The document summarizes a study analyzing the YouTube strategies and performance of the top 100 global brands. Some key findings include:
- The top 100 brands have over 1,300 YouTube channels and 258,000 videos generating 9.5 billion total views.
- The best practices identified for success on YouTube are producing a large volume of varied types of videos, optimizing video metadata, linking videos to marketing initiatives, clearly branding content, and investing more in content than channels.
- Media and technology brands are the most active video producers, while financial services and alcohol brands struggle the most on YouTube.
2. Agenda
• Motivation for the study
• The top 100 global brands
• Report highlights
• Best practices identified by the study
• Conclusions
• Question
2
4. Pixability
We solve YouTube for marketers and agencies
Advertising
Solutions
Drive targeted traffic quickly
Content Marketing
Solutions
Build a long-term audience
On
5. Motivation for the Study
• Address some YouTube resistance among
marketers
• Use the top 100 global brands as a pivot
point and analyze YouTube quantitatively
• Distill actionable best practices from usage
and data
• Extrapolate upcoming trends, production,
and marketing patterns
5
6. Scope of the study
The study used Pixability’s proprietary Video Radar technology to analyze
the video marketing strategies of the top 100 global brands (according to
Interbrand).
3M Dell JackDaniels Pepsi
Accenture Disney John Deere Philips
adidas eBay Johnnie Walker Pizza Hut
Adobe Facebook Johnson & Johnson Porsche
Allianz Ferrari Kellogg's Prada
Amazon Ford KFC Ralph Lauren
American Express Gap Kia Samsung
Apple GE Kleenex Santander
Audi Gillette LOreal SAP
Avon Goldman Sachs Louis Vuitton Shell
AXA Google MasterCard Siemens
BlackBerry Gucci McDonald's Smirnoff
BMW H&M Mercedes-Benz Sony
Budweiser Harley Davidson Microsoft Sprite
Burberry Heineken MoetChandon Starbucks
Canon Heinz MTV Thomson Reuters
Cartier Hermes Nescafe Tiffany
Caterpillar Honda Nestle Toyota
Cisco HP Nike UPS
Citi HSBC Nintendo Visa
Coca-Cola Hyundai Nissan Volkswagen
Colgate IBM Nokia Xerox
Corona IKEA Oracle Yahoo
Credit Suisse Intel Pampers Zara
Danone J.P. Morgan Panasonic Morgan Stanley (no channel)
7. Technology Background: Pixability Video Radar
Analyzes videos and
channels that deal with
a particular topic
Operating at large
scale: Millions of
channels and videos
Provides metrics on
• Audience size
• Most popular content
types and sub topics
• Social media reactions
• Viewer sentiment
• Aggregated data and
details about each
video
“What is going on in my industry on YouTube?”
9. Total market size
• The Top 100 brands in the world have a total
of 1,378 YouTube channels with 258,000
videos that attracted 9.5 Billion views.
• The only Top 100 brand that doesn’t have a
YouTube channel is Morgan Stanley.
• 56 brands have 10 or more channels.
10. Business video on YouTube is skyrocketing
The Top 100 brands have invested approx. $4.3B in creation of video assets
(Source: Pixability Video Radar)
NumberofVideos
Monthly Videos Published on YouTube
by Global Top 100 Brands
2007 2008 2009 2010 20112006 2012
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
10000
2013
11. Most businesses fail to optimize video
Views per Video
Top 100 Brands on YouTube
Less
than 1K
1K to
10K
10K to
100K
100K to
1Million
Over
1 Million
50.4% 30.3% 14.7% 3.9% 0.6%
Over 50% of videos published by the top 100 global
brands got fewer than 1,000 views, meaning they failed to
reach their audience.
Source: Pixability Online Video Grader Sample of 150,000 business videos
on 1272 YouTube channels belonging to Top 100 Global Brands
12. 10,000
100,000
1,000,000
10,000,000
100,000,000
1,000,000,000
10 100 1000 10000
TotalVideoViews
Total Videos
Alcohol Apparel Automotive B2B Tech B2C Tech Diversified FMCG Financial Services Food/Beverages Luxury Media Other
Top 100 Brands Overview
Google
Disney
Apple
Bubble size: Number of YouTube Channels
Thomson
Reuters
Nike
Axa
Sony
Samsung
Cartier
VW
Kleenex
Adidas
13. 10,000
100,000
1,000,000
10,000,000
100,000,000
1,000,000,000
10 100 1000 10000
TotalVideoViews
Total Videos
Alcohol Apparel Automotive B2B Tech B2C Tech Diversified FMCG Financial Services Food/Beverages Luxury Media Other
Top 100 Brands on YouTube:
Main Industry Clusters
Bubble size: Number of YouTube Channels
FMCG
Luxury
B2C Tech
Cars
Remarkably similar
strategies and
activity levels in
several industries
Financial
Services
B2B Tech
14. The best YouTube marketers
Brand Channels
Highest YouTube score
out of all channels owned
by brand
Nintendo 11 91
Disney 41 89
IBM 41 88
Toyota 19 88
Nike 41 86
Intel 14 84
Santander 11 84
Citi 4 83
MTV 10 83
Nokia 30 83
Hyundai 21 81
Mercedes-Benz 16 81
Panasonic 25 81
Audi 17 80
BMW 20 80
Peak excellence: Best score per brand Consistency: Average score per brand
Brand Channels
Average YouTube score
over all channels owned
by brand
Disney 41 76
Harley Davidson 2 72
Nintendo 11 71
Gucci 2 69
Sony 34 68
Nokia 30 68
eBay 5 68
Ford 19 68
Samsung 34 68
Nissan 12 67
Zara 2 67
Microsoft 16 66
Google 40 66
Yahoo 6 66
Amazon 3 65
Excluding brands with only one YT channel
When ranked by the aggregate score from Pixability’s Online Video Grader,
a clear group of winners emerges. Nintendo, Disney, and Nokia show both
peak excellence and consistency.
15. The Most Active YouTube Marketers
Brand Videos
MTV 23756
Thomson Reuters 23315
Disney 15367
Google 12467
Samsung 12013
Sony 9938
Intel 8034
Siemens 7293
Nokia 6637
Cisco 6612
adidas 6269
Philips 5864
Nike 5782
SAP 5533
Brand Channels
3M 43
Disney 41
Nike 41
IBM 41
Google 40
Samsung 34
Sony 34
Philips 34
Oracle 34
IKEA 33
adidas 32
Nokia 30
Cisco 30
Nestle 30
SAP 29
By Videos Produced By Number of Channels
16. The Most Popular YouTube Marketers
• Disney,
Google and
Sony are the
only brands
that achieved
more than a
billion views.
• Only 15
brands got
more than
100 million
total views.
Brand Total Views
Disney 2,502,016,234
Google 1,482,632,321
Sony 1,013,074,958
Samsung 522,386,484
Nokia 429,723,722
Nike 345,273,230
MTV 205,982,283
Coca-Cola 197,753,679
adidas 185,520,895
Nintendo 174,495,568
Pepsi 166,257,167
L'Oreal 134,712,920
BMW 129,404,479
Volkswagen 127,846,290
Kia 123,910,088
17. The Bottom 10
• The least successful
YouTube marketers
are mostly financial
services and
food/alcohol
companies.
Brand Views
Johnnie Walker 1,619,118
Tiffany 1,612,613
Hermes 1,396,896
Accenture 1,160,046
Jack Daniel's 970,139
Goldman Sachs 667,754
Kleenex 655,482
AXA 403,704
Moet & Chandon 207,051
J.P. Morgan 22,751
18. Total Videos By Industry
Media and technology brands are by far the most active producers of videos.
-
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
Total Videos By Industry
19. Typical Video Shelf-Life
YouTube videos typically get the most views in the first three weeks after publication
(about 40% of overall lifetime views).
However, many videos experience renewed viewer interest in weeks 6-12, mostly driven
by sustained campaign activities and social sharing.
After week 12 most videos just slowly collect organic views. However, these long-tail views
still drive over 30% of all lifetime views.
0.00%
2.00%
4.00%
6.00%
8.00%
10.00%
12.00%
14.00%
16.00%
18.00%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52
Weeklypercentageoftotalviews
Week after publication
22. Best Practices identified by the study
1. Make Lots of Videos
2. Practice Good Video SEO
3. Use Different Grades of Videos
4. Link Video to Marketing Initiatives
5. Ensure Video Has Branding
6. Invest in Content over Channels
7. Engage Community via Social Media
24. More Videos = Bigger Audience
10,000
100,000
1,000,000
10,000,000
100,000,000
1,000,000,000
10 100 1000 10000
TotalVideoViews
Total Videos
Alcohol Apparel Automotive B2B Tech B2C Tech Diversified FMCG Financial Services Food/Beverages Luxury Media Other
Bubble size: Number of YouTube Channels
Clear correlation between
number of videos and
total views.
25. Videos per Channel
The most successful channels have 50% more videos
per channel compared to the less successful ones.
153
101
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
Top Quartile Bottom Quartile
Number of videos per channel
26. Publishing frequency and overall success
The top brands publish
high volumes of content
consistently and
regularly.
Weaker brands publish
far less content and
often have isolated
peaks of video
production with long
periods of inactivity in
between.
28. YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine
Search (both direct
and indirectly via
tag matching) is a
major driver of
video traffic.
YouTube SEO
follows very
different rules than
traditional SEO
Impact on
traditional SEO:
Google prioritizes
pages with
YouTube videos
very highly in
conventional
search
29. Identified Influence Factors on YouTube SEO
1. Watch time that the video accumulated
2. Video title
3. Video tags
4. Number of times the video has been embedded and on
other sites
5. Number of links from external sites to the video
6. Description text
7. Video age: Older is better, unless it’s a trending topic
8. Transcript texts
9. Number of total views of the video’s YouTube channel
Search ranking factors in order of importance:
Source: Pixability statistical analysis of YouTube search results; YouTube
30. Top 100 Brands vs. The Rest:
Metadata
Top 100 brands on average do a better job managing their
video assets than other companies.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Top Quartile Bottom Quartile
Average No. of Tags
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Top Quartile Bottom Quartile
Average No. of Playlists
32. The Best YouTube Marketers
Produce a Broader Range of Videos
Length (seconds)
Best Channels, Top 100 Brands
(Top Quartile)
Worst Channels, Top 100 Brands
(Bottom Quartile)
24s
45s 16:13
16:27
Average shortest video Average longest video
33. It doesn’t always have to be prime time quality
The strongest
video marketers
frequently
produce
relatively simple
videos with low
production
values.
In many cases,
these videos
reach a
substantial
audience
regardless of
technical and
creative quality.
35. The end of the big Super Bowl ad premiere
Following
Volkswagen’s huge
success with its
“Darth Vader”
commercial in 2011,
most major brands
in 2012 premiered
their Super Bowl ads
before the game on
YouTube.
This illustrates how
important YouTube
has become to
capture consumers’
attention.
As a result, the most
successful brands
carefully coordinate
their offline
marketing with their
YouTube strategies.
36. Campaign-Driven Videos
A strong tie-in of
general marketing
campaigns with
YouTube is
essential.
However, the best video
marketers avoid setting up
channels that only serve
the purposes of a limited
campaign. “Orphan”
channels with stale content
quickly turn into a problem
otherwise.
37. Event Videos Even For Limited Audiences
Successful video marketers don’t
hesitate to produce video series
for even very limited, but highly
engaged audiences, such as
event participants.
39. Clearly Branded Videos
The best brands
consistently
brand their
videos in both
the video
content itself as
well as in
metadata.
This is essential
because
YouTube videos
often are used
out side of the
context of a
branded
YouTube
channel.
40. Multiple Places for Branding
Title
Channel
logo
Video
content
Metadata
(Tags,
Descriptions)
42. Channels Per Brand By Industry
B2B Technology and Media companies have the most channels per brand.
Luxury brands concentrate their activity on only a few channels.
-
5
10
15
20
25
30
Average Channels By Industry
43. Are more channels better?
Brand
YouTube
Channels View Rank
3M 43 54
Disney 41 1
Nike 41 4
IBM 41 49
Google 40 2
Sony 34 3
Samsung 34 6
Philips 34 39
Oracle 34 63
IKEA 33 33
adidas 32 7
Nokia 30 5
Cisco 30 42
Nestle 30 47
SAP 29 76
Siemens 26 59
Panasonic 25 34
Accenture 25 93
Pepsi 23 15
Colgate 23 44
• While the most
active video
marketers typically
maintain multiple
channels, more is
not necessarily
better.
• Best practice: Have
channels that clearly
focus on a particular
target audience.
• Avoid temporary
campaign-based
channels.
44. Inactive Channels
• 37% of all channels have not been updated with fresh content for
over 120 days. 17 brands have over 50% inactive channels.
• The main reasons seem to be channel consolidation or simple
lack of video marketing activity.
Brands with the highest percentage of inactive channels
Active
channels
63%
Channels not
updated for
over 120
days
37%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Kleenex
Yahoo
Johnnie
UBS
Cisco
Gap
Kellogg's
LouisVuitton
Xerox
Nivea
Heineken
Sprite
American
Pepsi
Gillette
Caterpillar
Nescafe
Active channels
Inactive channels
45. Background: Customized Brand Channels
In addition to its standard layout, YouTube offers
customized “gadgets” to large advertisers: channel tabs
that can contain interactive elements.
46. Top 100 Brands: Customized Channels
Only 8% of channels use custom gadgets, but twice as
many in the top group.
All Channels Best 200 Channels by Views
Brand
channel with
custom
gadget
14%
Standard
channel
86%
Brand channel
with custom
gadget
8%
Standard
channel
92%
48. Top 100 Brands vs. The Rest:
Social Media
Social media is clearly a very strong driver of video marketing
success.
229,365
693
-
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
Top Quartile Bottom Quartile
Avg. Facebook Shares/Likes
11,349
127
-
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
Top Quartile Bottom Quartile
Avg. Tweets
49. The Best Social Video Marketers
• 4 brands reached
a perfect 100
social score, but
scores are
dropping off
quickly after this
top group.
Brand Top Social Score
adidas 100
Apple 100
Samsung 100
Sony 100
Starbucks 85
Ford 76
Nestle 75
Pepsi 75
Toyota 75
Coca-Cola 69
Intel 69
Cartier 55
Yahoo 54
Avon 52
Nokia 52
50. Viewer Sentiment By Industry
• Luxury, Apparel,
Alcohol and
Automotive brands
reached the most
positive user ratings
(as measured by
Likes/Dislikes on
YouTube videos).
• Fast moving
consumer goods,
energy and financial
services are the
least popular
industries.
Industry
Average of
Positive Votes
Home (1 brand) 96%
Luxury 96%
Apparel 96%
Alcohol 94%
Automotive 93%
B2B Technology 92%
Transportation (1 brand) 90%
Diversified 90%
B2C Technology 87%
Food and Beverages 86%
Media 85%
Energy (1 brand) 84%
Fast-moving consumer goods 83%
Financial Services 73%
51. Conclusions
1. YouTube is big deal – embrace it
2. Video marketing is as important as production
3. Make Lots of Videos
4. Practice Good Video SEO
5. Use Different Grades of Videos
6. Link Video to Marketing Initiatives
7. Ensure Video Has Branding
8. Invest in Content over Channels
9. Engage Community via Social Media