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YouTube redesigns ad offering with ‘premium’ and ‘brand safe’ YouTube Select

Google has launched YouTube Select in the local market, which it says will allow advertisers to more easily book ads by bringing together the existing products – Google Preferred and Programs and Packages – into a singular offering.

Google said the update gives advertisers more choice and flexibility, so they can “reach the audiences they care about on YouTube – at scale, and across screens”.

Google’s local director of sales, Rhys Williams, said in a media briefing this afternoon that YouTube Select “is our new global umbrella brand for all of our premium contextual ad offerings, where you will find, firstly, lineups. So these are the premium lineups around our dedicated categories.”

These lineups, or the 14 most key categories, include entertainment, beauty and fashion, and sport, and will be available across Google Ads, Display, and Video 360.

Williams added that the Programs and Packages part of YouTube Select is “sort of like traditional sponsorships, but across sports, music, and YouTube Kids”.

“These are the packages that provide exclusive and high share of voice sponsorship opportunities for our most premium sports and music content [in addition to YouTube Kids],” he said.

“For those brands that invest particularly heavily in sports, this is a really important audience for them to reach, and help them get their ROI out of those sports partnerships.”

Williams

Williams also delved in to how advertisers will be able to book ads and negotiate rates.

“All of this can be bought [through] flexible buying options,” he explained. “We offer options around traditional reserves, so in much the same way as you would buy TV through an insertion order, locking in a pre-negotiated rate and use that rate throughout the year.

“Or through instant reserve, which is a more dynamic way of buying, with dynamic pricing and the ability to buy on more granular audiences, where you can lock in a rate for the life of the campaign, and alongside that targeting. It aims to marry the very best of what we offer in audience targeting, but we guarantee the inventory and guarantee price.”

YouTube Select, he said, will offer “more content, an emphasis on streaming, greater flexibility, and brand-safety”. It will come equipped with brand suitability controls, and gives advertisers the choice to only serve ads on videos that have been verified by YouTube staff.

At the same time it unveiled YouTube Select, Google emphasised new research that indicated 72% of Australians have access to more than one streaming service, a climb of 2.6m people compared to pre-COVID-19. In addition, over 7m stream YouTube to connected TVs across the country, with watchtime on TVs growing 65% year on year.

“We’re seeing Aussies turning more and more to YouTube on the biggest screen in their home. This shift in viewing behaviour means lineups contain more TV screen inventory than ever,” Williams said.

YouTube is Australia’s most popular video platform, with 16m monthly visitors, including 7.5m among 18-35-year-olds.

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