Co-written by:  Daniel Kolossa

During 2011, YouTube underwent a bunch of major changes. Many of these have a direct impact on the way brands should leverage this channel. In this post, we’ve taken a look some of the changes and new features introduced.

Extreme makeover – interface edition

The most obvious change to YouTube is its interface. They’ve aimed towards creating a more clean and modern look.

The subscription feed acts like a live Social Media feed which lists videos and uploads from those channels to which you are subscribed.

For brands, this means the videos they upload will be fed into their subscribers feed rather than being pushed aside by the “Most viewed” or “Most popular” lists that previously dominated. Building a subscriber base is now more important and uploading videos become more targeted.

There are also significant changes to the channel pages. Featured videos have been removed by default but you can still add one to your channel page if you like.

It’s also important to note that there are no more separate banner images in the new design. You will, however, be able to push down your channel to expose your background image for improved page branding. [Note: this is for YouTube Partners only].

In addition, the new YouTube player allows a user to hover their mouse over any point in the video, without actually moving the playhead, and view a thumbnail image of the video frame at that position. Users can get the gist of the video while it buffers and decide if they want to watch the entire clip.

Now, brands will know that users who actually watch their entire clip were genuinely interested in it. Whether this means more selection in terms of thumbnails to display along with videos remains to be seen.

But the interface change is just the beginning...

From Insights to Analytics

In a time when metrics matter more than ever, YouTube has changed its Insights offering to YouTube Analytics. It generates much the same data that users were used to accessing, a few more interesting additions and, most importantly, improved presentation of this information.

In contrast to the crowded and unintuitive interface of the Insights page, YouTube Analytics presents the data in simple, user-friendly sections.

Analytics means this data can now be translated into action plans far more simply. Some of these improvements include:

• Traffic sources broken down into: Views From YouTube, Views From Outside of YouTube, and Mobile Apps & Direct Traffic.
• User interactions separated into: Likes and Dislikes, Favourites, Comments, and Sharing.
• A new Commenting report including word clouds of the most used keywords.
• The ability to further analyse data through: the Data Filter by Content, Location and Date.
• An Audience Retention feature (previously “Hot Spots”) allows users to identify exactly when viewers stop viewing videos or which sections they replay.
• The ability to download specific reports, rather than all the data.

Longer and higher-quality video

In an effort to possibly encourage the sharing of short films and original content, YouTube is adding support for video shot in the 4K video format.

Keep in mind that this will require users to have a super-fast Internet connection and an ideal screen size of 25 feet for viewing.

The maximum video length has also been upped to 15 minutes for non-YouTube partners, giving more time to users wanting to share video tutorials, How To guides or entertainment videos. Verified users and partners can apply to have their video length increased – with options for videos up to 12 hours long.

Leanback and watch

YouTube’s Leanback service allows users an uninterrupted stream of full-screen YouTube videos in high definition. The service also includes an automated feed service which recommends videos based on users’ subscriptions and past video views. The feed will also include videos shared by friends on Facebook if users have linked their Facebook accounts to their YouTube accounts. Leanback also allows for customisation of the video stream though offering categories for users to browse through.

YouTube now also features a wide range of free to view classic full length films and documentaries: www.youtube.com/movies.

On top of this, the channel has launched YouTube Rentals (currently in beta stage). Partners can now monetise a variety of videos allowing full control over the content. The partner selects the cost of the rental (from $0.99 to $19.99) as well as the duration (24 hours to 7 days). Content can also be made available via the ad-supported model.

Live stream your videos straight off your own channel

Selected YouTube partners can also interact in real-time with their audiences through YouTube’s Live stream. It provides users with a page of what videos are currently streaming, events that can be added to their calendars and channels they can be subscribed to. Live streams will also feature a chat module so viewers can ask questions and give feedback instantly.

Subscribers must be verified

YouTube has recently announced that they will be removing some subscribers from subscriber lists if their account is old, inactive or hasn’t been linked to a Google Account. Subscribers will also be removed if YouTube feels that the subscriber is gaming the system or has been involved in schemes and services that break the Terms of Service. Essentially, subscribers that are inflating numbers but are not a reflection of actual user engagement or views will be removed.

This is good news for business as their subscriber lists will be a truer reflection of actual interest from users and actual engagement.

Target videos according to region

Users can now view videos that are from their country or specific to another country (as they can choose to filter by location). For brands, this means that their videos are competing with other local, relevant content and that they are more targeted (targeting people in the correct country). It also becomes easier for users to find locally relevant videos.

A heads-up to YouTube advertisers

During 2011 YouTube launched TrueView where users now have the option of skipping adverts. This means advertisers now only pay when the user watches at least 30 seconds of the ad (or views the whole ad, whichever comes first). No more paying per impression served, but rather for actual views. This should ultimately decrease costs and improve targeting, as those who watch the adverts are showing actual interest in the product/service.
This will also affect how advertisers compose video ads - you must entice the viewer immediately before they hit the skip button!

Going big on mobile

Advertisers can now buy all available ad impressions on m.youtube.com for a full day by purchasing a roadblock of YouTube Mobile. This gives them exclusive access to the mobile audience as they engage with the mobile site (which can be accessed from any mobile device). According to Nielsen, YouTube Mobile (m.youtube.com) is the #1 video viewing mobile website in the US.
So where to for 2012?

Stand-by for a follow-up blog post, looking at the future of Video Marketing!