My comeback + a reflection on 2013

Hurrah! After nearly 9 months of intensive work yesterday I finalized the last deliverables of the first online course I have ever created. As you can imagine the course teaches the essentials of Video Marketing, and how to make the best of video as a branding and business tool. The course will be available in the Internet Academy as of January, and will hopefully offer a structured approach to the state of the video industry and how to use video to connect with Generation C. I will post the link to it once it is ready, but expect to see a lot of videos of me talking :).

But apart from that great piece of news today, I would like to reflect on 2013 and share the latest videos that YouTube has created to celebrate the end of the year. These videos are the summary of this year's most popular videos, most popular ads, and most popular hang-outs.

Most popular videos

Most popular commercials

It is amazing how much has happened in 2013, and how fast it went by. We saw a great growth across the world in online video, the coming of age of Netflix with its blockbuster "House of Cards", the launch of new video enablers for TVs such as Google's Chromecast and the increasing sophistication of SmartTVs (and a strong price decrease).

I am going to focus now on advertisers as that is where one of the biggest changes is occurring and where we are likely to see more evolution in 2014.

I think that advertisers have come a long way during the past year. Although they are just scratching the surface in most cases, we are starting to see some bold brands that are showing the way of what the XXIst century branding will be about. Some of these examples are coming from unlikely places like Volvo Trucks, who has struck the cord with some astonishing and ground-breaking commercials.

The most important change is that the most popular ads are not 20 or 30 second commercials - considered the limit people were willing to bear - but rather commercials that are 1-3 minutes long that tell an entertaining story that resonates with the user. They are starting to  create bespoke ads for YouTube and are  finally trying to find news ways to connect to the new video generation, the Generation C everyone has been talking about.

Additionally, we are seeing more authenticity coming through, whether through pranks (Pepsi Max), testimonials (Rexona Do:More or Dove Sketches) or the clever rehash of user generated videos (Freixenet New Year's Eve toast). Also, we are seeing some advertisers playing with formats to create new experiences in a powerful way. Don't miss this great example from Burger King New Zealand.

Finally, we are finding more and more brands embracing the creation of strong communities around passion points (music, environment...etc), helping their brands earn a sense of purpose in consumer's minds as never before. A nice example of this comes from Patagonia that is defending the repair and careful maintenance of our adventure apparel.

I hope this is the solid start of a long journey that will change the face of advertising forever. And I hope to be a big part of it in 2014.