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YouTube Works Awards 2019
APG in Partnership with YouTube
For the third year running, APG has been YouTube’s partner in the YouTube Works. We think this initiative is worthwhile because it focusses on effectiveness and rigour and the winning cases meet a high standard of evidence and strategic thinking.
The Winners
Grand Prix Winner & Breakthrough Advertiser
English Heritage
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A recipe for success with English Heritage
Picking up on the success of one well-performing cooking video, English Heritage pivoted from a “hodge-podge of ad-hoc content” (their words) to create a humorous foodie series, The Victorian Way — a kind of Nigella Lawson meets 19th-Century English country house cook.
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Utilising Google trends to research popular food search terms, and YouTube analytics to measure performance, metrics such as audience retention, to fine-tune the creative, English Heritage has grown its subscriber base from 1,000 to 450,000 in just three years. Today, the channel reaches over 2.5 million YouTube viewers every month, helping bring its charitable messaging — and some heritage-rich foodie inspiration ‚— to a global audience.
It was a move that proved to be a recipe for YouTube success, with our judges awarding the charity both the breakthrough advertiser award and the big one: the Grand Prix prize.
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“We had new and younger audiences we needed to reach with our key storytelling, and YouTube has been a natural fit for us."
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– Tom Dennis, Head of Content Marketing, English Heritage
Winner
AMV BBDO & OMD | Pepsico
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Demonstrating the power of the Oat
How do you get the wellness generation invigorated by oats? Quaker Oats’ ‘narrowcast’ campaign gave the humble breakfast cereal a timely boost with the help of data-driven mass customisation. Segmenting their audience into three groups with different health and wellness needs, it was able to focus on the functional benefits that resonated most with each audience. The result? An uplift of 122% in brand interest, as well as an increase in product interest, purchase intent and consideration.
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"YouTube helped us understand and utilise the power of data-driven marketing. We proved that a data-led mass-personalisation approach is more effective than a broad digital approach for Quaker."
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– Adam Wróblewski, WESA Grains Digital Marketing Manager, PepsiCo
Best long term effectiveness
AMV BBDO | Whiskas
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How Whiskas made cat content grow up to drive digital growth
Feline-focused videos may be a YouTube favourite but the sheer quantity of cat-based capers can make it hard to cut through. Whiskas’ long-term commitment to online video and a fun but educational approach ensured it was the cat that got the cream. The Kat Institute of Technology (K.I.T.) series, the follow-up to 2015’s Kitten Kollege, saw brand mentions up by 537% and a profit ROI of 3.2:1 — the best business result in Mars’s digital history.
Best use of YouTube for performance marketing
Brainlabs | Simply Business
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A simply effective strategy for Simply Business
Competing successfully in the highly competitive insurance market is no mean feat, but Simply Business did exactly that with its ‘You Name It, We Insure It’ campaign. With a strong creative in hand, it enlisted Brainlabs to create a bespoke geographically targeted YouTube strategy. Reaching high-intent custom audiences at scale led to the generation of approximately 150,000 new prospects in three months, and a 1,349% increase in brand interest.
Winner
Croud | Frontier
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Bringing Jurassic World Evolution to life for Frontier
The gaming market is a crowded place, so targeting the right audience for the release of Jurassic World Evolution was essential. Frontier identified specific user groups, from console gamers to dinosaur lovers, utilised an array of YouTube tools and levied a little help from Hollywood hero Jeff Goldblum. The payoff was 19.7 million completed views by the end of the launch stage and 22,000 sales direct from YouTube.
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"The level of detail involved in every part of the campaign — from planning to audience segmentation — was particularly impressive, and we were delighted with the results."
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– Luke Donovan-King, Lead Digital Marketing Manager, Frontier
Winner
iCrossing UK | Heathrow Airport
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Welcoming you home with the Heathrow Bears
Heathrow Airport wanted to generate warmth and positivity around the brand over the busy Christmas period. Their much-loved Heathrow Bears leveraged familiarity and reached new audiences with a YouTube strategy that connected every phase of the campaign. From a masthead launch to sequential bumper ads, the launch alone reached 12 million unique users — the equivalent of 18% of the UK population — and resulted in increased ad recall and brand visibility.
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"It’s fantastic to see the results of this campaign, driving reach, recall and brand visibility with target audiences."
– Modupe Adeboye, Marketing and Communication Lead, Heathrow Airport
Winner
Think Jam & Mindshare | Twentieth Century Fox Home Ent
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Breaking through the fourth wall with Deadpool
Deadpool is a character best known for his fourth-wall-breaking humour, something Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment ingeniously utilised to promote the home entertainment release of the latest film in the franchise. In an ‘industry first,’ Deadpool himself interacted directly with the user, delivering bespoke skip and view messages. Viewers who watched the whole trailer were rewarded with an exclusive deleted scene on their next YouTube visit. This mix of creative innovation and technology lead to an uplift of 198% in organic title searches.
Winner
Wolfgang Digital | Littlewoods Ireland
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Moving the metrics that matter with Littlewoods Ireland
Littlewoods Ireland was seeing strong growth in revenue but its bottom line wasn’t enjoying similar improvement. The answer lay in renewing interest in high-profit-driving products like clothing and footwear. Creating an integrated YouTube and Search campaign based on Littlewoods Ireland’s own brand, V by Very, and a new autumn/winter campaign, saw the resulting video content draw over 5.75 million views and a €960k return in revenue on a spend of €60k.
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"We set Wolfgang the challenge of maintaining growth trajectory while driving our bottom line. The final result was an unbelievably effective YouTube campaign."
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– Rossa Butler - Marketing & Operations Director, Shop Direct Ireland
About the Awards
YouTube Works, in partnership with the APG and Campaign, is a free to enter initiative for UK agencies and clients to show how they are using YouTube to deliver highly effective campaigns.
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Judged by a stellar line-up of independent judges, the winning entries will be ones which show how their use of YouTube products and features has had an impact on business results, on a brand, or on wider culture.
Judging Criteria
All YouTube campaigns that have gone live, at least in part, during 2017/2018 are eligible to enter. Judges will judge entries on a points system. For any entry, up to 30 points are available, as follows:
How well is the story told?
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(up to 10 points available)
How big was the effect, relative to what could be expected within the category and the budget of the campaign?
(up to 10 points available)
How much did YouTube add to the effectiveness or efficiency of the campaign?
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(up to 10 points available)