Dive Brief:

• YouTube is deepening its partnership with the NFL and integrating with parent Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence (AI), the platform announced Wednesday at its annual Brandcast presentation focused on developments around content and ads.
• Ad offerings discussed include a sponsorship package focused on owning cultural moments such as Black Friday; an expansion of shoppable connected TV (CTV) tools; and a Peak Points format built on Gemini that matches brands with “peak moments” on YouTube based on contextual relevance.  
• The video platform also said it will exclusively stream the first Friday game of the upcoming NFL season, the first time it has acted as a live broadcaster for the league. The event hosted in São Paolo, Brazil, will run on the NFL’s official YouTube channel free of charge. 

Dive Insight:

YouTube’s Brandcast event underscored the platform’s dual focus on historic strengths in the creator economy and user-generated content, as well as its rising stature in CTV and more prime-time programming like live sports. The evening also saw YouTube packaging together these strengths as a way to pitch the platform as a top choice for tapping into cultural moments, a key marketing strategy for addressing audience fragmentation. 

During the event, executives pointed to stats that reflect YouTube’s central role in cultural moments, including ranking No. 1 in streaming watch time for more than two years, per Nielsen data. This year’s event, again hosted at Manhattan’s Lincoln Center, showcased popular creator talent including Sean Evans of “Hot Ones” and internet megastar MrBeast, along with the likes of Lady Gaga and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Speaking to the larger upfronts theme around sports, YouTube touted its evolving work with the NFL, including plans for the platform’s first live game broadcast and a multiyear pact for the Super Bowl Flag Football Game. Internal data show that consumers spent over 350 million hours viewing NFL content on YouTube last year. YouTube TV, its CTV service, is the current carrier of the desirable NFL Sunday Ticket.

On the advertising front, YouTube unveiled a Cultural Moments Sponsorship package that helps brands own the conversation around specific events, such as The PGA Championship, Black Friday or awards season. Also new are contextual Peak Points ads powered by Gemini AI that aim to deliver messages to YouTube audiences when they’re most likely to be engaged. 

At the same time, YouTube is upgrading its existing shoppable CTV ads with an interactive product feed supported by the Google Merchant Center, angling to tie premium video closer to transactions. In addition, the platform has revamped its masthead placement on CTV homepages with a more immersive design.

In the U.S., YouTube CTV campaigns drove more than 50 million average monthly conversions across Q4 2024, a period that includes the holidays. YouTube has boasted that it is the top streaming destination for viewers based on Nielsen estimates, a shot across the bow at more traditional streamers and media conglomerates.

Brandcast was also a moment for advertisers to testify to YouTube’s capabilities. QSR giant Inspire Brands noted that Shorts, YouTube’s TikTok lookalike, has helped strengthen Dunkin’s connections to Gen Z consumers. The coffee chain achieved 78% positive sentiment around the holidays through efforts with Shorts creators. State Farm meanwhile has leveraged YouTube to reach golfers around the PGA Championships, including through a Spotlight feature, channel takeovers and a custom brand integration with Caddie & the Kid, a new series on the LOL Network. 

Brandcast caps off a pitching bonanza for YouTube that last week included NewFronts presentations for both the video platform as a standalone offering and its parent Google. At Google’s NewFronts, the company announced that it would begin using retail media data to target YouTube campaigns this summer, another sign of the convergence between the lower-funnel channel and upper-funnel video. 

In recent years, YouTube has shifted some of its attention from the NewFronts, which are digitally-oriented, to the upfronts window aimed at winning legacy TV advertising budgets. This year’s YouTube’s Brandcast was hosted shortly after Netflix’s upfront roadshow in an indication of how YouTube views its competitive set.