Despite all of the new alternatives that have come and gone through the years, Facebook had always remained my go-to social media platform. Full disclosure: I do visit Twitter, and Instagram just about daily, but primarily as a check-in, or to verify posts that I am made aware of elsewhere. Facebook was convenient for keeping in touch with people I know and have known. Twitter is where I follow entertainment and news media personalities, as well as brands I like and use. And Instagram is where I follow a combination of all of the above. However, once the Covid-19 pandemic began and I found myself at home more, I started spending a pretty healthy majority of my time on Youtube. In fact, YouTube is currently playing in the background as I type.
According to Paige Cooper at Hootsuite, YouTube’s Marketing Implications consist of 4 types of ads: 1) Skippable in-stream ads, where viewers can skip the ad after the first 5 seconds, 2) Non-skippable in-stream ads that viewers have to watch through with no option to skip. 3) Video discovery ads, 4) Non-video ads, such as banners and in-video overlays that float above video content (Cooper, 2020).
I had to look this up because, while I am familiar with all of the types of Marketing Implications they use, I have a YouTube Premium account, so I haven’t seen a YouTube ad in almost 5 years I watch Progressive news shows along with some mainstream News clips (CNN, MSNBC, FOX News). I have gotten into watching professional/extreme eaters because who doesn’t love watching a 110-pound woman eat 8lbs of Spicy Pho? I watch a lot of unboxing and review videos of tech products I rarely buy. And like most parents of 2 and 4-year-olds, TONS of Cocomelon and Surprise Eggs. What are Cocomelon and Surprise Eggs videos? Well… if you know, you know; if you don’t, you’re lucky. Essentially, Cocomelon is a cute animated series where a family sings nursery rhymes and catchy, earworm original songs, and Surprise Eggs videos are videos where adults cover plastic Easter eggs with playdough and hide toys in them and work to get the eggs open to reveal the toy surprise hidden inside. Yep. That’s it. But these kids LOVE them. So my account is all over the map.
And that is kind of a shame because I would love to see what kind of targeted ads I would be getting. After further reflection, I realized that what I do get are the built-in ads and product placement within the videos that I do watch. The unboxing/review videos are essentially 5-20 minute advertisements for the very products they feature. The Surprise Egg videos are toy commercials for toys that I have ended up buying for my kids. I mean, they already have shown that they love the toys, so I’m basically a hero bringing them home. Even the professional eating videos serve as advertisements and reviews for the restaurant hosting the challenge. I watch The Young Turks, a progressive news channel that has always been primarily viewer and member supported through monthly subscriptions, but they also have a few advertisers. The catch is that they don’t want to be beholden to corporate interests, so they select advertising sponsors that share progressive values. My VPN subscription was expiring last November and I was planning to just renew it for 2021 when I saw a live read on TYT for PureVPN, a progressive VPN service that supports progressive causes. The fact that I was able to know that this business supports causes I support resonated with me and got me to head to their website via the embedded link on the TYT YouTube video and ended up buying a multiyear plan.
In all honesty, I didn’t even get YouTube Premium on purpose; My girlfriend and I wanted access to more songs on Google Music so we subscribed to Premium access to Google Music. It wasn’t until a couple of years later that I learned I had YouTube Premium. I had been hearing about how a lot of people were wanting to watch the YouTube original series Cobra Kai but didn’t want to subscribe to another service to get access to the show. I was confused because I binged the whole first season with no issues. It was then that I noticed the Premium logo at the top of the screen. Confused, I looked into my account and learned that by subscribing to Google Music, I was automatically upgraded to Premium. Sweet.
I still hadn’t made the connection about the ad-free aspect of Premium. It wasn’t until last summer that my Mom was telling me about my Dad’s trouble getting to and staying asleep due to his advancing Parkinson’s symptoms. I recommended she get him headphones and have him listen to binaural beats in order to get to sleep. I had been listening to binaural beats and they had been a lifesaver for me. Binaural beats are different frequency tones played into each ear in such a way and pattern that they drag your mind down into REM and deep sleep and then back up to awake. I know, it sounds weird, but I’m telling you, it has been a miracle for me. Anyway, I send Mom the link to the eight hour session on YouTube and tell her to cue it up past the introduction, put the headphones on him at bedtime, turn it up about 80% and he should be out right away, and left it at that. A week or so later I call to check on them and ask how the binaural beats had worked for him and Mom says, “Oh, I stopped doing that. He didn’t like it.”
“Why?”
“Well, I set it up like you said. I turned it up and put him to bed. He was out like, immediately.”
“Ok?”
“About five minutes later, he wakes up all freaked out and screaming.”
“What happened?” I’m so confused at this point.
“He fell asleep and then the stupid ads started playing super loud!”
Ay, ay, ay… I had totally forgotten about ads! I had been living this Premium life over here, and didn’t even consider that civilians live with constantly being interrupted by annoying ads. And in this case, Dad went from being in a deep, Zen sleep in The Sunken Place, to be abruptly jolted awake by a blaring GoodRx ad! Poor guy. This was Dad’s first and last foray into binaural beats.
Resources
Cooper, P. (2020, June 11). The Complete Guide to YouTube Ads for Marketers. Retrieved from Hootsuite.com: https://blog.hootsuite.com/youtube-advertising/
RC Said What? 