YouTube and Google on How Brands Can Build Trust With the Diverse Creator Community

How can marketers establish working creative relationships in ways that feel authentic to both brands and diverse collaborators? Experts from YouTube and Google had a lot to share on the subject during this year's IAB NewFronts. On Wednesday, IAB's chief industry growth officer Sheryl Goldstein connected with YouTube BrandConnect's head of sales strategy and programs Johanna Lara, YouTube's trends and insights lead Earnest Pettie and Paula Castro, Google's multicultural creative business partner, for a panel titled "Diversity in the Creator Community." During this chat, the panel of experts shared how their platforms are cultivating promising opportunities for creatives as well as advice on how brands can continue to develop partnerships that will allow them to remain relevant in a crowded market. The conversation comes at an interesting time for influencer marketing, a $16 billion industry that is only poised to grow as brands continue to invest in marginalized talent. But advertisers can't rest on neatly packaged messaging if they want to deliver on growth KPIs. Per the experts, brands will have to foster partnerships that are thoroughly collaborative and have a purpose that extends beyond a single advertisement. Find the right fit When it comes to connecting marketers with YouTube's massive creative community, Lara said that it all starts with a brief. "It helps us get informed in terms of who the brand is trying to reach and their specific goals," she told the panel. "From there, we provide insights-driven methods to curate a list of creators who would resonate with this audience." When you speak to [consumers] the way they want to be spoken to and they see themselves represented in these influencers, we see business growth.—Paula Castro, multicultural creative business partner, Google Once a brand connects with and approves a creator, YouTube then offers Google tools that can help maximize the creative, including shoppable ads that offer direct access to the creator's massive audience. This is especially important, Lara noted, when you consider that a recent Ipsos analysis determined that 57% of consumers tailor their purchasing habits to the recommendations of the influencers and creators they trust. It's a level of access that traditional media plans may not be able to offer. So, in order to earn that level of access, it's vital that the connections that brands make with creators are authentic, not just to the creator but also to the audiences they wish to reach. For YouTube, that begins with a look at the brand's history with the target community. "In addition to taking a look at their view, we take a look at historical to make sure that there's an accurate, relevant relationship and that the creators we're recommending are a brand fit," she said. 'Let the creator be the creator' Beauty influencer Raven Elyse was also on tap to provide insight from the creator perspective via a short video. Her advice for advertisers was simple. "Let the creator be the creator and have as much freedom with the creative concepts," she advised. Elyse, who has nearly 2 million subscribers on YouTube alone, has partnered with beauty tentpoles like Sephora, Ulta, Maybelline and Neutrogena. The key to a successful partnership, she offers, is for brands to trust creators to know how to best communicate with their audience. "I've spent a lot of time learning what works best on my channel, what my viewers want to see, what they're interested in, how to grab their attention and how to create the best content for the best performance," she shared. "In order for me to do those things, I have to have creative freedom." Connections that make sense For many traditional advertisers who are looking to incorporate elements of influencer marketing, both Castro and Lara said that one of the biggest missteps a brand can take is committing to the "one size fits all" approach, or the idea that a popular influencer that connects with the general market will be able to find the same success with a multicultural audience. Castro touts video experiments—which, when executed, expose different potential collaborators to target audiences—as a great way to determine which personalities resonate best with diverse consumers. "Think of it as A/B testing," she explained. "You're measuring two creatives and seeing which one performs best. For multicultural audiences, this is gold." Castro emphasizes that experimentation is valuable when trying to establish a connection with a new audience, especially when learning how best to communicate a product. An example she offered featured beauty giant Bobbi Brown, which learned to refer to the availability of its products in "colors" rather than "shades" when speaking to certain demographics that don't frequently use industry terminology. Said Castro, "When you speak to [consumers] the way they want to be spoken to and they see themselves represented in these influencers, we see business growth." Making it last According to Pettie, brands should consider these relationships beyond the one-off campaign. "YouTube is a relationship-based platform," he said. "The audience builds a relationship with the audience and the brand has an opportunity to be a part of that. One thing they should be thinking about is having a long-term view: How are they building relationships between the creator, the community and the broad range of creators within these diverse communities and their various audiences?" As a trends specialist, he notes that tracking emerging trends from diverse communities can pose a challenge. However, brands may be able to find increased success when they stop "chasing every individual trend" and start building serious roots in the communities they're trying to reach, which will ultimately yield on-the-ground insights in real time. "Pursue deep and abiding engagements with those communities from which the trends float," he advised. "Then you'll always be ahead of the trends." The Most Memorable Moments from the 2022 NewFronts