YouTube CEO explains how the streaming platform helped Pepsi and Hyundai in India

• YouTube’s CEO, Susan Wojcicki, described how brands in India, like Pepsi and Hyundai, are using YouTube in their advertising efforts.
• Using YouTube’s director mix tool the telecom operator, Idea, saw a 900% increase in search quotes.
• The Indian digital advertising expenditure will grow by 30% in 2019 according to GroupM APAC’s CEO, Mark Patterson, at the YouTube Brandcast India event.
• But, currently India’s brands put in the lowest percentage of media investment towards digital in the Asia Pacific at just 18%.

At the first ever YouTube Brandcast India event, the company’s CEO — Susan Wojcicki — explained how the video streaming platform has been working with brands in India to increase the impact of their marketing campaigns, specifically Pepsi, Hyundai, ICICI Prudential LIfe Insurance and Idea.

Pepsi’s TV campaign, for example, was customised using YouTube’s director mix tool to cater to specific audiences. In turn, Pepsi saw a 14% lift in sales and over three times the return on ad spend.


Similarly for Hyundai, its YouTube campaign resulted in an 18% increase in purchase intent as well as 221 million new users.
Idea used YouTube’s director mix tools for their top trending videos witnessing a 20% uplift in consideration, 31% uplift in awareness and a massive 900% insearch in search quotes.

Indian brands need to hustle

In the Asia Pacific, India has the lowest percentage of media investment being spent on digital but it is the fastest growing advertising market in the world. India’s expenditure on advertising is growing at an annual rate of 14% compared to a global average of just 3.5%.

Taking India’s growth into consideration GroupM APAC’s CEO, Mark Patterson, estimated that in 2019, India should see a 30% growth in digital adex at YouTube Brandcast India.


When it comes to media investment in digital advertising, India’s expenditure is only 18%. It’s even more polarising when you look at digital video as a percentage of all media investment at only 6%.


In comparison, 64% of China’s media investment goes towards digital and 32% of its advertising expenditure is digital video — accounting for half of all digital marketing.

Patterson explains that consumers are looking for more convenience, customisation and choice in their content. India’s even surpassed the US to become the largest and fastest growing market for YouTube according to an official at Google.


60-70% of the users in APAC user mobile video on a daily basis and as more users come online, for the first time, their first experience of the internet is via the mobile screen. “And, their first online habit is watching video,” said Patterson.

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