YouTube has announced the 2022 winners of its annual YouTube Works Awards that it holds in collaboration with Kantar to bring forth the most effective and innovative uses of the Google-owned video site for marketing and advertising. While the year 2021 was marred by unique creative challenges caused by the COVID-19 crisis, digital privacy concerns, and new privacy regulations, 2022 saw fresh and groundbreaking ideas that combined the potential of YouTube and creative storytelling.
So, without wasting any more time, let’s dive straight into these 6 campaigns that have won the YouTube Works Award 2022.
1. Sheba: 4 a.m. Stories
This video from cat food brand Sheba, which lasts for more than 5 hours, bagged the YouTube Works Awards for Media Innovation and Creative Innovation, as well as the Grand Prix.
Sheba’s research found that cats often wake their masters in the middle of the night. Google Search data and YouTube analytics helped the company find that one out of three such people used their mobile phones. So, it used scientifically proven techniques to get those cat owners back to sleep and created the lengthy video.
The video was promoted throughout the day and YouTube said the campaign led to a 100.9% boost in brand recall and an increase of 635% in searches for the Sheba brand terms among people who had seen its ads.
2. Target: Convos With CEOs
Retail giant Target won the Brands as Creators award for its video series that brought to light the entrepreneurial journeys of black business owners, whose products it carries in its stores.
The campaign was promoted organically on YouTube with customer teaser content on Target’s brand channel and series playlist. This raked in 6.4 million views with a watch time of 107,000 hours and over 20,000 total engagements.
3. Tinder: Once Upon a Bi
Online dating app Tinder launched the “Once Upon a Bi” campaign to help the community that identified itself as “bisexual” get more recognition. In doing so, it sought to allow them to own the narrative around what it means to be a bisexual. The campaign won the Breaking Barriers award.
The campaign showcased YouTube creators reimagining well-known fairy tales of the experiences of the bisexual community within the Tinder app. It then used TrueView for Action to focus on affinity audience categories that overlapped with those creators’ audiences. This resulted in 3.2 million impressions, 2 million video views, and a 9% stronger average view rate than Tinder’s previous campaign.
4. BLK: Vax That Thang Up
BLK, another dating app, won the Action Driver award for its pre-Covid music video aimed at Black Generation Z and younger millennials.
The music video saw a massive 3 million media impressions on its very first day. New registrations on the application increased 30% week-over-week with first-time paid subscribers growing by 22% over the same period.
5. Kayak: Flexible Cancellations
Travel metasearch site Kayak used 15-second videos to highlight how the pandemic had affected the travel industry.
With multiple campaigns, it eased the concerns of potential travelers about flexibility, highlighted free cancellations, and encouraged users to “skip town” instead of hitting the “skip” button. Kayak’s campaign drove high incremental conversion rates of 7.5% and increased the purchase intent by as much as 20%.
6. BlendJet: Oddly Satisfying AMSR Blends in a BlendJet 2 Portable Blender
Blender manufacturer BlendJet won the Underdog award for combining two YouTube trends- oddly satisfying videos and autonomous sensory meridian response.
The video features a voiceover sharing clever statements while chunks of ice, the entire heads of cauliflower, and other things go through the blender. With this video, BlendJet’s return on ad spending soared by 569%, year-over-year, while its revenue outperformed its initial target by a massive 413%.
Bottom Line
The winners of the YouTube Works Awards turned challenges into inspiration. They not only appealed to their audiences but also reimagined content that people already loved. By doing so, they proved that by combining clever storytelling and YouTube’s massive potential, one can produce both viral sensations as well as enviable business results.