YouTube breaks down how it's overhauling its approach of selling ads on influencers' videos to go after the $70 billion TV market

• YouTube is rolling out a new program called YouTube Select that replaces its existing Google Preferred ad program aimed at big TV advertisers.
• YouTube is pitching a wide amount of content to advertisers, including its growing TV viewership that reaches 100 million people a month.
• The pitch comes as advertisers are rethinking their spending on so-called upfront deals, and YouTube said it would be flexible with advertisers on its new deals.
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YouTube is ramping up its pitch for a bigger piece of the $70 billion TV industry.
The company is replacing its Google Preferred program that allows advertisers to run ads on the most popular 5% of YouTube content with a new program called YouTube Select. Select includes a wider swath of content and heavily promotes YouTube programming that is watched on a TV screen.
YouTube has long sold ad packages to big TV advertisers wanting to advertise on YouTube's most popular content, similar to the way TV networks sell annual upfront ad deals. Those deals have typically circled around Google Preferred, YouTube's 6-year-old program that highlights popular content from creators like Remi Cruz.
Tara Walpert Levy, VP of agency solutions at Google, said Select addresses marketers' desire to advertise next to reliable content and YouTube's growing TV audience of 100 million TV-screen monthly viewers in the US.
"One of the challenges is how you buy as a TV buyer," she said. "The feedback that we received from marketers was that their preference was to have a greater set of more predictable content categories that were simply equally brand safe and had similar quality content."
Emily Anthony, director of media services at advertising agency Merkle, said the new packaging and ad formats could lead to more deals.
"It has been confusing, both the upfront deal structures and the products that follow the upfront," she said. "The reorg is timely, and there's an appetite for it. From what we've seen so far, it is significantly more straightforward and it will enable brands and advertisers to participate in the upfront process more easily."

YouTube is pitching a broader slate of content to advertisers

Walpert-Levy said that YouTube historically not had enough content to meet advertisers' spend that is directed at Google Preferred. Google Preferred contains content in categories like beauty, fashion, and gaming.
In addition to Google Preferred, YouTube Select also includes programming called Emerging lineups that targets ads to up-and-coming content that is popular on YouTube but doesn't crack the top 5% requirement for Google Preferred.
YouTube Select also focuses on content that is vetted by humans and has brand-safety controls. Previously, Google focused on content that was popular in real-time, but advertisers have had concerns about ads running around controversial and harmful content on YouTube over the past few years.
YouTube also is letting advertisers sponsor the most popular content in the YouTube Kids, Sports, Music and Originals. There is also a lineup of TV content of programming that popular content that consumers watch on TV screens. YouTube reports that viewership on TV screens jumped 80% year-over-year in March.
With more inventory included in YouTube Select, its ad prices calculated on cost per impression models are likely to dip.

Some marketers are cutting upfront deals as they slash ad spend

Marketers have pulled ad spend during the pandemic due to closed businesses and economic uncertainty.
Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that General Motors and PepsiCo were among brands considering canceling upfront deals with broadcast and cable networks.
Walpert-Levy said YouTube would be flexible with upfront advertisers over when deals start.
"Flexibility has never been more important than it is right now, given how much it's changing and, frankly, the different situations that advertisers and agencies find themselves in," she said.
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https://www.businessinsider.com/youtube-launches-youtube-select-for-70-billion-tv-market-2020-5?IR=T