FIAT's 500X Crossover Ad Drives Audience Engagement on YouTube

After successfully revamping its iconic 500 model, the Italian automobile manufacturer FIAT launched the 500X crossover. To compete in an ultra-competitive market, FIAT France partnered with YouTube to produce an ad and measured impact in terms of ad recall, brand awareness, and search volume.

Goals

• Identify a target audience and encourage engagement with the 500X crossover ad
• Drive lifts in ad recall, brand awareness, and search volume

Approach

• Stream video ad exclusively on YouTube before launching on other media
• Measure the incremental impact of the campaign with a Brand Lift survey

Results

• +123% ad recall for 45—54 year-olds and +82% for over 35 year-olds
• +23% brand awareness for 35—44 year-olds among those who saw the ad
• +230% search volume for the FIAT 500X model and +200% for the FIAT brand

 With 13 million views, the FIAT 500X YouTube ad remains one of the top three most-viewed videos during the 2015 Super Bowl, with an impressive completion rate of 84%.

Overall, the ad was a smashing success, but did it reach the target audience? How did it reach it? What impact did it have on car sales? Because each model in the 500 family has its own target audience, FIAT France created its version of a media laboratory to better understand and identify the users who watched its YouTube ad. A few days before launching communication on all other media, the car maker analyzed reaction to the YouTube ad. The video was 1 minute and 20 seconds, so a key comparison was established between those who watched more than 30 seconds or less than 30 seconds. To top it off, the company also tracked how different age groups responded to the ad.

Looking at the results, FIAT France drew three conclusions:

1. Impact on ad recall

Of those exposed to the YouTube ad, FIAT France recorded a lift in ad recall of 123% among target buyers (between 45 and 54 years old) and a 82% lift among its "market entry" target audience (over 35 year-olds). For those in the "market entry" target audience who watched more than 30 seconds of the ad, the lift increased to a 175% ad recall rate.

  

2. Impact on brand awareness

Of those who were exposed to the YouTube ad, FIAT France observed a 23% increase in brand awareness among its "market entry" target group (35—44 years old).

 

3. Impact on search volume

 

In comparing those who were exposed with those who were not exposed to the YouTube ad, FIAT France observed a 230% increase in search volume for the FIAT 500X model and a 200% increase for the FIAT brand. Similarly, search interest for all campaign keywords increased 9X.

Analyzing across a variety of metrics helped the brand understand the impact of the YouTube ad and how internet users were feeling about and engaging with the advertising for the new 500X model. Armed with this knowledge, FIAT France could launch its full media campaign with confidence.

  

"We were working in an ultra-competitive segment. The YouTube campaign was launched before any other media, so we could attribute 100% of the results to YouTube. We realized that by studying the audience, we managed to better understand and address it. I got the feeling that we were no longer driving by intuition, but rather based on observed facts." —Jérémie Ballouard, Digital Marketing Manager at FIAT France Group.

Why Gamers Should Be Part of Your Audience Strategy

Do you know how many gaming devotees you have in your core audience? Kim Thompson, SVP group client director of digital, MediaVest, shares new research about why Gamers are an attractive audience for marketers in any category.

For nearly two decades, I've been a professional marketer. For just as long, I've also been an avid Gamer. With a lens on both worlds, I've learned one thing: Gamers are an incredibly influential—and untapped—segment of consumers. And they aren't just budget-challenged young males. (I'm living proof of that.)
Gaming isn't just a thing you can do anymore. It's also a thing you can watch. Increasingly, gaming content on YouTube is becoming a major destination for Gamers' I-want-to-watch-what-I'm-into moments. Believe it or not, watching someone play Call of Duty (one of my personal favorites) can be just as exhilarating as actually playing it.
To understand more about exactly how influential Gamers can be for marketers, Google recently partnered with Ipsos MediaCT to survey a total of 4,803 participants in the U.S., ages 18-54, out of whom 2,802 go online at least monthly (aka "General Online Population") and 2,001 go online at least monthly and stated that they watch gaming videos on YouTube at least monthly (aka "YouTube Gamers" or "Gamers").¹ What the survey found shed new light on YouTube Gamer demographics, 30% of whom are female.² (See? I'm not the only female watching.)

The same study also found that while Gamers certainly skew younger, over a third of them are actually above the 34-year-old millennial threshold. And some of these people, who were raised blowing into game cartridges, are now raising little Gamers of their own–47% of the YouTube Gamers surveyed are now parents.³

The emerging purchasing power of Gamers

The study also uncovered what I've believed to be true for a long time—that Gamers are an attractive audience for a broad range of advertisers. Gamers are more likely than the general online population to consider purchasing computers, smartphones, media and entertainment products such as movie tickets, music albums, and even cars, whether for themselves or as gifts.⁴
In fact, you might consider Gamers as "uber-consumers," who are not only more likely to buy certain products than the general online population, but are also more likely to be key influencers for your brand regardless of whether you are in the gaming industry or not.

Source: Google/Ipsos MediaCT, U.S. YouTube Gamers Study, among 2,000 people, ages 18-54, who watch gaming videos on YouTube, October 201

 

YouTube Gamers are not only more likely to buy certain products—they're also more likely to buy premium products. For example, 74% of YouTube Gamers surveyed said they would pay more for top-quality media and entertainment products and services. Eighty-five percent said they are willing to pay more for top quality consumer electronics products and services. And 73% made the same declaration regarding top-quality food and beverage products and services.⁵

How Gamers influence the purchasing decisions of others

As you might expect, YouTube Gamers love their electronics. And so it shouldn't come as a surprise that for electronics in particular, YouTube Gamers are highly influential. Eighty-seven percent of those surveyed who have recently bought a consumer electronics product or service say they typically recommend what they've bought to people they know.⁶ Sixty-nine percent of those are also very likely to rate and review their purchase online.⁷
But Gamers' influence doesn't stop at electronics goods. In fact, the ripple effect YouTube Gamers have on other people's purchasing decisions is also observed in the media and entertainment and food and beverage categories, too.

Base: Made a recent purchase in the category (Media and Entertainment N=1,443; Consumer Electronics N=1,042; Packaged Food and Beverages N=2,264)

  

In short, this group not only buys a lot of stuff, it has a strong influence on what others buy as well.

How to maximize reach and engagement with Gamers

What do you need to know to reach this valuable and influential audience?

• Online video influences Gamers' purchases. Forty percent of YouTube Gamers who recently bought a media and entertainment, food and beverages, or consumer electronics product say they are influenced by videos they watched online.⁸
• YouTube is Gamers' preferred platform. Of all the places to watch video content online, YouTube is their #1 destination to find the content that influences their purchasing decisions.⁹ (Curious what they're tuning into? Check out sample Google Preferred video gaming content lineup.)
• Gamers have high expectations for how brands engage them online. They want content from brands that entertains them (83%), taps into their passions (75%), and gives them useful information about how to use their products/services (70%).¹⁰ These items were significantly more important to Gamers than to the average YouTube user.¹¹

Universal Pictures saw firsthand how powerful the gaming audience on YouTube is. The company worked with PewDiePie, one of the leading YouTube gaming creators, to promote the horror film, As Above, So Below. Universal Pictures gamified PewDiePie's experience on the movie set, letting him work his way through the catacombs from the movie, unlocking challenges along the way. The filmmakers tapped into the interests of the gaming community, and gave it a unique way to engage in the film. As a result, the content reached more than 12M views, 900K likes and 70K comments across the campaign videos.
Sure, Gamers are more likely to have high expectations for brands' content online, but their proclivity to share and influence others makes them an audience worth trying to attract. And tapping into the imaginative gamer mentality can be a way to reach them that builds credibility and makes an impact. Treating Gamers not just as consumers who might buy your products but as influencers who can help sell them has worked exceptionally well for companies that see this market as forward-thinking and trendsetting.
Sources:
Google/Ipsos MediaCT, U.S. YouTube Gamers Study, September 2015, N=4,803 among respondents A18-54 who go online at least monthly.
^1-4 Base: total respondents (N=4,803)
^5-8 Base: Made a recent purchase in the category (media and entertainment N=1,443; consumer electronics N=1,042; packaged food and beverages N=2,264)
⁹ Base: Made a purchase in the category and online video influenced purchases (media and entertainment N=645; consumer electronics N=461; packaged food and beverages N=409)
^10-11 Base: Visit YouTube at least monthly (N=4,009)

3 Ways to Reach and Engage Football Fans with YouTube

New data reveals when and why football fans tune in to YouTube for football content. Find out the best ways your brand can connect with football fans around the big game and beyond, through an entire season of opportunities.

The big game is just around the corner, which means marketers and fans alike are getting ready for the most-watched television event of the year. About 110 million viewers have tuned in to the broadcast every year since 2011.¹ But, for advertisers hoping to reach football fans, the big game itself is only a few hours in an entire season of opportunities.
Thanks to online video, there are more ways than ever for fans to indulge their passion for football before, during, and after the big game. While TV is the place to catch the action live, YouTube is the place to catch it in the days, months, and years after. In fact, consumers choose YouTube as their preferred online destination for game day ads.² Why? It's the place to go deeper—to catch commentator analyses, to go behind the scenes, listen to interviews, watch highlight reels, and more. In fact, if you totaled up all the minutes of football content on YouTube, it would take more than 2,000 years to watch it all.³
But football fans don't just turn to YouTube for sports content. YouTube is the fan favorite for finding everything football-related, from the highlights of last week's game to a hilariously bad lip reading of sideline comments.
To examine how fans consume online video during the millions of I-want-to-know, I want-to-do, I-want-to-buy, and I-want-to-watch-what-I'm-into moments that occur throughout the season, we analyzed YouTube viewing behaviors. Here are three key insights to help you reach and engage football fans.

1. Think of the big game as a season, not just one day

On TV, the big game lasts a few hours. On YouTube, viewers watch millions of hours of Super Bowl-related videos in the weeks before and after kickoff. In fact, in the first two weeks of 2015, Super Bowl ads were viewed more than 16 million times, a number that steadily rose to more than 260 million through game day on February 1.⁴ In total, ads and previews garnered more than 7 million hours of watch time in the first six weeks of 2015.⁵

Source: Pixability Industry Study. Super Bowl 2015 YouTube Ads.

  

The best way to boost viewership of a Super Bowl ad? Post it before game day. According to an analysis by Pixability of last year's commercials, brands that published full versions on YouTube before Sunday's game received an average of 2.2X more views and 3.1X more social shares by Monday morning than those brands that waited until the game to release an ad.⁶ The year's most-watched ad in Pixability's study was Budweiser's "Lost Dog," which was posted five days before kickoff and garnered more than 18 million views before the game.
Also consider that there are plenty of opportunities to connect with football fans all year. In fact, viewership of football content on YouTube spikes during the NFL draft in the spring as well as the start of the fall season.⁷

 

Watch Time of Football-Related Content over the Year (2015)

 Source: Google Data, January–December 2015, United States. Classification as a "football" video was based on public data such as headlines, tags, etc., and may not account for every "football" video available on YouTube.

2. Expand your YouTube content strategy to include the culture around the game

It's no surprise that football fans turn to YouTube for game-day highlight reels, commentator analyses, and historic game clips. But there's also opportunity to engage football fans in their I-want-to-know, I-want-to-do, and I-want-to-watch-what-I'm-into moments less directly related to the game itself.

There's a vast range of videos that tie to the big game that can serve as inspiration for brands as they think about creating content that will engage football fans. From football-related tricks like Dude Perfect's Slip 'n Slide Football Battle to the perfect football DIY treats from Rosanna Pansino, there's a variety of subcategories of football-related content that are growing on YouTube.

One subcategory where we've seen growth in watch time is football-related comedy. The category, which includes videos like Key & Peele's Super Bowl Special, grew almost 50% in video watch time year-over-year in 2015.⁸
And it's not just entertainment that's driving football fans to YouTube. We've also seen more evergreen, established categories, like football-related food and recipes, continue to rise, with video watch time growing 77% in the last year; top YouTube searches include fan favorites like hot wings and nachos.⁹

Year-Over-Year Growth (2014–2015) for the Big Game and Football-Related Content

 Google Data, January–December 2015 vs. January–December 2014, Global. Classification as a football-related "food," "video game," "news and highlights," "comedy and humor," "advertising," or "music" video was based on public data such as headlines and tags and may not account for every such video available on YouTube.

3. Find football fans when they're not watching football content

Of course, football fans aren't only watching football (or related) content. Their interests vary and the types of content they watch on YouTube is equally diverse.
To get some insight into what football fans are watching, we looked at viewership patterns across different categories of content. Turns out, those who index high in watching football content are also interested in auto and cooking videos. Millennial fans specifically favor comedy and movie content, while fans that are fathers tend to tune in to auto and news content.¹⁰
Nissan put these lessons into practice for its #withdad Super Bowl campaign in 2015. Not only did Nissan take advantage of the excitement in the lead-up to the big game on YouTube, but it also thought well beyond football-related content when it came to landing the Nissan message.
In the weeks before the Super Bowl, Nissan partnered with popular YouTube creators, asking them to create content celebrating how dads make life better for their families. By tapping into the likes of Roman Atwood, Epic Meal Time, and Convos with My 2-Year-Old (among others), Nissan ensured the content would be seen by a much broader audience of football fans than if it had focused on football content alone.
The videos—with more than 76 million views to date¹¹—were also a savvy way to build suspense for Nissan's first televised Super Bowl ad in nearly 20 years, which was voted the fan favorite in YouTube's AdBlitz.
As the big game has evolved into the big month—and the football season into an all-year affair—the opportunity for advertisers looking to connect with football fans has expanded. By understanding what types of video content football fans turn to in their video micro-moments, brands can find opportunities to connect, engage, and remain relevant and useful from the season's kickoff to its grand finale.
To see more data about how football fans are turning to YouTube in their micro-moments related to their love for the game, head over to our new interactive dashboard.

See for yourself how football fans engage on YouTube

 

Sources:
¹ Nielsen NNTV Program Report 2015, Nielsen historical data.
² YouTube Super Bowl Report. Google / Ipsos MediaCT, Ipsos Online Omnibus, December 2015, N=2014 U.S. online respondents 18+.
³ Google data as of Jan 5th 2016. Global. Classification as a "American football" video was based on public data such as headlines, tags, etc., and may not account for every such video available on YouTube.
⁴ Google Data, January 1, 2015–February 1, 2015. Classification as a big game ad was based on public data such as headlines, tags, etc., and may not account for every such video available on YouTube.
⁵ Google Data. Global. Jan–Feb 2015. Classification as a big game ad was based on public data such as headlines, tags, etc., and may not account for every such video available on YouTube.
⁶ Pixability Industry Study. Super Bowl 2015 YouTube Ads.
⁷ Google Data, January–December 2015, United States. Classification as a "football" video was based on public data such as headlines, tags, etc., and may not account for every "football" video available on YouTube.
⁸ Google Data, January 2014–December 2015, vs. January–December 2014, Global. Classification as a football related "comedy and humor" video was based on public data such as headlines, tags, etc., and may not account for every such video available on YouTube.
⁹ Google Data, January–February 2015, United States. Search results that drove to football related food and recipe content.
¹⁰ Google Data, December 2015, United States. Google-defined lifestyle, psychographic and behavioral audiences based on user browsing behavior on the Google Display Network.
¹¹ Google Data. Analysis of global view counts of these videos.

Success Story on Facebook - Music Story: Joe Bonamassa

Rocking music charts

Musician Joe Bonamassa used Facebook video ads to share his music with millions and promote his album Different Shades of Blue, gaining new fans and achieving his highest-ranking album yet.

• 3.6X return on ad spend from Facebook Ads
• 2.4 million total video views
• 100,000 newsletter sign-ups
• top 10 on Billboard 200 chart

 

Their Story

Keeping blues-rock music strong

Joe Bonamassa is an American blues-rock guitarist, singer and songwriter whose career started at the age of 12. In the last 13 years, he’s released 16 solo albums with his label J&R Adventures, which he founded with his partner, Roy Weisman.

Their Goal

Increasing album awareness

The goal for J&R Adventure’s digital marketing team was to build awareness for Joe’s upcoming album Different Shades of Blue and ultimately drive sales. J&R Adventures also wanted to increase sign-ups for Joe’s official newsletter, which contains free music and upcoming show information.

We’ve shifted ad dollars from TV to Facebook video, as it’s the only way we can get perfect targeting and a proven return on investment. We may be early adopters of what will be the new standard.

Scott Macaluso, Digital Marketing Director, J&R Adventures

Their Solution

Bring the music to life

Videos offer the best way to experience Joe Bonamassa’s music by listening and seeing him rock on his guitar. Joe was already uploading videos to his Facebook Page of him casually playing his guitar, recording in the studio or performing on tour. With video ads, Joe was able to share his music with more people and create interest for his upcoming album Different Shades of Blue.

Joe’s label J&R Adventures created video ads using the video views objective in Power Editor. This allowed the label to create an audience of people who viewed the videos to reach later with other ads. The promoted videos featured Joe playing one of his songs from his album with a message encouraging people to download the song for free at any time by clicking a link or following the call-to-action button at the end of the video. People were then asked to sign up for the official newsletter to receive the song download.

Read More

 

Products used

• Ads
• Video
• Custom Audiences

Goals

• Raise Brand Awareness

Their Success

A killer performance

With the help of Facebook Ads, Different Shades of Blue reached an all-time high. It debuted at number 8 on the Billboard 200 chart, which ranks the most popular albums across all music genres on a weekly basis, and was his highest-ranking album yet.

As a result of Facebook campaigns that ran between August–December 2014, Joe and J&R Adventures achieved:

• 3.6X return on ad spend from Facebook Ads promoting Different Shades of Blue
• 2.4 million total video views across all video ads
• 100,000 newsletter sign-ups
• Top 10 on Billboard 200 chart

Facebook made it possible for people all over the world to hear and see Joe Bonamassa’s music. When people share his songs with their friends, our small independent record label is given a viral edge to compete in the music industry.

Benjamin Perlman, Digital Marketing Strategist, J&R Adventures

 

 

Google Programmatic Plans for 2016 - Inside Google Marketing

Joshua Spanier, marketing director for global media, offers a glimpse into how Google went “all-in” on programmatic advertising and reveals his programmatic resolutions for 2016.

For more than a decade, Joshua Spanier has been planning media for global advertising agencies, including ZenithOptimedia and Goodby Silverstein & Partners. Now, as head of Google Media Lab, he's on our front lines of ad campaign planning and ad placement. As such, he's leading our brand's "all-in" push toward programmatic advertising. Here he shares his experience with this major transition and sheds light on where the $15 billion market for programmatic is going in 2016.¹
How does Google use programmatic advertising in its marketing strategy?
Over the last two years, Google marketing has gone all-in, pushing close to 100% of our brand display advertising through programmatic in 2015.

"Programmatic—along with search—is the key to winning these micro-moments without sacrificing scale."

It's the most efficient and effective way for us to reach people with our ads and our message. It's especially helped us reach people in their micro-moments—when they're looking for answers, discovering new things, and making decisions. Programmatic—along with search—is the key to winning these micro-moments without sacrificing scale.
We've found great success adopting programmatic for our product campaigns. To support the Google Search App campaign, for instance, we built mobile ads with dynamic content that changed based on the user's location, time of day, and 23 other live data points.
In fact, our programmatic push connected with people so effectively it led to some of our strongest mobile results to date. We saw a 12.5% increase in brand lift, as well as 5X the expansion rates (the ratio of ad expansions to ad impressions) versus industry benchmarks.²
Looking back at this "all-in" move to programmatic buying, what was the biggest challenge?
The hardest thing is respecting the relationship between the medium and the message. It's easy to get lost in the technical aspects of programmatic. But then you lose sight of our core mission as marketers—to add value to consumers. The most advanced programmatic advertising in the world won't break through if the creative doesn't tell a compelling story.

It's also been important for me to recognize that the technology is fluid. It's improving all the time. That means I have invested my own time in staying close to industry news to keep up with what other brands are achieving using programmatic technologies overall. This is not a "learn it once and done" space. It needs constant attention.

How is programmatic different today for you versus two years ago?
For a long time, programmatic was the domain of direct-response marketers who were fixated on finding the cheapest possible conversion, leading to fears within the industry that real-time bidding, or RTB, stood for "race to the bottom." But now all marketers, including brand marketers, are using programmatic at a strategic level and getting real results while working with the world's premier publishers. For example, we have a great relationship with The New York Times and recently bought the first homepage masthead programmatically from them. A few years ago, no one would have thought that was possible because publishers thought programmatic hurt their digital business model. But now programmatic is seen as a mutually beneficial way of buying and serving advertising.

Brands like L'Oréal are getting up to 2,000+% return on programmatic ad campaigns.

Plus, buying and serving ads programmatically offers metrics like viewability (i.e., Did someone actually see the ad?), so brands can optimize against something that will lead to positive results.

What role do you think programmatic will play in the evolution of the marketing industry?
Right now, it's a $15 billion market and it's only getting bigger every year because it allows brands to deliver ads that are relevant to real human beings. And that connection with people is what pays off with measurable results. L'Oréal, for example, has seen exceptional results, in one case bringing in a 2,000+% return on ad spend with its programmatic campaign.³ In our case, with the Google Search App campaign, we reached 30% more people three times more frequently, with an approximately 30% lower effective cost-per-thousand impressions (eCPM) compared to the previous year.⁴
What are you most excited to work on in 2016?
I have a few resolutions in 2016. I'd like us to try to use programmatic scale to drive even more sophisticated advertising tactics—the things that we'd normally have to do on a smaller scale.
First, I'd like to experiment with new capabilities to refine relevance. I want to focus on things like geolocation, demographics, and dayparting—which are enabled by programmatic—to be there in consumers' micro-moments.
Second, I'm aiming to make creative that people will find even more useful and engaging.
Finally, I want to push the boundaries of programmatic tech beyond the web. I want to experiment further with making real-time ads in the out-of-home industry, for example. We have done tests in London and Japan, and I see a huge opportunity to make more relevant ads within physical spaces out in the world.
Looking to make your own resolutions for programmatic in 2016? We created a quiz to help you develop an action plan for the year ahead.

Get your customized 2016 programmatic plan

 

Sources:
¹ Ad Age, June 2015
² Think With Google, Mobile Micro-Moments: Creating Valuable Programmatic Advertising with Search Insights, December 2015
³ Think With Google, L'Oréal Canada Finds Beauty in Programmatic Buying, July 2015
⁴ Think With Google, Inside Google Marketing: How We Went All In With Programmatic Buying, July 2015

Why Gamers Should Be Part of Your Audience Strategy

Do you know how many gaming devotees you have in your core audience? Kim Thompson, SVP group client director of digital, MediaVest, shares new research about why Gamers are an attractive audience for marketers in any category.

For nearly two decades, I've been a professional marketer. For just as long, I've also been an avid Gamer. With a lens on both worlds, I've learned one thing: Gamers are an incredibly influential—and untapped—segment of consumers. And they aren't just budget-challenged young males. (I'm living proof of that.)
Gaming isn't just a thing you can do anymore. It's also a thing you can watch. Increasingly, gaming content on YouTube is becoming a major destination for Gamers' I-want-to-watch-what-I'm-into moments. Believe it or not, watching someone play Call of Duty (one of my personal favorites) can be just as exhilarating as actually playing it.
To understand more about exactly how influential Gamers can be for marketers, Google recently partnered with Ipsos MediaCT to survey a total of 4,803 participants in the U.S., ages 18-54, out of whom 2,802 go online at least monthly (aka "General Online Population") and 2,001 go online at least monthly and stated that they watch gaming videos on YouTube at least monthly (aka "YouTube Gamers" or "Gamers").¹ What the survey found shed new light on YouTube Gamer demographics, 30% of whom are female.² (See? I'm not the only female watching.)

The same study also found that while Gamers certainly skew younger, over a third of them are actually above the 34-year-old millennial threshold. And some of these people, who were raised blowing into game cartridges, are now raising little Gamers of their own–47% of the YouTube Gamers surveyed are now parents.³

The emerging purchasing power of Gamers

The study also uncovered what I've believed to be true for a long time—that Gamers are an attractive audience for a broad range of advertisers. Gamers are more likely than the general online population to consider purchasing computers, smartphones, media and entertainment products such as movie tickets, music albums, and even cars, whether for themselves or as gifts.⁴
In fact, you might consider Gamers as "uber-consumers," who are not only more likely to buy certain products than the general online population, but are also more likely to be key influencers for your brand regardless of whether you are in the gaming industry or not.

Source: Google/Ipsos MediaCT, U.S. YouTube Gamers Study, among 2,000 people, ages 18-54, who watch gaming videos on YouTube, October 2015

  

YouTube Gamers are not only more likely to buy certain products—they're also more likely to buy premium products. For example, 74% of YouTube Gamers surveyed said they would pay more for top-quality media and entertainment products and services. Eighty-five percent said they are willing to pay more for top quality consumer electronics products and services. And 73% made the same declaration regarding top-quality food and beverage products and services.⁵

How Gamers influence the purchasing decisions of others

As you might expect, YouTube Gamers love their electronics. And so it shouldn't come as a surprise that for electronics in particular, YouTube Gamers are highly influential. Eighty-seven percent of those surveyed who have recently bought a consumer electronics product or service say they typically recommend what they've bought to people they know.⁶ Sixty-nine percent of those are also very likely to rate and review their purchase online.⁷
But Gamers' influence doesn't stop at electronics goods. In fact, the ripple effect YouTube Gamers have on other people's purchasing decisions is also observed in the media and entertainment and food and beverage categories, too.

Base: Made a recent purchase in the category (Media and Entertainment N=1,443; Consumer Electronics N=1,042; Packaged Food and Beverages N=2,264)

  

In short, this group not only buys a lot of stuff, it has a strong influence on what others buy as well.

How to maximize reach and engagement with Gamers

What do you need to know to reach this valuable and influential audience?

• Online video influences Gamers' purchases. Forty percent of YouTube Gamers who recently bought a media and entertainment, food and beverages, or consumer electronics product say they are influenced by videos they watched online.⁸
• YouTube is Gamers' preferred platform. Of all the places to watch video content online, YouTube is their #1 destination to find the content that influences their purchasing decisions.⁹ (Curious what they're tuning into? Check out sample Google Preferred video gaming content lineup.)
• Gamers have high expectations for how brands engage them online. They want content from brands that entertains them (83%), taps into their passions (75%), and gives them useful information about how to use their products/services (70%).¹⁰ These items were significantly more important to Gamers than to the average YouTube user.¹¹

Universal Pictures saw firsthand how powerful the gaming audience on YouTube is. The company worked with PewDiePie, one of the leading YouTube gaming creators, to promote the horror film, As Above, So Below. Universal Pictures gamified PewDiePie's experience on the movie set, letting him work his way through the catacombs from the movie, unlocking challenges along the way. The filmmakers tapped into the interests of the gaming community, and gave it a unique way to engage in the film. As a result, the content reached more than 12M views, 900K likes and 70K comments across the campaign videos.
Sure, Gamers are more likely to have high expectations for brands' content online, but their proclivity to share and influence others makes them an audience worth trying to attract. And tapping into the imaginative gamer mentality can be a way to reach them that builds credibility and makes an impact. Treating Gamers not just as consumers who might buy your products but as influencers who can help sell them has worked exceptionally well for companies that see this market as forward-thinking and trendsetting.
Sources:
Google/Ipsos MediaCT, U.S. YouTube Gamers Study, September 2015, N=4,803 among respondents A18-54 who go online at least monthly.
^1-4 Base: total respondents (N=4,803)
^5-8 Base: Made a recent purchase in the category (media and entertainment N=1,443; consumer electronics N=1,042; packaged food and beverages N=2,264)
⁹ Base: Made a purchase in the category and online video influenced purchases (media and entertainment N=645; consumer electronics N=461; packaged food and beverages N=409)
^10-11 Base: Visit YouTube at least monthly (N=4,009)