MANILA, PHILIPPINES – YouTube just concluded its YouTube Works Awards Southeast Asia right here in Manila, and it is bigger than ever, with a record-breaking 800+ submissions across the region.
The awards served as a powerful showcase of the platform’s unparalleled reach and its growing ecosystem of advertisers, creators and communities. The winning campaigns from this year’s Southeast Asia YouTube Works Awards highlighted how brands are leveraging YouTube to achieve real, measurable business impact and high return on investment (ROI).
In an interview with adobo Magazine, Sapna Chadha, Vice President for Google Southeast Asia and South Asia Frontier divulged that YouTube is the #1 video platform, reaching more consumers on a daily basis than all other video platforms, including TikTok and Meta in Southeast Asia. It was also discovered that YouTube creators are trusted by 90% in the Philippines, 88% in Thailand, and 86% in Indonesia, higher than the competitive average in those markets. With these numbers, YouTube consistently delivers more than 2x the ROI of linear TV, and more than 1.2x than other digital platforms in the region.
Read on to hear Sapna’s thoughts on this year’s award and entries, and how YouTube remains on top for brand strategy and growth:
adobo Magazine: What makes this year’s YouTube Works Awards stand out?
Sapna Chadha: It’s our third year doing this at a Southeast Asia level. The work keeps getting better every year. But I think what truly makes this stand out is this moment in terms of the incredible storytelling that people are now using. There’s so many different kinds of formats on YouTube. I think it’s an incredible moment for the creative industry. I would say this year, we held it in the Philippines for a reason, and so I think that’s very important for us. This is a market [where] YouTube is so powerful. We’re seeing so much incredible momentum. The kind of creativity that’s being unleashed here is different. And so we were able to put the Philippines on the center stage, which I think is critical for this moment. [But] I think this goes beyond a single event. It culminates in Southeast Asia. But I think beyond that, it’s turned into a kind of a campaign for us, which everyone’s getting behind. It’s not just us promoting YouTube. You have the creators, you have the TV networks, you have the brands and the advertisers all kind of telling our story for us.
adobo Magazine: What key themes or insights emerge from this year’s YouTube Works winners?
Sapna: There’s short six-second bumpers, there’s long. I think there’s a belief that people’s attention spans are actually shortening, but we see the opposite on YouTube – we see short-form is engaging, but so is long form. You see the people get a taste of what they want, but then they go deeper. And brands are really embracing this. They understand what will keep somebody’s attention. I think it’s an important time for advertisers to think about multi-format storytelling, and the best brands have done that incredibly well. We talk about creator partnerships, there’s now 7,600 creators that have more than a million subscribers right in this region — not in the world, [but] in this region. And so the partnerships between brands and creators that we’ve seen and the work that’s been done also stand out. It’s not just your traditional creators, either. We’re seeing lots of innovation in spaces like motoring and gaming. The campaign of Astra Honda Motor Indonesia with Virtual YouTuber Kobo Kanaeru generated massive cross-border buzz, which resulted in 23 million views and 170% increase in search volume, which is just powerful. And the last thing I would say is full funnel media strategy, like GCash. And what they’ve done with their GSafe tayo campaign. They’ve taken a topic like cybersecurity, which is normally very boring. They were able to use a full funnel strategy, and they’ve rebuilt user trust. We did a workshop with them a year ago on the topic. They got 70 million views on their GSafe Tayo campaign. It increased their brand trust by 14% and it led to an 80% reduction in phishing, so it means that actual users are safe because of the work that they’re doing across the funnel.
adobo Magazine: Why do advertisers continue to choose YouTube as their go-to platform in the region?
Sapna: We have the highest reach. We are the number one video platform in Southeast Asia and in the individual markets. We reach more consumers on YouTube than any other platform, including Meta and Tiktok. We also have this unparalleled trust. That is at the highest level, and that is a level of credibility that comes from our creator ecosystem. I think the last thing I would say is we deliver ROI. [I think,] everyone inherently knows these things, the strength of YouTube, but it is important that we continue to tell everyone because there shouldn’t be a doubt that these are the facts.
adobo Magazine: How is AI helping brands take their YouTube campaigns to the next level?
Sapna: We’re one of the only platforms that has a large language mode — Gemini — which we’re now putting into all of Google’s products. So whether it’s YouTube, Maps, or Photos across the board, our large language model is powering insights and powering what users can do, but it’s also powering what advertisers can do and what businesses can do. I think there’s sometimes been a fear around AI actually taking away jobs. I would offer that the opposite will happen. Typically, you would have to go to a data science team and ask somebody for information. [But] because of AI, I think the speed to market will change incredibly. What used to take four months may take a month. What used to take four days will take four hours. And so I think this will change because the insights are generated faster, which allow people to go to market faster, but also [with the] tools like creative testing we have within our tools ecosystem, we allow people to test with some of our cloud AI capabilities that allow creative testing. Today, you can get it within hours and understand the likelihood of something working. The best creatives will still come from people. You can’t use AI without creativity. So, I’m excited about what can be done and the scale and what will happen.
adobo Magazine: On a personal note, which ad campaign or brand–creator partnership on YouTube has inspired you the most?
Sapna: That’s a hard one, because they’re all my customers, but I’ll choose [one that is] not my customer — Dutchie Thailand’s “Fight for Thais’ Gut.” They [tell the story] extremely well. And I would say they’re not one of the largest advertisers. You could argue [that] they are scrappy in what they do, but look at what the reach that they’re getting. They saw a 95% view-through rate — that’s very hard. It’s impossible, and I would say it’s on a brand that is not spending the biggest budgets, but it shows the power of what the platform can do. They have won three times, and they’ve won Best of twice at the Southeast Asia level. They’re doing something incredibly well.
