While here at Brafton we tout the ineffable value of video marketing, many brands have put off visual content production because they aren’t sold on its effectiveness. Well, Google recently announced that every single company on Ad Age’s Top 100 brands now run campaigns through YouTube and the video-streaming site has reached another milestone – 1 billion monthly active users.
To put into perspective the magnitude of YouTube’s reach, the company provided a few facts:
- One in two people visit YouTube on the web.
- Ten Super Bowl audiences make up YouTube’s monthly viewership.
- If YouTube were a country, it would be the third largest nation in the world.
YouTube marketing can reach a highly active consumer base as long as brands understand the right language and tone to use to engage their ideal online markets. Google’s AdWords Agency blog credited a lot of YouTube’s growth to what Nielsen calls Generation C. These consumers are not defined by their age, but by how they access online content. Google outlines the 4Cs this generation thrives on when using YouTube: Connection, creation, community and curation. Gen C YouTube users connect with video content on all screens, create and upload original media, engage with the site’s community and curate videos that matter to them most.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce notes that Generation C consumers influence $500 billion in annual spending in the Americas alone. More, these highly connected consumers watch much less TV than other demographics, and choose to engage with web content across platforms instead. The C consumers are ideal audiences for entertaining video marketing campaigns shared on Google’s social video platform.
Facebook was the only social media network to reach 1 billion monthly active users up until YouTube’s recent announcement (see our Social Media Horse Race for an overview of how networks stack up in terms of users). Clearly, this changes the entire social-media game, and further emphasizes the need for companies to leverage the power of video content. Check out Brafton’s YouTube Marketing Playbook to understand how to make the video-streaming network an invaluable component to your brand’s lead generation and nurturing efforts.
