In March, we launched our very first YouTube Partner Ideas Page. Over the course of the month, many partners contributed several ideas and on April 12, this page closed with an overwhelming response. Thanks to all of our partners, we received 849 ideas, 24,285 votes from 1,301 partners! In other words, you've given us quite a lot to think about!

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be fleshing through all of your feedback and ideas and will post a summary of your top picks right here on the YouTube Biz Blog.

Thank you for your participation and check back here for updates on our progress.

Filipe Lima

YouTube Partnerships

Last fall, we announced the release of YouTube Direct, a tool that allows media organizations to request, review and rebroadcast YouTube clips directly from YouTube users, and on their own website. In addition to our launch partners (ABC News, the Huffington Post, NPR, Politico, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Post, and WHDH-TV/WLVI-TV in Boston), many other news organizations and websites -- including the Tribune Company, Gannett, Al Jazeera, and ITN News -- have signed on and are using the platform to collect citizen reporting and commentary around news events all around the world. There are nearly 400 news partners on YouTube able to use YouTube Direct to generate news content that helps them extend and engage their audience.

Today, we’re rolling out the latest version of YouTube Direct, which includes substantial upgrades that make it easier for news organizations to test and customize the platform. In addition to several back-end changes, we’ve also added new features including:

• Mobile application code for both the iPhone and Android
• Ability to view and edit YouTube captions for any video submitted (with support for all caption languages)
• Multiple YouTube Direct upload modules now possible on a single page
• Additional customization and messaging options

If you’re already using YouTube Direct, we strongly encourage you to upgrade. And if you haven’t yet embraced the platform, but want to use YouTube to connect with a larger audience, now is the perfect time to get started.

For more information, visit youtube.com/direct. And to receive updates and announcements in the future, please subscribe to the YouTube API Announcements Google Group.

Posted by Olivia Ma, YouTube News Manager, recently watched "Eyjafjallajokull volcano and ash clouds".

It seems like every day Nike uploads another ad to YouTube that draws hundreds of thousands of views -- if not millions -- almost immediately. (Our current favorite: the Nike Music Shoe.) In our view, Nike ads are consistently popular on both television and the web because they’re different, creative, and engaging enough that no one wants to skip them.

In the latest interview in our Five Questions series, we spoke with Stefan Olander, Vice President of Digital Sport at Nike, about the benefits of longer ads, user uploads of Nike content, and the famous Ronaldinho video, one of the first ads to go viral on YouTube.

1. Nike is one of the few advertisers who consistently creates ads longer than the traditional 15 or 30-seconds -- like Guy Ritchie's 3+ minute Nike Football ad, or the 2+ minute Marvin Gaye USA Basketball ad. These ads also tend to find huge audiences on YouTube. Why does Nike run so many longer ads? What kind of content merits a long ad vs. a short one?

Our goal has always been to tell inspiring, rich stories using our deep insight into the world of Sports. It's liberating for a creative company like Nike not to be limited by 15/30/60 ad formats created by the media industry. YouTube's format gives us complete freedom to create the most compelling stories without time limitations. We never start with the time length, we start with the most compelling story.



2. In that respect, this 2+ minute Ronaldinho ad was one of the first to go viral on YouTube, mostly since viewers thought it was real. What did you learn from this video's success, and how has it affected Nike's thoughts about advertising in general?

We always thought viewers would think it was special to feel they were behind the scenes and up-close with the worlds most skilled football player. But it wasn't until the debate over the whether it was real or not had practically everyone in Brazil split in two camps. There were those who believed and those who didn't. That's when we realized how huge it could be. The fact that it was an authentic story with an amazing player and not an obvious fabricated video.

The role of PR cannot be underestimated in creating traction for digital content. A film doesn't take off just because you post it.



3. Many advertisers and content owners block user uploaded versions of their videos, but Nike consistently leaves them up -- from recent commercials to classic Nike ads like "Bo Knows." What value does Nike see in allowing user uploads of their content on YouTube?

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. We love when people engage and participate in the storytelling. Any confident Brand should be.

4. Nike has also engaged in lots of paid advertising on YouTube -- from homepage ads to brand channels to Promoted Videos. When Nike is planning its digital ad campaigns, how does it decide which direction to take in each instance?

We start with our consumers. Where are they? What do they care about? And then we figure out how to participate in their lives. It's less about planning digital ad campaigns and more about understanding consumer context.

5. What's your favorite YouTube video?

Hard to pick one. The fact that almost all old Nike ads are there is amazing. I do think the Dove video was smart and didn't launch on TV.

Posted by Andrew Bangs, Sports Manager

Art Directors Club President Doug Jaeger introduces YouTube Show & Tell, a new program and partnership with the ADC to showcase the best examples of marketing on YouTube.

As president of the Art Directors Club, an organization for creatives and designers in integrated media and the first international creative collective of its kind, it’s my job to continually look for new opportunities to translate the club’s mission -- to connect, provoke, and elevate advertising initiatives into action. That’s why I’m honored, and totally psyched, that ADC is part of an amazing new initiative launching today, YouTube Show & Tell.

Show & Tell is a new gallery-style brand channel showcasing the best marketing and advertising campaigns on YouTube. YouTube developed the concept and serves as the platform; ADC’s ongoing role is to curate content, drawing on 89 years experience in identifying the most creative marketing ideas and recognizing the work that exhibits exceptional excellence and craft.

Each quarter, ADC will curate a lively and interesting new body of work in four categories -- brand channel, home page, viral video and interactive. We will promote the entry process, assemble creative experts to review campaigns that have run on YouTube, and elevate the best work to the forefront. All advertising and marketing work appearing on YouTube is eligible.

Our team of creative reviewers will change each quarter and will be selected based on their ideas, body of work and contributions to the industry to sound off on their favorite examples. These world-renowned creative directors, designers, art directors, digital creatives and copywriters will represent a range of creative thinking and execution, ensuring that the visual voice on YouTube Show & Tell represents a broad cross-section of leading-edge perspectives.


See what Steve Simpson of Goodby, Silverstein, and Partners has to say about marketing on YouTube

For the first curation, we’ve worked together with YouTube to feature some of the most creative campaigns we’ve seen so far, but this is by no means an exhaustive list of great campaigns we’ve seen on the site. So check out the site and check back often. And kudos to the great creative minds behind the examples that are currently on the site.

Doug Jaeger, President, Art Directors Club, recently watched Augustin Hadelich - DAWN.

The Webby Awards and YouTube are joining forces for the second year in a row, giving fans a more interactive Webby experience than ever. For the first time in the history of the Webbys, fans can vote for their favorites in the People's Voice Awards right on YouTube. Fans have until April 29 to vote for their favorite Webby-nominated videos through the Webbys YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/webby.

Last year’s Webby Awards YouTube brand channel was featured as the #1 YouTube channel in the days following the award festivities. Prior to 2009, Webby Awards show content was available only to event attendees, but the new YouTube brand channel has tremendously expanded their reach. With over 1.5 million video views from the channel in its first week last year, David-Michel Davies, executive director of The Webby Awards expects even better performance in 2010 "since it's the first time fans can vote on the YouTube brand channel for their favorite Webby nominees in The Webby People's Voice Awards."

The "Watch The Webbys on YouTube" experience will launch again for June 2010, but between now and April 29, the online public can cast votes and choose their own winners at http://youtube.com/webby.

Posted by Deeksha Hebbar, Product Marketing Manager

We’re launching a new video series on the YouTube channel that brings you closer to the people and processes behind YouTube. It’s part of a larger effort to lift the veil, so you can ensure your voice is heard by the staff here and come to know the friendly faces that are as devoted to YouTube as you are.

This is how it works: each month, we’ll announce a topic of general interest, such as partnerships, ads, the future of YouTube, international, and engineering/innovation. (Feel free to suggest other ideas in the comments here.) We’ll open up a Google Moderator page, where you can submit questions related to the subject at hand and vote on questions asked by others. We’ll give you about a week to submit your questions; then we’ll put one or more employees who can best address them on camera, to respond to you in a video which we’ll then post to the YouTube channel.

First up, we wanted to focus on the YouTube Partnership Program, because we’ve heard from you that there’s some mystique around how it all works. This could include questions about Individual Video Partnership. Please submit your questions about partnerships here and vote on others’ until Tuesday, April 13, at 5 p.m. PT. Then, subscribe to the YouTube channel (if you're not already) to be sure to see the response video uploaded about a week later. We’ll also post it to this blog and send it out on Twitter and Facebook.

Sound good?


Mia Quagliarello, Community Manager, recently watched “Pink Terror.”

We're pleased to have Ad Age curating the YouTube homepage today, in a spotlight that celebrates the creative revolution going on now in the advertising and marketing business. In other words, these are ads you won't want to miss. Ad Age digital lead Michael Learmonth and Creativity managing editor Ann Diaz explain further in the video and guest post below:

We, in the business press, love to obsess over YouTube's business model, whether it can make money from the world's video through advertising. But today Advertising Age is curating the front page of YouTube to help tell an even bigger story, and that's YouTube's impact on advertising itself.

Once, TV ads were pretty much foisted on the public. Turn on the TV, and they were there. Some were great; most were not. Indeed, in some TV ads the intent is to annoy and grab the attention of a passive public. Enter YouTube. And while all of that is still true, the marketing world now has another powerful, democratic vehicle to reach a TV-sized audience. But there's a catch: the ad has to be something people want to watch.

Each day, YouTube is a global referendum on the world's video, and ads are very much a part of that mix. TV ads have always had the power of sight, sound and motion; now, to reach an audience in an on-demand world, they also have to delight, entertain and tell a story. That has inspired a creative revolution in the advertising and marketing business, just as it has in entertainment and attracted new talent to the industry. It has also refocused the industry away from obsessing over who's skipping the ads to producing ads no one wants to skip. Just like you can buy a 30-second spot on TV, you can also buy media on YouTube, but you can also earn an audience there, and increasingly ads, both made for the web and for TV, attempt to do just that.

Witness the Super Bowl advertisers, on the hook to the tune of $100,000 a second for time in the big game, increasingly gear their campaigns to live on on YouTube after its over. Or, take Evian's "Live Young" aka the "rollerskating babies," which never appeared on TV but have been passed around and watched more than 71 million times over the past year. The beauty of what works on the web is that there are no hard and fast rules. Ad Age picked some of the best of the recent best with a big hat tip to our sister pub, Creativity. It's true that YouTube sells ads. But it's also true YouTube has made advertising better. Take a look.

Michael Learmonth, Advertising Age, and Ann Diaz, Creativity

Earlier this year, General Electric (G.E.) launched its Healthymagination campaign, dedicated to “becoming healthier, through the sharing of imaginative ideas and proven solutions.” As part of the campaign -- G.E.’s biggest ever aimed at consumers -- G.E. partnered with Howcast to create a conversation around health using how-to videos. Several popular YouTube users like Smosh and iJustine contributed videos to Howcast, in addition to 20 Howcast-produced videos, ranging in topics from “How to Get a Little Healthier While Staying Lazy” to “How to Build Your Own MRI Machine.”

In our latest interview, Judy Hu, Global Executive Director for Advertising and Branding at G.E., talks about the company’s 100-year history, YouTube user content, and the importance of being informative and imaginative in advertising.

1. For healthymagination, you created a multi-faceted experience on YouTube with custom content, a partner channel takeover and engaging YouTube personalities. How do these efforts fit into your general digital marketing strategy?

With our healthymagination campaign, we wanted to change the conversation around health and engage more people in an ongoing dialog about how to live healthier lives. Part of our strategy was to reach a broader audience of consumers, which meant going to where the audience is -- the digital arena. YouTube’s the largest video site with one of the biggest online audiences, and conversations are already happening there. We wanted to be a part of them.

2. In addition to the healthymagination brand channel on YouTube, you sponsored a channel takeover of YouTube partner Howcast. How did working with an established YouTube partner like Howcast further your campaign goals?

Working with Howcast gave us an experienced partner that understands today’s video audience. We knew that Howcast was a cool content creator, but they also brought great expertise in executing strategic new media campaigns. It’s wasn’t just about content creation -- aligning topics and concepts with target audiences in a compelling way -- but also about leveraging distribution channels from both Howcast and YouTube personalities. Howcast developed a media plan tailored to the campaign that included rich media ads, Promoted Videos, and InVideo overlays. We also got a number of YouTube celebs involved in a health-themed physical challenge. Individually, these YouTube stars knew their own audiences, who got involved in watching the challenges unfold.


3. What audience does G.E. hope to reach through its efforts on YouTube? How will you measure its success?

The program’s been a smash success for us. Howcast’s health videos reached hundreds of thousands of viewers. The YouTube healthymagination physical challenge had 8 million video views, nearly 250,000 video ratings, and 110,000 comments. Our YouTube media plan garnered over 4 million playbacks, counting both user-initiated and auto-play views. Not only were viewers interested, but they stuck around -- we had a 28% completion rate of our video views.

4. G.E. has been around for over 100 years. How has G.E.’s approach to advertising changed over time, what’s been consistent, and how does YouTube fit into it today?

Over those 100 years, we’ve consistently used advertising to tell stories about our company. The formats, platforms, and channels have changed, but we’ve always tried to inform by entertaining and engaging people.

In 2003, we launched a new tagline, “imagination at work,” which reflects how we use our imaginations to solve some of the world’s toughest challenges, whether they’re environmental or health issues. We have researchers around the world who have invented water purification systems that turn saltwater into drinking water, and the Vscan, an ultrasound that fits into the palm of your hand. Our advertising has to be as imaginative as our products. YouTube, a creative and very human environment, is a natural fit.

5. How would you describe G.E.’s approach to social media? How important is video to this strategy?

Social media is about storytelling and conversations, so it’s really part of our ongoing content strategy. We’re simply out there talking in other places beyond our own websites.

Video viewing is growing at an unprecedented rate. It’s a format that particularly lends itself to eliciting emotional responses -- people watch videos, and then they laugh, cry, argue. And emotional responses are what connect people to brands. So yes, we’re making hundreds of videos -- watch for them on YouTube!

Posted by George Strompolos, Strategic Partner Development

The sweet and sassy Nadia G started cooking up comedy in four-inch cherry heels when she created her Bitchin’ Kitchen YouTube channel a few years back. Since then she’s been hard at work finding the recipe for the world’s best coffee and the perfect post break-up salad. Nadia G now expands her YouTube cooking channel to the Food Network Canada where she’ll continue to explore delicious recipes for life and love with a feisty sense of humor and a rock ‘n’ roll edge.

Not your average cooking series, Bitchin’ Kitchen has received awards for “Favourite Mobile Series” and “Hottest Emerging Digital Brand in Canada” thanks to her incredible YouTube channel. Now you can continue to watch Nadia on YouTube and also on the Food Network in Canada to learn invaluable cooking lessons like the perfect hangover cure and what to cook to heal a broken heart – or break someone else’s.

Watch her shout out to the YouTube community here and stay tuned for more videos where Nadia will share accessible, inspiring recipes to suit life situations from breaking up to making up, all peppered with her signature ‘Nadvice’.

Posted by Ross Hoffman, Strategic Partner Development

First off, we wanted to say thank you to everyone who's been tagging their videos thus far as part of this effort. It's been helpful in our quest to promote videos for some of the events and holidays on our calendar. Take the Oscars, for instance. Due to your proactive efforts, we were able to easily source and Tweet timely videos from UltraKawaii, NYTimes and Current, all of whom used our unique tags to help us find their videos for these features.

Here are the upcoming opportunities for this month for our Spotlight Videos module (if you don't see it on your homepage, add it here!) and @youtube Twitter love. Spotlights run a few times per week and showcase interesting and timely videos from our community and partners, all organized around an event or theme. Tag any appropriate and relevant video with the tags below to be considered for these spotlights. Please note that themes and dates are subject to change and spotlights may be added or dropped without notice.

4/4 - Easter: we're looking for any and all intriguing content related to the holiday (tag: yteaster)
4/22 - Earth Day 40th anniversary: we've got a theme for the spotlight already, but will be looking for videos to Tweet (tag: ytearthday)

If you're interested in being a curator or have ideas for a theme we haven't mentioned, please email mia@youtube.com. Thanks!

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