just run campaigns on the site. Many are prolific creators of content, some test new tools and targeting features, and others experiment with YouTube's APIs. Then there's the rare advertiser like Salesforce.com, who does all of the above.

For our latest interview, we chatted with Jamie Grenney, Senior Director of Social Media Strategy at Salesforce.com, about the many ways his company uses YouTube to reach its customers across the web.

1. Why has video become such an important part of your general marketing strategy?

Salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company -- more than 67,000 customers use our cloud platform and apps to help run their businesses. Of the various social media channels we use to engage our community, YouTube has emerged as the most important for our business because it allows us to deliver a rich and concise message with perfect fidelity. Today we are generating about 6,000 video views a day on our Salesforce TV channel on YouTube. If we estimate the average view to be two minutes in length, that's roughly equivalent to 35 hyper-efficient sales reps on the phone. That is a huge productivity boon for a company like ours and something we want to build upon.

The question we are asking now is, "how do we double or triple the number of people watching our videos?" Partnering with YouTube is a central part of that strategy.

2. Why was it important for salesforce.com to have a presence on YouTube?

We looked at a number of different approaches to publishing video both on our own website as well as other sites on the web. Given that YouTube is such a large percentage of online video, we knew it was a platform that we couldn't overlook. When people receive a YouTube link in their inbox, they have an expectation and a common understanding of what they're going to get when they click it. They know how the player works and how to share it with their friends. We considered using a service that would publish videos to our website and syndicate a copy to YouTube, but we wanted to stay focused and make sure we didn't dilute our view counts. View counts are weighted heavily in search and are an important part of what makes a video interesting to other viewers.

Today, all our video content is hosted on YouTube and we use the YouTube APIs to serve up videos in branded players on our website. This allows us to manage all of our content in one place; and YouTube Insight provides excellent analytics to show us where the views are coming from.


3. How does your YouTube campaign fit into your larger online advertising strategy (display, search, etc.)?

We look at our YouTube campaign as part of the overall marketing pie. We are using YouTube to test display ads, landing pages and behavioral targeting and are then optimizing based on results. We are taking what we learn about our audience and applying that to other display strategies.

4. Do you see advertising on YouTube as a branding opportunity, a customer acquisition opportunity, or both?

YouTube is both a branding opportunity and a customer acquisition opportunity. From a branding perspective, we are able to target our users with the ads that are most relevant to them. We are able to introduce them to new products, such as Salesforce Chatter, and help build awareness for them. We are also able to use YouTube as part of a customer acquisition strategy by utilizing targeted offers for the audience the ads are shown to.


5. What are your key indicators of success today and what do you see salesforce.com doing on YouTube in one year?

In the last year we've grown from 50 videos on YouTube to 650! This is tremendous growth in content. But just as important, we've been able to eliminate islands of video that existed within our organization. We now have a holistic view of our content library, and with YouTube Insight we can see exactly what's working and what's not. Our video views have grown from 350 a day to 6,000 a day. It's a tall order, but we are trying to figure out how to double that number to 12,000 a day this year. We are building a second recording studio and hope to crank out lots more content. We are also working with the broader salesforce.com community to create significantly more user generated content through YouTube Direct.

To help us manage video and create even more granular reports we are building a mash-up between Force.com (our platform for custom app development) and YouTube. We'll be able to manage uploads from hundreds of content contributors from across the company and report on video views on salesforce.com reports and dashboards.

Posted by Elliott Selzer, Account Executive

Today's guest blog is penned by Reed Martin, an adjunct associate professor at NYU's Stern School of Business, who teaches the course "Film Marketing, Exhibition, and Distribution." He is formerly a research associate at Harvard Business School and most recently the author of "The Reel Truth: Everything You Didn't Know You Need To Know About Making An Independent Film."

YouTube’s new rentals service which launched by offering five Sundance films for $3.99 each, drew just over a thousand paying customers nationally – not enough to shift traditional film distribution paradigms or overshadow Steve Jobs – but this humble beginning masks the opportunity for YouTube and for today’s aspiring independent screenwriters, directors and producers. Just as text blogging gave unaffiliated writers new ways to connect to large audiences and even shape the national discourse, new avenues for distributing and consuming full-length independent films will now give anyone with the talent and drive to make movies, a viable and well-trafficked platform for getting their work in front of huge audiences and more importantly - sold. YouTube's unrivaled ability to help content go viral will no doubt help the fledgling online distribution of independent feature films reach a tipping point. And if a few talented directors are discovered along the way by agents and studio executives looking for the next cool thing, all the better.

The opportunity for monetizable self-distribution on the Internet hasn’t come a moment too soon for indie filmmakers who are left with fewer options after the winnowing of leading specialized film distributors such as Miramax, Paramount Vantage, Warner Independent Pictures, Picturehouse, THINKfilm, and New Line, all of whom have recently shuttered offices in New York and Los Angeles. Over the past decade the economics of releasing a film theatrically have only gotten tougher. Competition forced distributors to pay more for marketing as increasingly-fragmented audiences turned to DVR's, social media, video games, and other distractions. Tough economics and disappointing returns from several high-profile theatrical releases drove most of the major studios to re-evaluate their aggressive push into the specialized film market, and either retrench or close down their specialized banners altogether. However, the ensuing distribution vacuum presents a business opportunity for YouTube, and other video-sharing sites that allow filmmakers to sell their films alongside studio content available for online streaming.

From now on, the Lee Daniels’ ("Precious") and Kathryn Bigelow’s ("The Hurt Locker") of tomorrow will be able to bypass traditional gatekeepers and monetize their hard work and creativity using only an HD camera, a fast laptop and a decent Internet connection. Indeed, the day when nearly everyone has made an independent film, in the same way that most people today have both an e-mail address and a Facebook page (and perhaps a blog and a Twitter account), may not be far off. What will never go out of style is the desire to tell stories and the need for people to express themselves in the most creative way possible. The big news is that the historically-pejorative idea of going “straight-to-video” (which often meant fighting for shelf space in struggling mom-and-pop video stores or accepting modest sell-through deals with big box retailers) will soon take on a positive meaning and present an exciting opportunity for filmmakers everywhere.

Posted by Reed Martin

Typically when you go to YouTube, you see big brand advertisers engaging with our advertising platform -- whether they're buying homepage ads or running display campaigns across the site. But increasingly we are seeing smaller advertisers enter the world of YouTube, just as they have in search advertising through Google AdWords.

As Promoted Videos has expanded and become easier to use, several small businesses have used our self-service tools to promote their products and drive engaged YouTube audiences to both their videos and their websites. We had a chance to catch up with the marketing minds at OraBrush, Dynomighty Design, and Artbeads.com to learn more about how they're using Promoted Videos to build their small businesses.

OraBrush

After a series of unsuccessful TV commercials, the bacteria fighting company OraBrush turned to YouTube to help promote their more light-hearted approach to curing bad breath. CEO Jeffrey Harmon explains, "Previously, in an attempt to educate people on bad breath, we had tried a TV infomercial -- it was a complete flop. As an experiment, we decided to create an 'infomercial' for YouTube. We had made a couple of videos that we could see were showing signs of going viral, so we decided to give them a jump-start with Promoted Videos."

YouTube provided OraBrush with a low-cost way to help promote a product that required some education. Promoted Videos quickly helped their fun and quirky videos get off the ground, and they soon saw sales and video views soar. "Promoted Videos has worked better than any other ad platform we have used online."

Of their 7.8 million views on YouTube, 6 million have come from Promoted Videos. The success of OraBrush's campaign is in large part because their infomercials are less "ads" than simply popular YouTube videos that users search for and want to watch.

Dynomighty Design

Dynomighty Design founder, Terrence Kelleman, used to work a day job in IT before he decided to try his hand at jewelry-making and creating other whimsical gift ideas. His first YouTube video (explaining the uses of a magnetic bracelet) has over 2.7 million views. After his initial video success, Terrence continued creating videos to showcase his products and create connections with potential buyers. Videos are "an easier format to convey your message to people," he says. "It has more of a residual effect."

The videos Dynomighty has promoted on YouTube have helped the company grow throughout the country and expand their product line to include everything from magnetic bracelets to paper wallets. Over 50% of the referring traffic to Dynomighty's website comes from YouTube.

Artbeads.com

Artbeads.com uses Promoted Videos to teach their customers how to use their beads to create beautiful works of art. Steve Groenier, Vice President of Search Marketing and Customer Service, wanted to figure out a way to use his existing educational videos to drive sales and traffic to the company's website.

"The first thing that attracted us to advertise on YouTube was the ability to introduce a [Call-to-Action] overlay ad to our existing videos, which were already receiving thousands of views. The overlay ads helped...drive website visits and sales." Videos like "How to Use Glue-In Bails and Caps" help both bead veterans and those new to the craft learn how to use these products. When compared to an average Artbeads.com text ad, their videos were twice as effective at generating click-throughs.

Steve soon discovered that Promoted Videos helped "get our videos listed at the top of the search results for relevant keyword phrases like 'how to make jewelry.'" After starting Promoted Videos, Steve saw referral traffic to Artbeads.com from YouTube increase by 150%.

So if you're thinking of the next best way to promote your business and attract customers to your site, maybe it's time to promote your videos on YouTube. We'd love to hear in the comments other ways Promoted Videos have worked for your business, especially if you sell a product we might not expect to see on the site.

Posted by Lane Shackleton, Product Specialist

Top five things to know from the consumer-facing side of the house...

1. Support for Haiti
The devastation in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti led to an outpouring of reports and donations via YouTube. We also live streamed the benefit concert organized by George Clooney, and continue to encourage people to donate through this disaster relief page.

2. Preview new video page
In one of the larger redesigns in YouTube's history, we are currently revamping the "video page," the page on which any video plays, to have a cleaner look and functionality. Read more details about what's changing and why, and get a sneak peek here.

3. Product Ideas for YouTube
As part of our early spring cleaning effort, we are polling our users about which product features should be spruced up or even retired. It's part of our overall goal of creating a more consistent site experience for everyone. There are three days left to get your idea in to this Product Ideas series.

4. Badges to promote your channel
YouTube's Creator's Corner, our hub for aspiring videographers, just expanded its offering of badges to make it easier to promote your YouTube channel on your blog or site. These can be used by anyone who wants the world to know they have a YouTube presence. Download them here.

5. #subsaturday on Twitter
Every Saturday, we invite you to join us on Twitter in shouting out the YouTube users you think are worth subscribing to. These could include other channels in your portfolio, users who you think are doing great work, your peers -- really anyone you like. Be sure to use the hashtag #subsaturday so that people following the program can stay up on your recommendations.

Posted by Mia Quagliarello, Product Marketing Manager, Editorial/Community

It's been a few months since we announced our partnership with Univision to bring current, full-length and short-form TV episodes from one of the most popular Spanish-language broadcasters in America. Today marks the official launch of the Univision channel on YouTube, where you can find leading programs from Univision's three major networks: Univision, TeleFutura and Galavisión. Some of the most popular shows on the channel include Univision's morning show Despierta América (Wake-Up America); TeleFutura's entertainment show Escándalo TV (ShowBiz TV), and Galavisión's home decorating series Decorando Contigo (Decorating with You), among many others. The Univision channel on YouTube will also premiere weekly show recaps made just for YouTube viewers. These videos will feature top Univision talent summarizing the best moments from Univision shows in the last week.

The partnership provides more premium, current, monetizeable content for our advertisers interested in reaching the growing online Hispanic demographic; Kraft Foods is the channel's exclusive launch sponsor.

In addition, the launch marks the first time Univision programming will be made available on the web outside of Univision's properties, and we're excited to bring it to our growing Hispanic audience. So sit back, press play and enjoy this great new content. ¡A gozar!

Posted by Shanna Preve, Strategic Partnerships