Why Youtube Is Not TV And You Should Not Advertise It As Such.

The headline might seem obvious to some. And it is. Ask anyone HOW they consume TV and how they consume Youtube and the stories are different, very, very different. Ask them WHAT they consume, WHEN and WHY and the differences are huge.

In spite of that someone somewhere, decided that Youtube pre-rolls could be sold as cheap TV to compensate for the good old TV not reaching as many people as the set KPI. It’s ok, we’ll deliver them the message on other medium, he thought. Is it ok, really?

I think not. Let me explain why.

First of all, the medium is the message, as one wise MacLuhan once told communication students. And Youtube changed how we see and consume video tremendously. Think about it: you can search for content and create content, you can have personal lists and your own private network by subscribing to v-loggers and channels that interest you. That alone means you most definitely are on Youtube with a specific goal: listen to music, watch tutorials, research a specific topic (photography, Microsoft Excel, beauty, cosmology, car issues, physics, you name it!) The message Youtube as a medium sends is: you, the user, are in control. And we love this.

But when this message is interrupted by the same ad running on the TV we ran from to fulfill that specific goal we rebel against the intruder. We hate him — what is he doing here? And it triggers a negative reaction to both Youtube sending me the deceptive ‘you are in charge’ message and the brand that acts as an intruder in my Youtube search. I cannot and will not give up on Youtube, but I can easily block out the message of the brand either by clicking the much-awaited skip button or, even worse, installing an ad-blocker.

In my country, 2.5 million of the 10 million with internet access have already installed an ad-blocker. I wonder how many of these were purchased/installed in order to not see Ariel/Pampers/Always ads while watching a short documentary because, of course, you fit one media target (women, 25–35, urban household) and therefore must be interested in the brand message.

To people selling Youtube pre-rolls as cheap TV: please don’t any more! You are already polluting an environment with different consumption behaviors and patterns than TV. You are turning brands into the intruder users resent and end up running away from.