Live ads are losing impact as brands are looking to YouTube to amplify their messaging, said Shubha Pai, Youtube Sales and Solutions Head, in conversation with businesslinewhen talking about new consumer behaviour trends.

During IPL 2024, fans actually spent 20 per cent more time on non-live content, showing a shift towards on-demand viewing experience and deeper engagement.

“This growing appetite for on-demand cricket content is also evident on other Google platforms. So, search interest actually has surged 4 times in the last four years. And cricket-related content on YouTube has seen more than 50 billion views in the last 12 months as well,” said Pai.

When asked for a possible reason, the Sales Head said that in the early 2000s, ads would stick in consumer consciousness as the space to showcase the ads was relatively clutter-free. However, nowadays multiple ads associated with cricket are shown together on the screen, diminishing the exclusivity factor. Further, consumers are also entering the trend of dual screens, while doing multiple activities on the side.

“In an ad break, you see a number of different ads and out of the 600 odd creatives that played last year, about two were 30-second long. Considering the dynamics of the game, this ad may not even register. So, I think that is the clutter that could lead to brands not being able to fully tell their stories on live cricket,” said Pai, recommending AI-driven solutions to reach the ad to the target audience at the optimum time.

Pai added that 88 per cent of fans engage in expert analysis, talk shows, and fan-led content on YouTube. Considering this, YouTube’s provides ad formats like vertical videos and AI-driven image ads, bumpers, polls, CTV QR codes.

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Published on April 11, 2025