MARKET - The Winning YouTube Ads of 2017

YouTube and Webby Awards Select the Iconic Ads of 2017

The winner in each category as well as the runners up are presented. A great way to enjoy InfoStream's Video Saturday:

• Guilty Pleasure
• Knows no Limits
• Takes a Stand
• Six Appeal
• Stars in Your Eyes
• Straight to the Heart

BRAND - YouTube 2017 Advertising Leader Board

This special edition of the Global YouTube ads leader board showcases the top 10 ads of the year.

Connect to the Leader Board

Framing for the Small Screen

Messaging FOR THE SMALL SCREEN requires additional thought. 

Here are some important points from the Google YouTube team. 

'THIS FILM HAS BEEN MODIFIED TO FIT YOUR SCREEN'

 

YouTube July 2017 Leader Board

 

Presents the best ads on YouTube from July 2017!

MEDIA - Winning over the Dad's in our culture

Google think has produced an excellent article on winning over the Dad's in our culture to your brand. 

We think you will find the demographics quite challenging and the advertising examples quite compelling.

Thanks to Ekaterina Petrova, Content Marketing Manager at YouTube, for these insights.

Marketing to Dad's

MEDIA - YouTube May 2017 Leaderboard

The May 2017 Leaderboard for advertising on YouTube is available. 

Enjoy and learn from those who are leading this form of media advertising. YouTube is now the leading source of video content and is outperforming TV channels by a wide margin.

YouTube May 2017 Leaderboard

DIGITAL - How to Achieve YouTube Growth

If you already have a YouTube channel and want to optimize it to get more subscribers, or are starting a new channel, Social Media Examiner has a podcast for you.

The podcast features Tim Schmoyer, founder of Video Creators, a YouTube channel and website that helps people grow their YouTube subscribers.

Schmoyer has over 200,000 subscribers, over 10 years of experience and millions of views.

He stresses the importance of your channel having a focus, targeting a specific group of people and delivering a very specific value.

Three mistakes people/organizations make on YouTube:

• The belief you need high-end production and equipment when viewers are actually very forgiving of a shaky camera when the content is valuable.
• Lack of attention to creating title and thumbnails when most traffic comes from suggested videos by YouTube - where viewers click when enticed by titles and thumbnails.
• Taking too long to hook viewers when you have 15 seconds maximum to make that click worthwhile.

Having a channel strategy and customizing your channel are all touched on in the podcast.

Schmoyer says most people don’t realize it, but the majority of viewers subscribe by clicking the red subscribe button underneath the header image, as opposed to the subscribe button underneath every video. So customization is key.

A channel trailer is important and it shouldn’t be your best video. The job of the trailer is to communicate your value succinctly.

Another area to focus on is the playlists beneath your trailer because these are examples for potential subscribers.

To really grow an audience, Schmoyer says you need to do four things:

• First, deliver good value to viewers.
• Second, do it consistently.
• Third, ask people to subscribe.
• And fourth, tell viewers why they should subscribe.

Listen to the entire podcast to learn all the details for a successful YouTube channel.

DIGITAL - Top Social Media Sites that Matter to Marketers

Narrowing down which social media sites are the most important for your organization can be a big challenge. With new ones popping up and the feeling you shouldn’t ‘miss out’ on any of them, it can be overwhelming.

Luckily, Hootsuite has compiled the key demographics for the core group of platforms that are crucial to consider for your social media strategy, allowing you to focus your budget of time and energy where it’s most effective.

They also include a list of companies that have used each platform successfully - giving real-life examples that can only help you create effective campaigns.

Did you know that YouTube reaches more 18 to 34 and 18 to 49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S and that besides being the second largest online search engine, it is also heavily used as a resource for how-to content?

The New York Times saw a 2.3 times increase in subscriptions through strategic use of Facebook - a platform that over 1 billion people use daily.

Twitter has over 80 million monthly users and 50 percent of users visit or shop at the website of a small or medium business they follow.

Instragram users are two and a half times more likely to click on ads than on other social media platforms. With 75 million daily users, that’s a lot of clicking.

Hootsuite’s post goes into more - very useful - detail about these platforms as well as Pinterest, Snapchat and LinkedIn.

Read the full article here.

Youtube Leader Board - November 2015

The November 2015 leader 'man in the moon' from the John Lewis Partnership.

The John Lewis Partnership operates John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarkets. The company is owned by a trust on behalf of all its employees — known as Partners – who have a say in the running of the business and receive a share of annual profits, which is usually a significant addition to their salary. 

The group was the third largest UK private company in the Sunday Times Top Track 100 for 2010.

Learn more about John Lewis Partnership

Think with Google - Learn to improve your social media program.

Online Perspectives for PetLynx

Giving PetLynx an online perspective. At August 31, 2014 PetLynx had 1,000,440 registered animals. Cracking the million animal mark was important, but it needs to be compared with other online plays to have significance. Here are two well known companies for comparison:

YouTube is a video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California. The service was created by three former PayPal employees (Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, Jawed Karim)  in February 2005 and has been owned by Google since late 2006. At September 22, 2014 the YouTube website reports the service has 10,358,128 followers.

Amazon is an online retailer developed by Jeff Bezos. The Company introduced a subscription program in 2005, called Amazon Prime. Subscription numbers are never reported by Amazon. However, in February 2012, a Bloomberg article estimated that in October 2011 Amazon had 3 million to 5 million users. In January of 2014, a Business Insider article reported that Amazon Prime had grown to 20 million subscribers. Amazon declined to confirm these numbers.

Bloomberg

Business Insider

PetLynx reports activities monthly on the InfoStream blog. The PetLynx utility intends to ‘connect people with all things pet’. PetLynx will add 1,000,000 users over the next 24 months. Does PetLynx, have the potential to add value to an online play like those referenced? History will be the judge.

PetLynx, the ‘ubiquitous utility for urban animals’.

Bringing identification and recovery services to all of Canada

For the past eight years, thought leaders in the Urban Animal industry have worked through the developing Alliance for Urban Animals Program to identify gaps in the urban pet experience. Together they have developed strategies and tactics to recast these dilemmas into opportunities to deliver a better more supported pet owner experience.

Kijiji Canada has been invested and supportive of the Urban Animal Program from the earliest days. Now as Kijiji introduces a Canada wide strategy for pets and pet owners, they share a mission that involves 1,700 like minded collaborators in more than 340 communities across Canada.

In collaboration with PetLynx and Pets Plus Us, Kijiji Canada is making the HomeSafe™ Automated Recovery Service available to every municipality in Canada on a 24/7 basis. One national service for identification and for bringing lost or found animals home safe.

During the next few months  members of the Alliance for Urban Animals will be encouraged to pin their location to the  map of Authorized Service Centres in Canada. Visitors to the Kijiji portal in every community will know who they should trust for assistance.

Will this be end of lost pets, the elimination of irresponsible breeders or a magic bullet to end animal cruelty? Not immediately. However: This service is the result of mindful, respectful dialogue at the Urban Animal Conferences and Summit; This is the emergence of a community portal allowing the Alliance for Urban Animals to support pet owners everywhere; and, This signals the resurgence of a community approach to animal management called CAMStrat™. Using this portal, members of the Alliance for Urban Animals expect to uncover gaps, imagine new services and develop new strategies to support a positive pet experience in each community.

Members of the Urban Animal industry have choices. Some use their online presence to bully, and harass those holding dissimilar values. The Alliance for Urban Animals is for those who choose to develop conversations, expand relationships and offer support to create positive experiences and healthier communities for pets and people.

You are invited to engage and support Kijiji Canada’s new community pet strategy. You are invited to help shape the future by joining the Alliance for Urban Animals.

Follow the Kijiji links or visit www.urbananimal.com

WATCH: KIJIJI COMMUNITY RELATIONS MANAGER, SHAWN MCINTYRE, PRESENT HIS PET STRATEGY AT THE 2014 URBAN ANIMAL REGIONAL CONFERENCES! 

2014 CVMA Convention offers a variety of new discoveries

CVMA has released a video on YouTube to promote its upcoming annual Convention July 9-12. Watch to find out why you should attend! 

2014 Social Media Trends

There are few people who would consider themselves a stranger to social media in 2013. About 14% of the earth's population are on Facebook. More than 500 million people have Twitter accounts and YouTube garners over 1 billion unique visitors every month.

As we enter 2014, businesses and organizations are recognizing the opportunities offered by online and social marketing and changing several facets of their business strategies. A common thread with all projected trends is duration and simplicity. Users want to see concise messaging and prefer images and short video clips.  

A 2013 study by Manta showed that 49% of small businesses surveyed increased the time spent on social media from 2012 to 2013. The same found that 26% of businesses spent a majority of their investment dollars on online advertising, marketing and social media despite 40% of businesses seeing only between $100 and $1000 Return on Investment (ROI) from social media activities. This suggests that while the ROI from social media has yet to be mastered, most organizations see a benefit to maintaining stable social channels.   

This article on Business 2 Community (B2C) forecasts Twitter will surpass Facebook in 2014. This plays into other reports which maintain that User Generated Content (UCG) will drive social marketing in the new year. Connecting with an audience by asking them to share experiences in photos and short status updates will be the key to attracting and retaining customers.  

In 2014, social media experts anticipate marketing will transition from monologue to dialogue as UCG is facilitated and consumers are invited to join conversations and engage in brand development. 

Several reports anticipate that images will outrank content for user engagement. A strong info graphic will not only hold the interest of users and keep them engaged longer but will also lend itself as brand advertisement.

Finally, hashtags will become the leading online search tool as every major social media channel accepts and encourages its use. The hashtag allows users to join conversations, follow events and search exclusively for products, thoughts and experiences.  

2013 Social Media Statistics 

• 1.5 billion Facebook users
• 500+ million Twitter users
• 500+ million Google+ users
• 238+ million LinkedIn users
• 130+ million Instagram users
• 70+ million Pinterest users
• over 1 billion+ unique monthly visitors on YouTube

Pet Experiences Requested!

PRESS RELEASE

CALGARY, AB – The 2013 Summit for Urban Animal Strategies focused on the dilemmas faced by the Urban Animal industry in creating positive pet experiences for both people and pets in our communities.

An important element of the Pet Experience Project is discovering the personal experiences of industry leaders, volunteers, advocates and pet families. To achieve this, the Urban Animal Program is seeking “Pet Experience” stories. Using #PEPTalk, members of the Urban Animal community are invited to share their stories by uploading videos to YouTube, sharing on Twitter and Facebook or by written submission to Shannon.woodward@petlynxmail.com for InfoStream.

“Essentially, Pet owners become involved with animals to experience unconditional love and to invest care and compassion,” said Larry R. Evans, President and CEO of PetLynx Corporation. “What pet owners desire most is encouraging industry partners who enhance, resource and sustain them in this relationship. Pet owners are hungry for lifelong relationships with partners who help them achieve their goals and mitigate  risks when they hit a bump in the road.”

For more information about the Urban Animal Program and the Pet Experience Project, go to www.urbananimal.com and check out the Pet Experience Project video on YouTube.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Shannon Woodward, Social Communications Coordinator

(p) 403.208.1972    (e) Shannon.woodward@petlynxmail.com

ABOUT THE URBAN ANIMAL PROGRAM: The Urban Animal Program was designed to create a collaborative workspace for the Urban Animal Industry.  Over the past eight years, Advocates, Mentors, Alumni, Associates, Collaborators and Subscribers of the Urban Animal Program have learned to respect and trust each other. Together they have developed healthy urban communities for all urban animals. 

The Pet Experience Project (PEP) initiative was conceived at the 2012 Summit for Urban Animal Strategies, the Urban Animal Industry invites members of the  five recognized sectors: Health & Wellness, Care & Control, Humane & Rescue, Industry Services & Retail and Community Services (Social Services, Urban Planners, Government Officials, Legislators and Sociologists, etc.) as well as pet and non-pet people to join forces in developing a Positive Pet Experience for the entire urban community.

OVC and Purina partner to promote cancer research

A new YouTube music video released today is intended to create awareness, raise funds and promote cancer research in cats and dogs. 

The Ontario Veterinary College Pet Trust Fund created the video "Keep Cancer on a Leash", which features dogs, including several cancer survivors, 'singing' in a recording studio. Purina Canada has sponsored the video and will match individual donations up to a total of $125,000. 

"The music video is really a tongues-and-tails wagging way to spread the word that, thanks to donations to OVC Pet Trust, we're making some amazing progress in treating different forms of cancer in pets," said Paul Woods, a clinical studies professor and co-director of OVC's Institute for Comparative Cancer Investigation. "And that holds tremendous promise in the fight against similar cancers in human beings." 

READ THE NEWS RELEASE

About OVC Pet Trust: 
Established in 1986, the OVC Pet Trust is Canada's first charitable fund devoted to the health and well-being of companion animals. Funding from the OVC Pet Trust has led to major improvements in anesthesia and pain control for pets, heart disease and heart monitoring techniques, dermatology, understanding the human animal bond and more. 

Pets Add Life video "Wet Dog" goes viral

A new video in the American Pet Products Association (APPA) YouTube series Pets Add Life (PAL), Wet Dog was an overnight success, surpassing more than 2 million views. 

"We are excited to launch another successful video within the series and are thrilled with the positive feedback it has already received," said Bob Vetere, APPA president and CEO. "Not only are the videos entertaining and provide heart-warming laughs, but the key message behind them is what's truly important. Pets also need pals to talk to." 

The PAL campaign encourages multiple pet ownership and highlights the joys pets bring to our life. The APPA Pets Add Life campaign was recently awarded a 2013 PR Daily Award for the Best Viral or Word of Mouth Campaign. 

Pets Add Life campaign wins 2013 PR Daily Award

American Pet Products Association's Pets Add Life campaign received top recognition for its strategic communications and encouragement of multiple pet ownership when it was awarded the 2013 PR Daily Award for "Best Viral or Word of Mouth Campaign."

Bob Vetere, APPA president and CEO, said the ultimate goal of the PAL campaign is to spread awareness of the joys and benefits of owning pets of all types and to get more deserving pets into homes. "We are honoured to see our efforts and dedication recognized," he said. "The PAL campaign has really taken off and only continues to grow."

Pets Add Life was recognized for its strategic communications and use of multiple social media platforms including YouTube and Facebook to promote the joys and benefits of owning pets. One element of the PAL campaign was a series of viral videos on YouTube. The most recent video "Dog Wants a Kitty" instantly hit millions of views upon its debut and was featured on top online outlets including Huffington Post, Yahoo, MSN and Chicago Tribune.

2013 PR DAILY AWARDS WINNERS

READ THE NEWS RELEASE

Petsecure launches new commercial

Petsecure Pet Health Insurance launched a new ad today that will be airing on Animal Planet, W Network, National Geographic Wild, Pet Network, DejaView and Investigation Discovery. 

The ad is designed to introduce pet families to the importance of pet health insurance. 

OSPCA officer battles summer heat

Ontario SPCA officer Brad Dewar demonstrates the dangers of leaving animals in cars during the summer months

To bring a local spin to the widely-watched YouTube video of Dr. Ernie Ward, the OSPCA placed one of its officers inside a vehicle on a partly cloudy summer day. The outside temperature a breezy 24°C. Inside the car, Dewar suffered as the temperatures climbed above 50°C in just 30 minutes. 

This video is meant to educate pet owners about the risks involved with leaving your pets (and children) in the car and is part of the OSPCA's award winning No Hot Pets campaign. 

Regional Conference workshop videos posted to YouTube

All four Regional Conference workshop videos are now available on YouTube. These videos provide short snippets of the positive pet experience elements and barriers identified by delegates in each region. 

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, some barriers vary across the country while a select few barriers remain consistent: 

• Mixed messaging
• Judgement
• Finances 
• Trust

Watch the videos!

Join the ongoing conversations on the Urban Animal Facebook page or the Urban Animal Program LinkedIn Group and help move the industry forward.