YouTube emphasized its pop culture influence over a hyper-engaged fan base at the Google-owned company’s Brandcast event, with testimonials from executives including YT CEO Susan Wojcicki and creative talent ranging from Grace Helbig to John Green. The company also released some impressive stats:
* YouTube overall, and now with mobile growth YT on mobile alone, reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S. (Nielsen U.S. Panel data, Feb, 2015)
* The number of people watching YouTube per day is up 40 percent year over year since March 2014.
* YT watch time is growing. It jumped 50 percent year-over-year from 2014, and 90 percent on smartphones and tablets.
* Based on a February 2015 study, 18-34 year-old online video watchers go first to YouTube if they want to see a video ad, 1.9 times more likely as the nearest platform.
* Viewers are skipping fewer TrueView ads, and four of the top 10 trending videos from last year were from brands.
* iJustine lifecaster Justine Ezarik noted her YT channels releases more than 50 videos each week; and have just crossed 5 billion lifetime YouTube views. She said 60 percent of the audience is on mobile.
* Green urged advertisers to get on the YT bandwagon, noting, “I, and the most passionate creators on YouTube, am not in the distraction business. We’re in the community business, and number of eyeballs is a terrible metric for my business. I don’t care how many people watch or read something I make. I care how many people love what I make.”
* Josh Goldstine, president of worldwide marketing at Universal Pictures, praised YT’s ability to narrow-cast on a massive scale. Universal shifted 60 percent of its budget for feature film Unfriended to digital, he said, yielding a better than expected $16 million opening weekend with online video as the No. 1 source of information for why people showed up at the theater.