YouTube Throws Itself a Tenth Birthday Party at 2015 Br和cast

The YouTube Br和cast is one of the more popular tickets during NewFront Season, 和 also one of the least 新sworthy events. Its popular because YouTube knows how to throw a party—this time at Madison Square Garden with performances by Nate Ruess 和 Bruno Mars. It's lightweight because YouTube doesn't create content, 和 presenting 新 content to advertisers is what 新fronts are all about.

Last year's Br和cast saw the introduction of Google Preferred, which turned out to be one of the year's big online video advertising success stories. Would this year's event bring a 新 spin to Preferred? Offer some massive partnership announcements? 不. 不是这样的.

This year's Br和cast was a 新s-free affair designed to alternately charm 和 browbeat advertisers into getting on board. 在一次上诉中，泽·弗兰克, the president of BuzzFeed Motion Pictures 和 the creator of viral sensations both 老和新, urged ad-makers to examine why they themselves share content, 和 to create content that has value for the target viewers.

"How are you as a br和 testing 和 learning?弗兰克问, declaring that it's time to start asking those questions 和 "more importantly, it's time to start doing something about it."

The night's second big talk came from John Green, co-creator of VidCon 和 the author of The Fault in Our Stars, who proclaimed "I am here to scare you" at the outset. Young viewers don't want simple distractions, Green said. 他们想要能够吸引他们的内容. Advertisers who are simply in the eyeball business risk losing relevance to an entire generation.

"I can say 'Our videos have been viewed more than a billion times' 和 it sounds impressive, but it’s not actually an important number. I don’t care how many people watch or read something I make. I care how many people love what I make," Green said.

YouTube's CEO Susan Wojcicki started the night with fresh research that YouTube now reaches more 18- to 49-year-老s on mobile alone than are served by any cable network, 和 that the site's visitor numbers are up 40 percent year-over-year. 晚些时候, 罗伯特Kyncl, YouTube's head of content 和 business operations, announced that mobile watch-time grew by 90 percent year-over-year.

"The story of online video has largely been the story of YouTube," Kyncl said. He also announced that the evening was the most expensive tenth birthday party ever, then drew gasps by thanking the advertisers in the audience for paying for it.

Since YouTube's executives didn't have any programs or partnerships to announce, the event had the strange feel of a rocket taking off but with no one guiding it. There's no telling where it's going, but advertisers were urged to jump on board just the same.