Fresh off its recent coverage of Coachella 2023, YouTube has announced two new ad options that will better enable advertisers to tap into emerging music trends.
The first is uncreatively titled ‘Gen Z Music’ which will enable brands to show their promotions alongside the latest trending music clips.
As explained by YouTube:
“It’s a no-brainer that songs by the likes of Bad Bunny, Doechii and Rosalía are popular with Gen Z, but most brands don’t realize that classic hits by Cyndi Lauper and underground music from the latest soon-to-be superstars are popular with Gen Z on YouTube, too. To align your brand with the music most popular with Gen Z at the moment, we’re launching the Gen Z Music package, which leverages AI-powered signals across YouTube to identify songs trending with Gen Z, so you can reach them with the music they know and love.”
So it’s essentially a trending music placement option, which will make it easier for brands to showcase their promotions in connection to the latest trending music clips.
So the next time someone makes a TikTok clip to a Fleetwood Mac song, which drives people to go searching for the track on YouTube, you’d be able to tap into that rising popularity, and get your brand aligned with that clip.
YouTube’s also developing a new ‘Trending Music on Shorts’ offering, which will essentially provide the same placement opportunity within Shorts clips.
“Music takes on a life of its own on Shorts, skyrocketing in popularity through trends and challenges. These Shorts receive millions of views and speak to all the creative ways in which Gen Z uses short-form video on YouTube to express themselves and connect with artists. Soon, your brand can get in on the love by surrounding Shorts using trending music.”
So it’s cashing in on the latest music trends, via ad placement options, which will likely come at some cost, given the views and engagement such content sees. But it could be an effective way to build brand awareness, and maximize reach and resonance by association.
Which could be a valuable consideration. YouTube says that it now has over 100 million songs in its YouTube Music catalog, with global and localized versions of trending tracks in over 100 countries, and 80 languages.
That presents significant opportunity, and it could well be a good means to maximize your branding and promotional efforts. If you can afford it.
You can read more about YouTube’s new music placement options here.
