Social Shorts: YouTube’s top Bumper Ads, Twitter’s aqui-hire, LinkedIn’s transparency report

Bringing music to Waze. YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium members can now access YouTube Music through the Waze app. “All of the albums, playlists, personalized mixes, and more that fans love to listen to are now available with a couple of quick taps as they navigate to where they need to go,” writes YouTube on its company blog. The integration began rolling out on Thursday and will soon be available in all 50 markets where both YouTube and Waze are accessible. The company is also offering a free trial to try out YouTube Music Premium via the app. Users can tap the music note icon within the Waze app and select YouTube Music as the audio app.

No more DMs. YouTube announced via its Community Help Forum that it is shuttering the direct message feature that lets users share videos via a private channel. “We’re constantly reevaluating our priorities and have decided to discontinue YouTube’s native direct messaging feature while we focus on improving public conversations,” wrote a Google employee on Wednesday. First launched in 2017, YouTube’s direct messaging feature will no longer be available after September 18.

The top 10 Bumper Ads. YouTube has released a leaderboard of the top ten performing six-second Bumper Ads in the U.S. released during the past year. Subaru took the top spot with its “Long Stick” ad, proving everyone loves a good dog video — even if it’s only six seconds long. Frito-Lay, Eggo, Halls and Charmin all made the top five. Food and snack brands accounted for half of the top ten ads, with spots from Frito-Lay, Eggo, Almond Joy Mounds, Reese’s and Cheetos. Earlier this year, Google introduced a “Bumper Machine” that uses machine learning to automatically create six-second Bumper Ads from longer videos.

No more targeted ads on kids videos. YouTube is planning to stop targeting ads that show up on kid-related videos, according to Bloomberg. While the company would not confirm the report, three people familiar with the decision said the company is “finalizing” plans to end targeted ads delivered to content produced for kids. This move may be connected to the FTC’s investigation into whether or not YouTube violated the Children’s Online Privacy Act (COPPA), which restricts behavioral ads targeting children under 13 without a parent’s consent. “It is not clear if YouTube’s changes to ad targeting are a result of the settlement,” reports Bloomberg, “The plans could still change, said the people, who asked not to be identified citing an open investigation.”

Twitter makes an acqui-hire. Twitter has brought on board the team from Lightwell, a startup that builds developer tools for creating narrative apps. Lightwell CEO Suzanne Xie will become a director of product for Twitter, leading the company’s conversations initiative, and will be bringing her small staff with her. A Twitter spokesperson told TechCrunch, “We are excited to welcome Suzanne and her team to Twitter to help drive forward the important work we are doing to serve the public conversation.”

LinkedIn’s latest transparency report. LinkedIn says it took action against 21.6 million fake accounts between January and June this year. This includes stopping 19.5 million fake accounts at the point of registration, and identifying and removing two million fake accounts before they were reported. “This was possible by pairing human review with artificial intelligence and machine learning,” reports LinkedIn. The company said 98% of its actions against fake accounts was the result of automated defenses that used machine learning and AI technology.

A Public Access Network from Reddit. After teasing announcements via an r/pan thread on the platform, Reddit has confirmed it is testing a new “public access network” that will allow users to broadcast live-stream videos. The test began on Monday and ran between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. through the end of this week. 

Alex Le, Reddit’s VP of product, told Wired that video content will be “tightly” curated, with no more than 100 streams airing simultaneously. Live-streams will be 30-minutes or shorter, and Redditors will be able to upvote and downvote streams the same as Reddit posts. “We think Reddit will lend itself more toward shorter-form content, capturing something that’s really interesting in the moment, so that users can cycle through and see a bunch of different perspectives,” said Le.

A monetization platform for YouTubers. Google’s Area 120 lab, a division focused on new product experiments, is testing an events-centric crowdfunding platform for YouTube creators called Fundo. According to a report from Variety, the platform lets creators offer virtual meet-and-greets with fans, along with other online events, for a fee. 

A Google spokesperson sent the following comment to Marketing Land about the tests: ”One of the many projects that we’re working on within Area 120 is Fundo, an audience engagement and monetization platform for YouTube creators.” Google said it is very early in the experiment phase with the platform and it has no details to share. 

According Variety, one YouTuber has used Fundo to host multiple virtual meet-and-greets, charging $10 per ticket. Another creator used the platform to sell personalized shout-outs to fans.

YouTube Originals available for all. YouTube announced it’s moving its original programming off of its Premium platform beginning September 24, making many YouTube Original series, movies and live events available to all viewers. The content will be ad supported, but Premium members will still have the option to watch the videos ad-free, according to TechCrunch. “Premium subscribers will have access to all the available episodes in a series right when they premiere, says YouTube, and they’ll be able to download them for offline viewing,” reports TechCrunch.

New rules for YouTube’s Manual Claiming tool. YouTube is barring music owners from using its Manual Claiming tool for monetization purposes. “One concerning trend we’ve seen is aggressive manual claiming of very short music clips used in monetized videos. These claims can feel particularly unfair, as they transfer all revenue from the creator to the claimant, regardless of the amount of music claimed,” writes YouTube on its Creator Blog. To rectify the matter, YouTube is changing its policy and forbidding music copyright owners from using its Manual Claiming tool to monetize creator videos that include short or unintentional uses of their music. 

Music owners can still file a claim against creators that use their music in videos, but they can’t use the Manual Claiming tool to do it. YouTube clarified that claims made via the Content ID match system, which it says represents the vast majority of claims, are not impacted by this policy update. “Without the option to monetize, some copyright owners may choose to leave very short or unintentional uses unclaimed. Others may choose to prevent monetization of the video by any party. And some may choose to apply a block policy,” writes YouTube.

Twitter tries out new follow feature. Twitter announced on August 9 that it was testing a new feature that would allow users to follow sports topics in their timeline. According to a Tweet via the @TwitterSports account, the company is experimenting with new ways for users to follow topics relevant to their interests and are starting with a small test on Android that lets users follow sports. According to The Verge, the test will soon expand to include celebrity and TV shows as well. “Topics will be curated by Twitter, with individual tweets being identified through machine learning rather than editorial curation,” reports The Verge.

On the Move

The data and analytics platform Alteryx, Inc. has hired Amy Heidersbach as its new chief marketing officer. She will lead the company’s global go-to-market strategy and data-driven programs. “Marketing is a critical driver in our success, and we believe now is the time to further invest in modern, integrated marketing strategies that communicate our unique value to the market,” said Alteryx President Scott Jones, “We are excited to welcome Amy to the Alteryx team.” During Heidersbach twenty-year career, she has worked with a number of brands, including Capital One, PayPal, CareerBuilder and Visa.

Kevin Sellers is joining Ping Identity as the security technology solution’s chief marketing officer. He will lead all aspects of Ping’s marketing functions, focusing on the expansion of its enterprise market and growing the brand globally. “Kevin Sellers is a highly experienced, accomplished marketing leader with a proven record of building global brands in the technology sector, making him a natural addition to our leadership team,” said Ping COO Chris Nagel. Previously, Sellers was the CMO for Avnet and held multiple leadership roles at Intel.

Jonathan Bartlett has been named chief product officer for the personalization platform Monetate. He will be responsible for launching new products and lead the company’s technical partner development. “Jonathan brings a wealth of innovative product leadership experience and operational discipline to our executive team that will greatly strengthen our ability to develop and rapidly deliver market-leading personalization solutions,” said CEO Stephen Collins. Prior to joining Monetate, Bartlett served as the VP of Product for Contently.

About The Author

Amy Gesenhues

Amy Gesenhues is a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land, Search Engine Land and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy’s articles.