20 years of YouTube: In 2009, a ‘New Moon’ ushered in the next phase of movie marketing

In February 2025, YouTube turned 20. The video site has gone through a lot over the past two decades, including an acquisition, an earnings glow-up, and multiple generations of star creators. In our 20 Years of YouTube series, we’ll examine the uploads, trends, and influencers that have defined the world’s favorite video site — one year at a time. Click here for a full archive of the series.

In 2008, the internet chose between Barack Obama and John McCain. A year later, a different dichotomy divided the web: You were either on Team Edward or Team Jacob.

I’m talking, of course, about Twilight. Bella Swan’s two love interests represented two different sides of the male ethos. Edward was dapper, broody, and mysterious (and a vampire). Jacob was protective, righteous, and gallant (and a werewolf). When Twilight: New Moon — the sequel that greatly expanded Jacob’s character — was at its cultural zenith, the Edward vs. Jacob debate proved inescapable. The conservation became so big that New Moon managed to change movie marketing forever.

OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Movie marketing was bound to change even without the sexy, sparkly vampires, but New Moon provided the push that set the industry on its way. The main trailer for the Twilight sequel’s film adaptation became one of the first previews to go mega-viral on YouTube, and it demonstrated the potency of the pop culture tentpole — a concept that has inspired media strategists for decades.

To understand what makes this particular trailer so notable, we have to take a step back to 2007, when Viacom filed a billion-dollar lawsuit against YouTube. The owner of channels like Comedy Central and Nickelodeon argued that YouTube was facilitating a “brazen” form of copyright infringement by hosting numerous pirated clips from films and TV shows.

YouTube eventually fended off the lawsuit, but the incident showed the need for more stringent safeguards that could protect studios’ intellectual property at scale. The Content ID digital fingerprinting system rolled out in 2007, and 2009 saw the arrival of two official sources for pop culture content: Major record labels backed Vevo to create a home for music videos, and Movieclips emerged to consolidate trailers for the latest blockbusters.

Those moves cemented YouTube as the place to go for pop culture conversation, especially for younger viewers. Stan Ruszkowski, the President of film clip distributor The Boxoffice Network, told Tubefilter that trailers have become “conversation starters, cultural references, and entry points” for movie lovers and newcomers to the art form alike.

“For younger viewers, YouTube is often their first touchpoint with cinema,” Ruszkowski said. “A short three-minute clip can go viral as a meme. A trailer reaction can bring a global fandom together overnight. A well-crafted edit can introduce a 12-year-old to Hitchcock, Tarantino, or Greta Gerwig for the first time.”

New Moon was one of the first movies to epitomize that phenomenon. Major YouTube channels of that era caught “Team Edward or Team Jacob” fever. The film got the How It Should Have Ended treatment, and Ryan Higa expertly skewered the melodramatic trailer for an episode of his “Movies in Minutes” series.

The fanfare that followed New Moon through its production cycle was all-encompassing. Back then, YouTube was still one big family, rather than a network of niches connected by a shared distribution vehicle. When the trailer for a blockbuster dropped, or when a hotly-anticipated release date approached, it was nigh impossible to engage with YouTube’s creator community without coming across movie-related content.

“YouTube is a natural home for movie content because movie lovers are core to its audience,” Ruszkowski told Tubefilter. “Whether it’s trailers, iconic scenes, fan edits, or cast interviews, pop culture thrives on YouTube, not as a niche, but as a central part of the platform’s daily engagement.”

In 2025, it’s much harder to cut through the YouTube clutter than it was in 2009. Even so, Ruszkowski’s claim holds true. Clip distributors have harnessed YouTube Shorts to rank among the platform’s most-watched channels, and entities like The Boxoffice Network have made inroads on TikTok as well.

Want proof that shared pop culture celebrations are still a big deal? Look no further than the recently concluded NewFronts. At the 2025 edition of the annual presentation series, tentpole-based marketing was a recurring theme. Companies like Meta, TikTok, and YouTube announced AI-powered ad products that identify the biggest cultural moments and bring brands closer to them.

Back in 2009, the New Moon trailer drop ranked among YouTube’s biggest cultural moments, one that united 19-year-old sketch comedians, fledgling media companies, and animation channels. New Moon‘s reception adds an amusing wrinkle to the story.

The film was panned by contemporary critics and has been thoroughly derided by its two co-stars in the decade-and-a-half since. These days, recollections of Edward Cullen trend toward his creepy characteristics, while conversations about Jacob remind us of Hollywood’s attempt to make Taylor Lautner happen.

That’s the power of the tentpole. It can make any movie into a cultural touchstone through the sheer force of community engagement. In the face of “Team Edward or Team Jacob,” the negative reviews hardly meant a thing. The memes, forum arguments, and YouTube caricatures were the elements that made the saga sparkle.