When YouTube first introduced ads within uploaded videos on the platform back in 2007, the world wasn’t so eager about it. Why would one, after all, go through an ad on YouTube as they would on their TV screens. People learned to cope eventually, maybe because YouTube is such a convenient platform with so much to offer, but also because ad makers learned how to make ads not just tolerable but also engaging. It’s been twelve years since then, and YouTube has definitely changed the way ads are made.
Ads are meant to be compelling, concise, and most of all — short. Any sort of ad, after all, can only hold a person’s attention for a limited amount of time. YouTube’s answer to this was enabling users to Skip the Ad after a few seconds have passed. Skipping is also disabled on some ads, but these ones need to be shorter as well. This changed the perspective in some way, forcing creatives to find ways to hold a person’s attention so much so that they don’t press skip and end up enjoying the ad instead.
In this year’s YTAdsAwards, an event unique to the country and made to recognize Filipino creativity and ingenuity as they produce YouTube ads, Google Philippines Marketing Head Gabby Roxas shares that although there is a limit to how long the ads are, and how much time before a user can skip, Filipino creatives have found a way to keep user’s interest by coming up with a slew of techniques including creating emotional or personal connections or multi-video storytelling.
“YouTube Ads Awards is about recognizing the best in brand creative storytelling that was exposed on Youtube for over a certain period of time. We’re doing this because we saw so much creative work coming from the Philippines as well as it took time to really think about it’s important for us to recognize  how creative agencies, advertisers, media agencies alike are pushing the boundaries of storytelling here in the Philippines,” says Gabby Roxas.
“Consistently, more and more advertisers are really reeling in and trying to convey an emotive story to Filipinos whether it’s evoking like mapapaiyak ka, matatawa ka, it’s that entire gamut as well,” Roxas adds. He also explains that brands are doing so in an authentic manner that’s still consistent to their identity.
Roxas adds that the quality of work in this year’s roster of submissions have really upscaled not just in the kinds of stories but also in production value, a sentiment that jury president Joe Dy shared during the judging of YTAdsAwards.
“When they asked us to first judge the YT Awards, having seen the work last year, I was really hoping to see an escalation in the quality of work, a little bit more bravery. These are the platforms that are becoming our primary source of content,” the McCann Worldgroup Philippines Chief Creative Officer explained.
This year, a total of 366 entries were sent from different agencies, 137 of which were moved up to finals. Each submission went through careful deliberation, judging based on brand relevance, unique-to-YouTube interactivity, and the craft of storytelling.
From the 137 finalists, 42 different campaigns were awarded under the different categories, each recognized as exemplary work and testaments to how creative Filipinos can be even when given a tight time limit. And out of the roster of awardees, eight were deemed worthy of receiving a Crystal.
Read about #YTAdsAwards2 big wins here.
Roxas shares that while the winners are already among the country’s best, crystal awardees were just a cut above the rest. “For the Crystal winners, I think based on what the jury saw, they stood out above all the great work they’ve seen because there’s just so much. I honestly feel it was a difficult choice for [the judges] to see the crystal winners. But honestly, like if I were to look at it, it’s being able to tell that story in a much more original and authentic way. We also saw innovation in terms of production quality, production technique, so being able to really meld all these things together in a way that’s neatly produced [and with a] clear story, I think they definitely do deserve the crystals.”
See full list of winners here:
adobo magazine, the Word on Creativity, is an official media partner of YouTube Ads Awards
