Twenty years in the past YouTube was very completely different to the platform we’re accustomed to right this moment.
Whereas it’s nonetheless a house for viral memes, YouTube in 2025 is an outlet for manufacturers to profit from each promoting and natural content material. A lot of the platform’s success has come from positioning itself on the intersection of social media and streaming. Though there was debate about which class the platform falls into, the UK’s business customary for measuring viewing, Barb, started reporting TV-set viewing to YouTube channels in July.
A change in viewership has added to the platform’s progress. Not only for laptops, a lot of YouTube’s viewership is by way of the family TV set.
Ofcom’s annual report discovered 20% of Gen Alpha (aged 4 to fifteen) head straight to the YouTube app as quickly as they flip the TV on. Over-55s are additionally watching twice the quantity of YouTube content material on their TVs as they have been final 12 months, whereas 16-24-year-olds are watching eight minutes of YouTube per day on TV.
Twenty years in the past YouTube was very completely different to the platform we’re accustomed to right this moment.
Whereas it’s nonetheless a house for viral memes, YouTube in 2025 is an outlet for manufacturers to profit from each promoting and natural content material. A lot of the platform’s success has come from positioning itself on the intersection of social media and streaming. Though there was debate about which class the platform falls into, the UK’s business customary for measuring viewing, Barb, started reporting TV-set viewing to YouTube channels in July.
A change in viewership has added to the platform’s progress. Not only for laptops, a lot of YouTube’s viewership is by way of the family TV set.
Ofcom’s annual report discovered 20% of Gen Alpha (aged 4 to fifteen) head straight to the YouTube app as quickly as they flip the TV on. Over-55s are additionally watching twice the quantity of YouTube content material on their TVs as they have been final 12 months, whereas 16-24-year-olds are watching eight minutes of YouTube per day on TV.
This contributed to YouTube turning into the second most-watched media service within the UK, behind the BBC and forward of ITV, in line with Ofcom, solidifying its place as a conventional viewing platform.
In response to YouGov knowledge from August, a couple of in 4 (28%) UK social media customers say they use YouTube greater than they did a 12 months in the past, notably amongst Gen Z.
YouTube head of gross sales for UK and Eire, Erica Probst, explains the variety of individuals selecting to observe long-form YouTube content material on their TV display is “growing considerably”, which means the staff have developed advert merchandise that “match the TV display”.
When you possibly can faucet into that deep-seated belief and subsequently assist viewers make quicker choices or purchases, you see actually phenomenal outcomes.
Erica Probst, YouTube
Urge for food for video promoting can also be rising. IAB and MediaSense knowledge from April discovered video accounted for 23% of promoting spend over the previous 12 months. Adverts have been first launched on YouTube in 2007 and have advanced lately as Google’s use of AI develops.
Final month, the platform introduced non-skippable AI-powered advert codecs for TV to drive outcomes for manufacturers eager to succeed in its viewers of 47.9 million adults. In response to Probst, the brand new developments are designed to assist drive model consciousness and consideration. She claims many advertisers are beginning to “plan YouTube first” and are profiting from AI campaigns, which she says “ship a 17% higher return on advert spend”.
For YouTube, these evolutions – each in advert codecs and a shift in the direction of video – have meant its promoting income has gone from energy to energy. The platform’s world income grew from $3.6bn (£2.6bn) in 2018 to £36.1bn (£26.8bn) in 2024, and is projected to develop to $50.2bn (£37.3bn) by 2027, in line with WARC knowledge.
‘Foundational media channel’
What’s actually modified on the platform is the quantity of long-form content material and high-quality manufacturing, says Probst, coupled with individuals partaking with tradition in a “360 means” and a need to see “behind the scenes”.
Whereas long-form is essential for YouTube, the platform has stored up with short-form rivals equivalent to TikTok by way of its Shorts providing, launched in 2020. First launched in India following the nation’s ban of TikTok, Shorts rolled out to the US in March 2021 and the remainder of the world just a few months later.
If manufacturers didn’t see the worth in Shorts earlier than, they definitely have following the current instability of TikTok within the US. After the app’s short-lived ban within the US in January, Billion Greenback Boy reported YouTube Shorts US noticed a 14% improve in posts, alongside a 6% improve within the UK. Billion Greenback Boy CEO and CIO Thomas Walters reported requests from purchasers for assist to activate on YouTube.
Certainly, for a lot of model entrepreneurs the altering panorama of viewership has led to YouTube turning into a main channel. On the YouTube Pageant final month (24 September), senior media technique and planning supervisor for UK meals at PepsiCo, Harry Drakes, stated the corporate has advanced it strategy to the platform to match the media panorama of right this moment.
“From Shorts to long-form, cellular to CTV, that is the place the place we’re capable of attain individuals in each considered one of these viewing moments,” stated Drakes.
PepsiCo-owned crisp model Doritos notched up a 31% year-on-year improve in ROI by means of use of YouTube for a 2024 marketing campaign, with Drakes describing the platform as a “foundational media channel” for the model’s campaigns.
UK heritage manufacturers are additionally utilizing the platform as a primary place for natural content material, together with Marks & Spencer. In August, the retailer launched ‘Love That’, a weekly long-form YouTube collection providing buyers vogue and magnificence recommendation. Views for Love That surpassed 13,000 inside 5 days of launch.
M&S vogue, dwelling, magnificence and masterbrand advertising and marketing director, Sharry Cramond, advised Advertising and marketing Week the staff is “dedicated” to its long-form collection and, if profitable, Love That can be a key a part of M&S vogue, dwelling and sweetness advertising and marketing. The concept is to make use of the present to provide clients fashion recommendation and a glance behind the scenes of the corporate.
The YouTube collection is hosted by superstar stylist Melissa Holdbrook-Akposoe, who Cramond calls “the nation’s high fashion influencer”.
“It’s our job with the longer-form content material to ensure we are able to talk as many merchandise as doable, as a result of that’s what clients need,” stated Cramond. YouTube utilization outpaces social media rivals over previous 12 months, YouGov finds
This curiosity in exploring long-form content material on YouTube transcends sectors. Steve Nash, social lead and digital media producer of the Haas Formulation 1 staff, says the staff can be utilizing YouTube for longer-form content material to go well with followers who wish to watch by way of their TV and “get to know the staff otherwise”.
Alternatively, Vodafone is experimenting with the Shorts perform after launching a social-first podcast for SMEs in August. VodafoneThree chief model officer, Maria Koutsoudakis, just lately advised Advertising and marketing Week YouTube and Shorts are “key retailers” for the model in terms of natural content material. Vodafone claims YouTube is a platform business-owners go to to “educate themselves” and subsequently sees the significance of displaying up on the platform.
AllSaints can also be investing extra on consumer generated content material and paid social by way of YouTube to succeed in model followers. In response to interim world head of efficiency advertising and marketing, Jay Safdar, a buyer case research on the platform turned one of many vogue model’s highest engaged with items of content material to this point.
A house for creators
Working with creators has been one other means for manufacturers to profit from the platform, by means of each natural content material and tie-ups.
Ipsos knowledge revealed final month discovered 78% of viewers agree YouTube has the ‘most trusted’ creators and creator content material, whereas 80% of Gen Z within the UK agreed the platform has essentially the most trusted creators for product suggestions.
Talking on the YouTube Pageant, creator Nella Rose defined how knowledge firm Experian had reached out to her and different influencers for a marketing campaign geared toward a youthful viewers. The marketing campaign led to an 81% improve in attain amongst 18-to-34-year-olds, in line with Rose.
This 12 months, YouTube has been championing creators by means of the launch of the inaugural Creator Session in July. As reported final month, this led to a devoted cross-party All-Celebration Parliamentary Group (APPG) being launched to signify UK creators, with a mission to “champion” their social and financial contribution and deepen policymakers’ understanding of the creator financial system.
Probst says creators have all the time been on the “coronary heart of the platform”, describing them as “the modern-day media powerhouses”. A 2024 Oxford Economics Influence Report discovered creators contributed £2.2bn to the UK financial system and help over 45,000 jobs.
Moreover, IPA analysis launched final week discovered creator advertising and marketing ROI outperforms linear TV and paid social. The info revealed the success of efficient creator advertising and marketing hinges on the “match between model and influencer and the standard of inventive content material”.
In response to Probst, YouTube’s creator partnership hub has made it simpler for manufacturers and creators to work collectively, offering “end-to-end” alternatives. This consists of Creator Takeovers, which permits advertisers to purchase 100% of the promoting house for a month on a creator’s channel. She cites tech big HP, which has reportedly seen a 16% improve in consciousness after a takeover.
“When you possibly can faucet into that deep-seated belief and subsequently assist viewers make quicker choices or purchases, you see actually phenomenal outcomes,” says Probst.
She claims YouTube is coming into a “new period”, the place creators will used extra usually by manufacturers.
The stats appear to again this up. In response to WPP Media’s This 12 months Subsequent 12 months report, creators will generate $184.9bn (£137bn) in income globally in 2025, up 20% year-on-year. The sector is anticipated to greater than double in dimension by 2030, reaching $376.6bn (£277bn).
As YouTube heads into its subsequent 20 years, the platform desires to place itself as they key hub for the creator financial system, in addition to the go-to place for promoting and natural content material.
