Today's blog post comes from the chilly slopes of Park City, Utah, where we're getting ready to kick-off our sponsorship of the Sundance Film Festival. So, why are we here?

Independent filmmakers have been critical contributors to our platform ever since we launched our site almost five years ago. In that time, we've increasingly come to understand some of the challenges facing these filmmakers: technology has made it easier and cheaper than ever to produce films; more films have led to more competition for audiences; more competition for audiences has led to more films needing massive marketing budgets to cut through the clutter. And these high costs have made it difficult for independent films to compete, leaving too many films going unseen.

While YouTube has offered an easy and economical way for filmmakers -- as well as content creators of all kinds -- to instantaneously connect with fans around the world, many of them have told us that the ad-supported business model doesn't always meet their distribution and monetization needs. And so we are excited today to announce our partnership with the Sundance Film Festival to make five films from the 2010 and 2009 festivals available for rent for U.S. users on YouTube starting this Friday and running through Sunday, January 31. In addition to these health and education, will be made available in the weeks ahead. We're also excited to put out the call for more independent filmmakers to join the rental program as part of our "Filmmakers Wanted" campaign at the festival.

These are early days and in the coming weeks we'll also invite a small group of partners across other industries, in addition to independent film, to participate in this new option. Anything that brings more content to the YouTube community is a good thing. And making content available for rent will give our partners unprecedented control over the distribution of their work -- they can decide the price of their videos and the rental duration; they can decide when and where their content is available; and they can keep 100% of their rights.

But enough talking: you want to watch movies! To prepare for Friday's debut, take a minute to set up your Google Checkout account and watch the trailers below to decide what to rent. On Friday, check out the YouTube blog to learn how to find and start watching some of these independent films.











Posted by the YouTube team

YouTube sales research had a banner year in 2009 – we completed more than 160 studies demonstrating how YouTube paid media can boost users’ brand engagement, change their media consumption habits, and even influence their purchasing habits! Here’s a few highlights from 2009:

• Sparking users’ interest: We showed that advertising on the YouTube homepage increased audience’s engagement with the advertiser brand, making them much more likely than a control group to search on advertisers’ branded terms and visit their sites. Users saw these ads and wanted to learn more! (If you’d also like to learn more, look here for a recording of our webinar with our research partner Compete).
• Brand boosting: Dozens of studies showed that paid media on YouTube not only drives traffic to users’ brand channels and contests, but also directly affects users’ brand awareness and favorability.
• Bottom-line: Custom research projects with advertiser partners showed that YouTube paid media directly influences which television shows users watch, as well as their offline purchasing.

Here’s a preview of what we’ll cover this year:

More industry focus. This year, we’ll expand our homepage research to cover more industries and industry subverticals such as TV shows, video games, and theatrical film releases. We’ll also feature case studies covering a wider range of industries.

More user focus. Because YouTube is the #1 destination for online video, we have a front-row view of how consumers use online video in their daily lives. We’re going to share with you our perspective on how that’s changing, and the new ways consumers are using online video.

Gettin’ funky with research. We want to shake things up this year, exploring different research creatives and new ways to look at campaign performance. Stay tuned for more!

Here’s to 2010!

Posted by Leah Spalding, YouTube Market Insights Manager

The subscription system delivers videos from content creators to eager viewers and has become such an essential part of YouTube that that "subscribe" button is clicked over 1 million times every day. That's a lot -- which is why we're especially focused on improving the reliability, usefulness and transparency of subscriptions.

First off, you've told us that you want ways to message your subscribers. Now, the bulletins you write on your channel will appear on your subscribers' homepages, in their "Recent Activity" module. If you go to your channel -- let's say it's celebrityplaylists -- you should see an area to write a bulletin and attach a video:


...which looks like this when your subscribers see it in their homepage feed:


Note that these bulletins will only show up for people who subscribed to you after September 2009. If you subscribed to someone before September and want to receive their bulletins, simply visit their channel, click the "Edit subscription" link, and choose "Subscribe to all videos uploaded, rated, favorited, and commented on."

We've also heard from many of you that after you upload a video, you'd like to feel more confident that it's actually made its way to your subscribers' homepages. Recently, we rolled out a new indicator that shows the syndication status of your video after it's been uploaded; once it reaches 100% you can rest assured that all your subscribers have received your video. Here's an example of what this looks like:


Please keep in mind that after your upload finishes processing, it starts getting sent out to the people subscribed to you, though it can take up to an hour to reach everyone. (In rare cases, it might take longer than an hour.) This short delay helps us fight spam and preserve the overall integrity of the system.

Finally, you can now delete individual items from your subscription feed. Click "edit" options for the subscriptions module and check "Exclude videos I've already watched" (see below). Once you've done this, hover over videos in the module to see a small "x" that will allow you to remove it from the module, making way for more videos from the people you follow.


We'd love to read comments below about other subscription system improvements you'd like to see.

Brian Glick, Product Manager, recently subscribed to 73368's channel.

You might notice a periodic module on the homepage called Spotlight Videos (if you don't, add it to your homepage). These run a few times per week and showcase interesting and timely videos from our community and partners, all organized around an event or theme.

In 2010, we'll be using this blog to give you advanced notice of opportunities to be a part of these spotlights. At the top of each month, we'll reveal a list of themes, along with an exclusive tag you should place on any video you'd like to be considered for the spotlight. (Please note that themes and dates are subject to change and spotlights may be added or dropped without notice.) We can't promise your video will be part of the feature, but if it is we'll let you know via email and we hope you will join us in promoting its prominent position via any social media or marketing tools you regularly use to connect with your viewers, customers and fans.

With that, we'd like to share the list of some themes for January 2010:

1/1 -- Rejuvenation: tips for staying healthy & keeping those resolutions (tag: ytrejuvenation)
1/5 -- Phone music: videos of original tunes made on mobile phones (tag: ytphonemusic)
1/25 -- Video Volunteers: use your video-making skills for good. Submit a video for a charity supporting the arts (tag: ytvv)
1/27 -- Davos: Is there one issue facing the world today that you feel passionate about? Have you always wanted to take your cause directly to people who have the power to do something about it, but lacked access to have your voice heard? Now is your chance to make your pitch. Click here for more details. (tag: ytdavos)

Got an idea for a theme we haven't mentioned above? Leave a comment below and we'll consider adding it to our calendar.

Thanks!

Posted by Mia Quagliarello, Product Marketing Manager, Editorial/Community

It's been a busy year for the YouTube Partnerships team. We've been working hard to bring you the videos you want to watch, and to date we have signed well over 10,000 partners. These partners include Hollywood studios and TV networks like Sony Pictures, Warner Bros, Turner, Discovery, ESPN and Showtime; new media partners like Demand Media, Next New Networks and Mondo Media; and user partners like Fred, Ryan Higa and Michael Buckley, each of whom is making a living off of the YouTube platform. 

Our number one business goal at YouTube is to help video creators make money from their content online. Last year was the most successful year on record from a partner advertising revenue standpoint. In light of this progress, we wanted to list out some of the more memorable partner-related moments of 2009. In no particular order, here they are:

• Shows and Movies come to YouTube: This launch brought thousands of classic full-length TV episodes and hundreds of full-length movies to YouTube, including Ghostbusters, Taxi Driver, Bram Stoker's Dracula and the Spaghetti Western Trilogy.
  
  
• User-partners experience unprecedented success: Hundreds of YouTube user partners are making thousands of dollars a month on YouTube, but there is a small group whose growth is truly remarkable. Fred, NigaHiga, Smosh and Shane Dawson have each exceeded over a million subscribers, and Fred now has more views than the entire population of the U.S. NigaHiga's short film, "Ninja Melk," released in August of this year generated over a million views in less than a week.
  
  
• Large entertainment players join the platform: Among the major short- and long-form content deals signed in 2009 were Disney, Turner, Warner Bros., Univision, the UK's C4 and Channel 5. In the world of music we continued to offer content from all four major record labels -- UMG, Sony Music, EMI and Warner Music -- and worked to play our part in the historic VEVO launch
  
  
• New generation of media companies emerge: Companies like Demand Media, Machinima and Mondo Media have surpassed the half-billion view mark as they built out rich portfolios of videos, channels and brands. These companies have a loyal following on YouTube and have set themselves apart as the "new media powerhouses" of the future through their forward-thinking acquisition and distribution strategy
  
  
• Viral videos get monetized:  Over the summer we expanded the YouTube Partnership Program to include individual popular videos, meaning that users are invited to monetize one-off viral videos and profit from their success on YouTube. One of the stand-out successes of this program so far is  "David After Dentist," a video that's generated over $30k for the uploader
  
  
• Live music rocks the community: This year saw live-streamed events from the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, U2 at the Rose Bowl in L.A., and Alicia Keys' intimate World AIDS Day concert in NYC. U2 especially impressed: broadcast to 140 countries, the concert racked up a total of 10mm streams, making it the most successful live-streaming event in YouTube history
  
  
• Film is released simultaneously in theaters, on TV and on YouTube: Famed French producer and director Luc Besson experimented with an innovative distribution strategy for his environmentally conscious film "Home", which, on YouTube alone, went on to generate 7mm views in 6 weeks.
  
  
• Strong adoption of Content ID: Over 1,000+ partners today are using our copyright management technology, Content ID, including every major U.S. network broadcaster, movie studio and record label. Content ID scans over 100 years of content a day and over 50% of our partners choose to monetize their content on YouTube, effectively turning what was one of their biggest challenges -- illegal use of their content -- into a user-friendly, efficient source of revenue and marketing insight.
  
  
• Uruguayan filmmaker lands multi-million dollar deal based on YouTube clip: Federico Alvarez Mattos' special-effects-laden YouTube video, "Ataque de Panico (Panic Attack!) 2009," caught the eye of Hollywood bigwigs, who offered him a seven-figure deal to bring his talents to the large screen under the tutelage of director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man).
  
  
• Screening Room film wins an Emmy: Josh Raskin's "I Met the Walrus" was one of the first short films featured in the YouTube Screening Room, YouTube's platform for independent film content. Featuring dazzling animation set to an intimate interview with John Lennon, it's been raking in the accolades since its premiere in 2008. The latest award was a Daytime Emmy for New Approaches.
   

It's been an exciting year, to say the least. We can't wait to see what the next one has in store. 

Posted by David Eun, Vice President of Content Partnerships

Top news from the site this month:

1. The "YouTube revolution" grips Iran
As conflict flares up again in Iran, YouTube continues to provide a window into what ordinary citizens are experiencing on the ground. These videos are the voice of the people — unfiltered, unedited and with a single, sometimes disturbing point of view. Read more in our blog.

2. What you watched and searched for in 2009
For the first time we shared our official Most Watched lists and some of the fastest-rising search terms on YouTube. If you haven't seen the lists yet (over half a million people have already checked them out), click here.

3. Most memorable videos of the year
Sponsored by Samsung, this channel features an advent-calendar-style countdown revealing some of the don't-miss clips uploaded in '09. Use it as a cheat sheet to get up-to-speed on the core people and videos that defined YouTube this year.

4. Unknown filmmaker gets Hollywood funding
Uruguayan filmmaker Federico Alvarez Mattos recently made headlines when his special-effects-laden YouTube video, "Ataque de Panico (Panic Attack!) 2009," caught the eye of Hollywood bigwigs, who offered him $30 million to bring his talents to the large screen under the tutelage of director Sam Raimi. Hear about his experience firsthand in the Creator's Corner blog.

5. Viral Video of the Month...
...is of this irresistibly cute 5-year-old uke player from Japan.

Posted by Mia Quagliarello, Product Marketing Manager, Editorial/Community

In the past few months, American Apparel has run several campaigns on YouTube to promote some of the company's lesser-known lines, from swimwear to kids clothing. Our personal favorite is a campaign they recently ran targeted to pet content on YouTube -- including the famous (or maybe infamous) "Skateboarding Dog" video.

In this interview, Ryan Holiday, Marketing and Web Strategist at American Apparel, talked to us about the company's overall marketing goals, the importance of being playful, and, of course, dogs on skateboards.

1. Why did you want to target American Apparel ads to videos of dogs on skateboards?

It started when we were looking for dance websites and it turned out that there weren't that many -- at least ones that fit our audience. But there are a lot of great dance videos. Awesome ones, actually. So we started designing ads for the American Apparel DANCE line and targeted them to our favorite ballet, aerobics and dance videos. At the same time, we realized that a lot of people don't know that you can buy American Apparel for your pet because it's a hard thing to advertise for, so we started looking for pet videos. "Skateboarding Dog" is obviously an iconic YouTube video, but there are so many other really cute pet ones out there. The same goes for videos like "Charlie Bit My Finger," which felt like a great place to introduce the American Apparel Kids line. Fun parents are the reason it got popular and that's what our line is about. Our Sesame Street shirts will hopefully go next to Sesame Street videos and so on.


2. How do you measure the success of this campaign?

AdWords lets you track view-through orders, so that's one metric. Considering that the alternatives are tactics like site retargeting or large network buys, or in this case children's or pet-owners' magazines, just being able to do advertising that is playful and appreciated by the people seeing it sort of makes it successful regardless.

3. What did you learn and how has it informed other campaigns you've run on YouTube?

You should be on the sites your employees and fans are on. The second we started picking YouTube videos, employees from all over the world began sending in links of videos they thought we should be on. Striking a nerve like that lets you know that you might have something special.

4. How does your YouTube campaign fit within your larger marketing strategy?

It fits into its own little pocket. You have marketing that is about a message or the brand, and you have marketing that pushes new products or events. This is something that's a combination of that. People on YouTube are looking to discover things and hopefully our ads help them do that.

5. What's your favorite YouTube video?

We're partial to the Larry Flynt deposition from the Falwell lawsuit.

Posted by Lane Shackleton, Product Specialist