YouTube viewing habits are changing. Where does this leave creators, brands and agencies? (2024)

As the video platform launches an initiative to show the UK government the economic value of creator content, we catch up with its vice-president for EMEA, Pedro Pina, to find out more.

“The device with the highest growth on YouTube is the living room, the big screen,” says YouTube vice-president for EMEA, Pedro Pina, who tells The Drum that co-watching is back and even Gen Z is getting involved.

Between 2021 and 2023, the number of YouTube’s most watched creators who received the majority of their watch time on TV screens increased by more than 400%, according to the company’s latest Why We Watch survey.

YouTube is at a waypoint, investing in new formats such as YouTube shorts, reflecting on evolving viewing habits and also trying to champion the economic value of its creators.

This week, to much fanfare, in a room full of high-energy YouTube creators – some of whom were performing – YouTube announced its Creator Consultation in a bid to show decision-makers the value of the “creator ecosystem,” which it estimates contributes £2bn to the UK’s annual GDP and supports more than 45,000 jobs in the UK.

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Vying for government and creative industries’ attention

With UK prime minister Keir Starmer this week stating a desire to “rip out the bureaucracy that blocks investment,” this could be fortuitous timing for YouTube.

It is YouTube’s intention to appeal to the government. To this end, Pina wants to deliver “a piece of research that is properly supported by feedback from a broad base of creators” so that it can “hopefully feed into the government’s commitment to invest in the creative industries,” he says.

The research will be delivered next year and Pina is hopeful that it will be acknowledged. “It’s exciting to see a government that defines – as part of its industrial strategy – the creative industries as belonging to it. That’s really great news. You don’t see that a lot and then that’s something we applaud and are enthusiastic about.”

Anecdotal evidence already gathered by YouTube hints at creators wanting to see formal education pathways into the industry, access to studio space outside London and film permits being easier to acquire.

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Other gatekeepers will also be appealed to when the report is ready, as creators feel shut out from the traditional creative and media landscape, according to YouTube.

“They have barriers they’re facing and, like any entrepreneurs, they want those barriers removed,” says Pina.

While the mass consultation is UK-focused, further creator consultations will be rolled out globally, according to Pina, who suspects the pain points of UK creators will be “replicated across other countries.”

He’s keen to highlight the power of the British creative brand as an export. “We’ve always exported our creative product in this country and continue to launch products and features that help creators do that. We want to use AI to help creators transform their videos into as many languages as possible.” Pedro also notes that 85% of YouTube creators watch time takes place from outside the UK.

Despite investing in YouTube shorts “to give users what they want,” long-form is in good health, he points out.

“We really see users jumping from format to format, from long to short. They find out about creators they never heard about through shorts and then they go and explore all their long format.”

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Younger generation has just ‘discovered the living room’

This has been playing out alongside watching patterns of long-form content changing. Post-Covid, “the younger generation discovered the living room and the experience of co-watching” on TV screens, he says, adding. “It’s by far the surface that’s growing the fastest right across all ages.”

There’s a lot of debate at the moment across media in relation to attention spans. By backing short- and long-form content, YouTube claims to be making a commitment to both, but is there an ethical responsibility to not whittle down viewer’s concentration spans?

“Our ethical commitment has nothing to do with spans of attention; our commitment is to give users access to safe, high-quality content,” says Pina.

In recent years, Google and YouTube’s adtech developments have endeavored to help make things easier for creators growing a business while also appealing to brands by showing them that they can find and work with reliable creators more easily.

More work will continue in this direction. “For me, the number one objective of a creative agency is to connect brands to users in an effective way. The most authentic way to do this is through creators. I’m seeing the creative advertising industry embracing this as a new discipline.”

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Brand Connect and Creative Takeover launch in UK

YouTube UK head of sales Erica Probst elaborates on this and points to its YouTube Brand Connect tool, which has launched in the US and is now rolling out in the UK. “It makes it really easy for brands to identify, connect with and even brief creators right within the Google Ads UI. Effectively, what we do is put all the profiles and the data from the creators and then make them accessible to our brands.”

Brand metrics such as awareness and consideration, as well as site visits and online conversions, are already benefiting the likes of Adobe and Toyota, according to Probst.

Meanwhile, the new Creative Takeover product launched in the UK this week and is again designed to bring brands and creators closer together. “It enables brands to take over 100% share of voice of some of our biggest creators,” says Probst, which means that a channel’s entire ad inventory can be bought for an agreed period.

This is enabling the UK to catch up with the US in terms of adtech; in this case, an exercise in matchmaking for creators and brands (or agencies getting in on the act).

It’s all part of a transition for the company, which is launching a flag-waving project for creators so that they can earn the same respect as other creative industries, mainly by touting their economic clout and export value. Governments tend to latch on to these arguments, but it remains to be seen whether they do or if other creative industries’ gatekeepers will listen.

Our viewing habits are changing and despite YouTube shepherding us to both short- and long-form content, somewhat surprisingly, “49% of UK adults are watching YouTube on their TV every month,” according to Probst.

While YouTube will say that offering “quality” content is its main driver, this is a very subjective measure and it feels more like the company is covering all bases by investing in short- and long-form content, supported by tools designed to bring brands and creators closer together.

YouTube viewing habits are changing. Where does this leave creators, brands and agencies? (2024)

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