Last week, Ad Results Media was in full attendance to the first in-person VidCon event since 2019 with leaders from creative, audio insights, media, and business development. The conference & convention featured high-profile creators from YouTube, TikTok and created fruitful connections, discussions, and potential branded partnerships in our clients’ and creators’ futures. VidCon filled the Anaheim Convention Center and created three days of insights and magic for creators, platform innovators, fans and brands.
There were some fantastic industry exchanges; here are our top three takeaways.
In MrBeast’s Friday morning panel, it was stated that long-form creator videos (over 5 minutes) on YouTube receive a 70% watch-through rate. Creators across the board had similar high engagement numbers with their videos, which reinforces a proven ARM performance strategy to prioritize mid-content integrations and mid-roll over start-of-video integrations.
Why is this more effective? Prioritizing partnerships deeper into a creator video’s length, rather than the first few minutes, means brands reach a more tuned-in viewer. It places branded partnerships where higher receptivity increases the chances for brand recall, association, and performance/retail KPIs, and improves the borrowed clout and equity of that creator’s endorsement. In an industry where pre-roll ads are frequently skipped, a mid-roll integration presents an opportunity to connect brands with the storyline naturally and in a non-disruptive format.
Trust your creators to place your branded experience within their story and within their content, and you’ll see better engagement metrics. Pre-roll ads may have carried the digital world’s storytelling in the past, but mid-roll is our future.
Ben Relles shared his 10 fundamental rules on driving audience growth on YouTube for creators and brands; we’ve shared our own interpretation of those for creators and brands alike.
The three big trends that YouTube is projecting for the rest of this year may shape how brands test and grow in the space, and how consumers are served and seeded content.