The Best Companies on YouTube in 2018
Every year Chimney does an evaluation on the best companies on YouTube, when this year’s edition was conducted in Sweden, Finland and Switzerland we found some interesting news. Not only does the use of YouTube among the companies increase but also, the spending on production of videos for YouTube increases.
Swedish companies’ uses of YouTube beat all previous records – in recent years, corporate video uploads have increased by approximately 400%. In 2018 the increase is expected to exceed all previous ratings, as can be seen in this year’s edition of Chimney’s YouTop100.
During 2017, 1,000 of Sweden’s largest companies uploaded more than 15,000 videos on YouTube, a four-fold increase from the 3,750 videos published five years ago. With an average production cost of 100,000 SEK per video, the estimated increase of production spending on the channel went from 375 million SEK to 1.5 billion SEK.
“We all know that YouTube reaches just as many, if not more, people than any of the existing cable networks. However, what might be surprising is that the volume of videos uploaded per company is increasing tremendously. In total, the companies on our list have, during the past year, generated over 178 million views on YouTube. You can also see a clear change among the types of companies that are actively using YouTube. When comparing 2014 and 2018, we see that YouTube was previously used largely by the retail industry but is now being used by all industries,” says Peter Söderlind, CEO of Chimney Sweden.
YouTube does not only reach the younger crowd
According to a survey from Myndigheten för Press, Radio och TV (“The Press, Radio and TV Authority”) YouTube has by far the most viewers, about 38% in a day. YouTube reaches 86.9% of all children from ages nine to nineteen in Sweden each day. But the audience does not only consist of young viewers. Remarkably, YouTube videos reach just over 50% of Swedes between the ages of 30 and 39 every day.
“The analysis that we’ve done is based on the number of views and subscribers, which is not usually the main goal of the content. However, views and subscribers are essential factors in generating an engaged audience. Companies that use YouTube for storage purposes rather than as a communication platform risk opportunities to reach viewers that could belong to the targeted audience. We often hear companies thinking Facebook can replace YouTube as a video sharing platform, but the truth is that they are complementary to each other. Attention is created on Facebook via a push effect while YouTube takes advantage of the pull effect in using Google’s searchability features” Peter Söderlind continues.
H&M, Blocket and Klarna Among the Top Companies
In this year’s edition of YouTop100, Sweden H&M, Warner Music Sweden, Blocket, Absolut and TUI Sweden are at the top of the list. Among the top 100 companies is Klarna, climbing from number 139 to number 9 over the last five years. According to David Sandström, CMO at Klarna, it all comes down to adapting to the changing behavior of the customers.
“YouTube is a platform where our customers spend a lot of their time. It is not as guided as other video platforms and is well suited for certain parts of our communication strategy. Many view YouTube as a video platform, but then underestimate the social mechanics found there. YouTube has gone from being a platform where you can experiment with new ideas, to becoming an important part of our communication strategy. YouTube allows greater freedom, more interaction, and a higher engagement. Therefore, YouTube is a tool that we will keep using at Klarna ” says David Sandström, CMO at Klarna.