Samsung, Pepsi see success with YouTube's new TrueView for reach campaigns

Dive Brief:

Google's YouTube launched TrueView for reach, a new way for advertisers to purchase TrueView ads that combine the platform's in-stream format with cost per thousand impressions (CPM) buying that is optimized for reach, according to a Google Inside AdWords blog post.
Beta tests of 84 TrueView for reach campaigns revealed a significant lift in ad recall for nine out of 10 campaigns, with an average lift of nearly 20%. Samsung Electronics has seen early success with the format, the company said in a statement included in the blog post. Pepsi France also saw higher completion rates on 10-second videos with TrueView for reach, along with 30% lower CPMs and 46% lower average costs on incremental reach points versus TV.
Like all formats under the TrueView banner, the latest addition can be skipped after five seconds of viewing, and TruView for reach ads can last anywhere between six and under 30 seconds. This means that some YouTube bumper assets will now be skippable, according to Marketing Land.

Dive Insight:

TrueView for reach gives marketers a potentially more cost-effective tool for targeting consumers on YouTube while also allowing the video platform to improve its user experience by making more ad formats, including certain bumper ads, skippable.

"User choice and attention are both critical for building a meaningful connection with consumers and for our flagship phone launch last spring, we were able to reach 50%+ more people at half the CPM using TrueView for reach," Jay Altschuler, VP of media at Samsung Electronics America, said in a statement.

To accommodate user choice, YouTube last year announced a ban on unskippable 30-second ads, though the policy hasn't always been effectively enforced, according to a report in Ad Age. The latest news signals YouTube's commitment to ensuring that ads are as unintrusive as possible while still providing marketers with better tools to reach its audience.

More brands have been experimenting with YouTube's six-second bumper ads in an effort to reach on-the-go mobile consumers. Shorter ads are more likely hold the attention of millennials, in particular, according to comScore data. Uber built 85 different YouTube bumper campaigns, an effort that helped the ride-sharing app drive 63% more first trips from the video platform at an 18% lower cost per first trip than past campaigns, according to the blog post.

A new ad-buying format delivering lower CPMs comes as more marketers are planning to shift their ad budgets to digital video. According to Magna's most recent advertising forecast, digital video ad sales are expected to increase 23% in 2018 as platforms like YouTube see higher consumption.