YouTube’s Brandcast Puts Creator Partnerships Front and Center

Heading into YouTube’s Brandcast on Wednesday, Sean Downey, president of the Americas for Google, wants ad buyers to walk out with one idea cemented: YouTube is the future of media, and creators are the front door.

“What I hope you find is that brands want to be attached to culture and community in a really authentic way,” Downey told ADWEEK. “There was a trend for a long time that held that the future of branding is social. I think the future of brand is trust.”

That thesis is showing up in the platform’s pitch through an expanded slate of creator-buying tools. 

Over the last year, YouTube has rolled out creator takeovers, channel slates that preview upcoming creator content for brands, and YouTube Creator Partnerships, which pair advertisers with creators at scale. According to Downey, brands running Creator Partnerships on Shorts see roughly a 30% lift in conversion.

In a conversation with ADWEEK ahead of Brandcast, Downey also spotlighted Shorts’ scale, why he believes the branding-versus-performance tradeoff is a false choice, and how podcasting is showing up on stage even if it’s not the headline.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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ADWEEK: What are the top-line messages you want ad buyers walking out of Brandcast with?

Downey: It’s a fun show: It’s the one advertisers love to come to because it showcases the best of YouTube. The biggest thing we want to communicate is that YouTube continues to be the future of media. 

Our platform is much more than TV alone, and we like to focus on how viewership has evolved across a multitude of screens. We’ve been the No. 1 streamer for three years running, and Shorts are being watched by billions of users.

We also want to showcase that YouTube is the ultimate destination for entertainment. People make decisions on YouTube. They connect, build community, and seek authenticity from creators. You can do all of those things in one place, and that redefines what a media platform is.

Creator buying has been a thread through your last several upfronts. What’s new this year?

Everyone knows creator marketing works, but we think the opportunity is bigger on our platform than anywhere else. Last year, we launched creator takeovers, which allowed brands to take over a channel when a creator launched something. 

In the fall, we started to play with channel slates, previewing upcoming content from creators to brands. That has helped spur integration efforts and brand deals. We’ll be talking about those in a more extended way at Brandcast.

When we get into an upfront discussion now, we can put shows in front of brands that match them directly. That gives brands a premium position on specific things. 

We’ve also launched YouTube Creator Partnerships, which we announced at NewFronts. Brands and creators can log into a system and be given suggested pairings. That has created a lot more scale and puts brands in front of tuned-in audiences with authenticity. 

If you have a Creator Partnership on Shorts, you get about a 30% increase in conversion lift.

Is the pitch that advertisers should be buying directly from creators rather than from YouTube?

We have more advertisers asking us to purchase directly from creators, and we’ve facilitated that a lot over the last 6 to 12 months. That aligns to how people want to buy upfront.

A lot of the conversation around CTV right now is the branding-versus-performance tension. 

How does YouTube fit into that?

A brand doesn’t have to choose between branding and performance; they can do both. We generate brand lift with creators, and we drive long- and short-term ROI through other platforms and formats. 

YouTube delivers double the long-term ROAS of TV and other platforms. We drive action in the short and long term. Hopefully, advertisers understand that you can work with creators, tap into commerce, and let our AI-powered tools scale creative and maximize effectiveness.

How are you backing that up on measurement?

We do first-party and third-party measurement. A lot of our customers use third-party MMMs, and we tend to show very well on YouTube measurement, which is why they continue to invest with us.

Shorts has become a bigger part of the story. What’s the case to advertisers there?

Shorts is the strongest vertical video product out there. Over 10 million channels publish Shorts every day. 

It’s a place where a brand can drive both awareness and action, and the Creator Partnerships piece is where we’re seeing the biggest conversion impact.

Podcasting has been a growing piece of YouTube’s identity. Is it part of the Brandcast story?

There’s no specific language around podcasting that’s noteworthy on its own, but you’ll see some of those creators on stage. Alex Cooper, for example, is a well-known podcaster but has a larger media network and will talk about that. There’s also the future of the talk show with Kareem. 

We point out that there are more podcasting hours on YouTube than anywhere else.

You mentioned trust as the future of brand. What do you mean by that?

There was a trend for a long time that held that the future of branding is social. I think the future of brand is trust. 

Brands want to be attached to trusted creators in authentic ways, and that happens in a really unique way on YouTube. Our creators are the most trusted, and when brands work with them, they get phenomenal results. 

It’s not viral, and it’s not social. It’s community-based authenticity and trust that earns long-term brand credit and drives sales.

Final pitch?

The most important thing to remember is that we’re going to showcase how YouTube is the future of media. Advertisers are coming through that door because they know that. 

They know only YouTube can drive those integrated relationships, and they’re excited about that.

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