We’re announcing the launch of the YouTube Brand Partner Program Certification (youtube.com/certified) live from two of the year’s biggest advertising industry events -- The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in France and VidCon in Anaheim, California.
Three years ago, we created the YouTube Brand Partner Program to provide inspiration, education, and support for marketers looking to build content strategies for YouTube. Since then, we’ve welcomed leading brands from all over the world around the globe into the initiative and watched their creative teams adapt our frameworks into innovative campaigns.
As watch time on YouTube continues to grow year over year, advertisers are taking note of trends and embracing originality when it comes to their content. The old saying about content being king continues to ring true whether you’re posting game reviews, comedy sketches, political discourse, or, you guessed it, promoting brands. The stats back it up, too. New research released by Pixability today shows the top 100 brands garnered 50 percent more views this year than last.
Now, we want to continue empowering the agency community to lead the charge by providing easy-to-follow lessons so anyone can construct impressive content campaigns no matter how experienced.
The YouTube Brand Partner Program Certification is an online curriculum designed to equip agencies with the knowledge and tools they need to design effective video content strategies. From publishing frameworks, to how to best partner with YouTube creators, to campaign optimization, the certification provides a guided learning path that will help agencies create successful YouTube content and distribution strategies for their clients. It will be available online for agencies across the globe in 22 languages.
We’ve tapped YouTube thought leaders, as well as popular YouTube creators, such as Hannah Hart, MysteryGuitarMan, Veritasium, My Cupcake Addiction, and Flavia Calina so you get insight straight from the best in the business. Instructors use personal anecdotes and real-life experiences to share best practices for a firsthand account of what works best.
Among the first agencies to sign up for the program as an early adopter was MEC’s Wavemaker who also made a commitment to certify all employees globally in the coming months.
“The launch of the YouTube Brand Partner Program Certification is incredibly timely and exciting for MEC," Global COO Alastair Aird said, "With MEC Wavemaker we have a different kind of content offer, one that helps our clients see exactly what role content and platforms play in their customers’ lives and how that will directly impact their brand’s performance.
It’s different because we have the data to identify precisely what consumer behaviour needs to change along the purchase journey and create content that’s specifically designed to make that change happen. Equipping our people with the necessary knowledge to design the most effective video content is key to our service to clients.”
Marketing is evolving. Agencies are leading that change. And YouTube is here to help. If your agency would like to request an invitation to the program, please reach out to your representative or submit your information here.
-Torrence Boone
VP, Global Agency Sales & Services