DURBAN - YouTube South Africa today announced that there will, for the first time, be a YouTube category at the Loeries this year to recognise creative excellence on the YouTube platform.
This means that advertisers and agencies creating ads for YouTube or creating YouTube cuts of ads will be eligible to enter them into a category tailored specifically for them.
Bumper ads (6 second non-skippable ads) and skippable ads (minimum 7 seconds, maximum any length video) will be eligible, said Google SA head of Creative Agencies, Artwell Nwaila.
To qualify for entry, ads need to have been flighted within the Loeries stated entry dates. Advertisers and agencies can enter a single entry, comprising a bumper ad or multiple bumper ads (eg a series of bumper ads that together tell a story), or a campaign entry featuring at minimum one skippable TrueView advert (minimum 7 seconds, maximum any length video advert) and a minimum of one bumper advert (6 second non-skippable video advert).
"For advertisers, this means there is a huge, addressable market that they can target with ads specifically tailored to take advantage of digital video platforms like YouTube, and the benefits they offer," said Nwaila.
These benefits include the ability to use ad formats to tell creative stories, make ads as long or as short as advertisers like, take viewers along a journey and drive key actions beyond just the view.
Ads on YouTube have proven so popular that YouTube showcases the top 5 most popular and creative video ads watched for the previous month through its monthly YouTube Ads Leaderboard.
The ranking is determined using some of YouTube’s strongest signals of viewer choice – number of views within the country, view rate (how much of an ad people choose to watch), and percentage of organic views versus paid views.
In March, Samsung’s Galaxy 10 ads took the top two spots on the South African YouTube Ads Leaderboard. Top of the list was the ad announcing the phone’s availability, followed by the ad that introduced the device to local audiences.
From one essential to the next, KFC’s saucy new Zinger Chutney Burger ad came in third on the Leaderboard, and, back to phones, Huawei’s ad for the Y7 2019 took fourth place. Fedgroup took fifth place on the March Leaderboard with its Impact Farming ad, featuring the legendary David Hasselhoff (which may or may not have accounted for its popularity on YouTube).