YouTube Brand Channel Guide

Have you ever wondered what possibilities YouTube can offer for your brand? Well let's take a look specifically at YouTube's very own brand channels.

Brand channels allow marketers to create a bespoke interface, customising the look and feel of their presence on the site. By creating a destination page on YouTube, brand channels provide the opportunity to create truly persistent relationships with your consumers.

I shall ignore the standard customisation options anyone can apply to their YouTube channel and just focus on the things only brand channels can use.

The Basics

Channel Banners

You can add a channel banner at the top of your brand channel. This has to be 960px in width, but can vary in height up to 150px. Take a look at 4OD's Documentaries YouTube brand channel for an example. You can add image maps (and URLs) to create the navigation going on in this example.

Branding Box Module

Brand channels can enable a branding box module where you can enter a title (up to 100 characters) and body copy (up to 4500 characters) that can be customised using a certain set of specified HTML tags.

Monitor Users' Comments

You have the option on your brand channel to set different rules on how to monitor comments on your channel to those rules on the comments on your videos.

Restrict Access

Rich Content

In addition to the basics, YouTube offers several other options for displaying featured content on your brand channel. If you want to use one of these then you need to notify a contact at Google as soon as possible. Gadgets cannot appear on your brand channel page until they have been reviewed by YouTube's engineering and legal teams. They recommend that you initiate the review process before starting development to ensure that your planned implementation will pass the final review process before your gadget launches.

Gadgets

Basics

• A gadget can customize the content that appears around the video player. Gadgets can display above or below the video navigator. In addition, while gadgets can show videos, they do not need to show videos.
• YouTube supports two different sizes of brand channel gadgets. Brand channels that do show gadgets typically show one gadget. However, a channel could have one gadget of each size.
  -  A 960px by 465px gadget can appear above or below the video navigator module.
  -  A 640px by 465px gadget can appear in the column of modules that appears on the right side of the channel page, below the video navigator and/or a full-width gadget.
• Gadgets can basically have anything in them. All custom gadget content must be hosted on a third-party server, meaning YouTube does not host any of the graphics or code for our gadget. If you do use a custom gadget, you will ultimately deliver to YouTube's account team a single URL that they can use to embed the custom gadget on your channel page. Gadgets can be embedded on other external sites. Take a look at the Hewlett Packard YouTube brand channel for a use of a channel banner and below that a gadget.

• If gadgets contain videos, all videos must sit on YouTube, even those uploaded by users from within the gadget. Videos within gadgets must use either the standard YouTube Embedded Player or the YouTube Chromeless Player. The Chromeless Player in basic terms means you can customise the look of the player controls and which buttons you use. If the video starts automatically in the gadget there must be a pause and/or stop button. See the Raisinets YouTube brand channel for a custom player controls using the Chromeless player.

• All content that display in the gadget is subject to and must comply with YouTube's Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. You will be liable for user uploaded content that appears anywhere on your brand channel, including in your brand channel gadget.
• If your gadget accepts direct submissions of user content, you must post a clear Terms of Use that explains how you will use that content. In addition, you cannot claim ownership of that content, which means that users reserve the right to remove their content from your gadget.
• Gadgets may use YouTube APIs but should not duplicate core YouTube community features such as video ratings, comments, favorite videos or video responses.

Hosting, language and interaction with the channel page

• You may develop gadgets using either HTML/Ajax or Flash.
• Your gadget should be hosted by the client or by the gadget developer.
• Gadgets may not modify your brand channel page by dynamically changing HTML or modifying cookies belonging to the page.
• Your gadget may not expand beyond the 960px by 465px area allocated to the gadget. Similarly, the gadget may not modify the dimensions of the browser window.
• Gadgets may link to other web pages, and buttons and links on the gadget may popup additional browser windows.
• They do not allow gadgets to use any plug-ins other than Flash and the Google Earth Plug-in.

Personal user data

• If your gadget collects user information, the gadget must clearly specify that the third party is collecting the data. The gadget also needs to explain what the data will be used for and provide a link to the your privacy policy.
• Our gadget should send any user information that it collects to YouTube's servers. YouTube will not store user data collected by your gadget.
• YouTube will only share usernames with the third party. YouTube will will not share email addresses or other identifying information from user profiles.

Contests

• Advertising clients can run contests to encourage users to interact with their brand. You can also create  and customise a contest module that can appear instead of or in addition to the video navigator.
• Gadgets may not implement a contest framework with voting. Any contests that run on YouTube must use YouTube's existing contest framework and adhere to YouTube's Contests Terms of Service.

Budget Examples

Here are the sample of brand channels with different budget commitments below:

• With 25K GBP spend commitment spread over 2-3 months, YouTube can provide one of three sample brand channels below:
  Carousel Example
  Mosaic Example
  Video Wall Example
  
  
• YouTube Custom Brand Channel with 40K budget commitment comes with a custom gadget which needs to comply with Google Policies
  Custom Gadget Example
  
  
• YouTube Contest Channel with 60K budget commitment comes with a special contest gadget which the users can also upload their videos.

Appendix

Here are some good examples of YouTube brand channels using gadgets...

• 4OD
• D&AD
• Gillette
• Harley Davidson
• Hewlett Packard
• Republican Debate
• Sony & Intel's YouTube Project Report

Finally here are a couple of sites that are from YouTube that give their take on their branding channels...

• Brand Channel How To Guides
• Show and Tell, Home of Best Creative Marketing Examples on YouTube
• YouTube Advertising Overview