Brands Should Partner With YouTube Creators To Connect With Younger Generation

YouTube is the favourite brand of young Britons aged 18 to 24 and has been at the top of the polls for two years in a row now. This demographic use it for everything, from watching videos to finding how-to guides. Advertising, however, has not been able to fully leverage this channel, since traditional formats interrupt the user experience.

However, advertisers have a chance of reaching this young audience by joining with popular YouTube content creators. Such partnerships can create content that doesn’t disrupt the user experience and can even add value to it, if sufficiently creative. An additional benefit for advertisers is that they can gain credibility by associating with popular YouTube content creators.

The genres that brands can exploit with YouTube partnerships are countless, but some of the biggest ones in terms of creative opportunity are vlogging, comedy sketches, animation, music, beauty, food, gaming and how-to’s. Advertisers can start from scratch and create a social video broadcast or a product feature in a scheduled video. Brands can also take advantage of the celebrities on YouTube, inviting them to take part in a campaign and thus widen its reach considerably to include the celebrity’s fan base.

One thing for brands to bear in mind is that such partnerships may be collaborations, but the YouTube creator has the biggest say, warns social video entertainment expert James Marks, as cited by Voxburner. Video rights and IP are owned by the creator, while the brand is responsible for clarifying its target audience, the aims of the campaign, most common do’s and don’ts plus the planned budget. Marks adds that advertisers must remember that YouTube creators turn down more offers for such partnerships than brands.