YouTube Creates A Separate ‘Creator Playbook’ Just For Brands

YouTube’s Creator Playbook is an indispensable tool for any channel producer who wants his videos to conform with the site’s best practices. Since it was first released in 2011, the Creator Playbook has received regular updates, culminating in a fourth edition released a year ago. YouTube has now updated its Playbook in a different way–it has released a separate one aimed at brands that want to optimize their YouTube videos.

The regular Creator Playbook focuses on engagement, technical optimization, and community collaboration. While the Brand Playbook includes all of these categories, it also addresses paid media options, details strategies for social media cross-promotion, and explains the various tracking tools available to brand marketers on YouTube.

“With brands, many of the fundamentals about content creation and programming are the same as for creators, but you also have to think about how your YouTube strategy maps to your overall marketing goals,” explained Vanessa Pappas, Head of Audience Development at YouTube. “You’re providing entertainment or utility to your viewers, but you’re also helping them connect more directly to your brand.”

Updates to the Creator Playbook often reflect areas of particular interest to YouTube. A 2012 update reflected the site’s focus on engagement, while the 2013 version created individual playbooks for specific genres. This year’s update continues YouTube’s increased catering toward its corporate users; last June, the site created a new partner program aimed specifically at brands.

“We saw the need to provide advertisers with the same insights that creators need to be successful,” added Pappas. “That’s because we’re in a new landscape. People want to directly engage with brands. They don’t want to just sit in front of an ad. So now brands are changing their digital marketing strategy to meet the changes in consumption.”

If you’re interested in checking out the Brand Playbook, you can check it out right here.