The 2017 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros kicked off on Tuesday night. The fall classic, no matter who is playing in it grabs my attention. Baseball is America’s past times and October baseball is one of the greatest sports joys. Clearly, one of the biggest stories from Game 1 was an ad, and it was the talk of social media during the game. The most prized ad real estate is the backstop behind home plate, it is the most visible spots in all of sports, as that spot is shown during every pitch of the game. YouTube game up with a clever way to utilize that spot, by having a banner advertising their YouTube TV.
To start, YouTube TV peaks my interest because I cut the cable cord over a year ago and stream the TV that I want to watch. YouTube TV is Google’s answer to all of the other streaming services that are out there. With the ad behind home place, Google no-doubt wanted to make the viewers at home feel as if they were watching the game on YouTube. The YouTube play button had been expertly positioned right in the middle of the screen. It looked as if the game was on YouTube and you had to click the play button on you TV screen to watch the game. This was obviously an annoyance to some who expressed their displeasure on Social Media, while others who thought the ad was brilliant.
Right before the first pitch of the game, YouTube aired a commercial that featured live commentary from the broadcast booth. The camera then zooms from the booth to on-field footage an then to a TV set is someone’s living room, which showcases actual live footage from Dodger Stadium. From that point on, the ad showcases Fox’s content that is available on YouTube and the variety of ways that subscribers to the service can watch the programming. As a sponsor of the World Series, YouTube TV will air ads during each game of the fall classic.
Whether you liked the location of the YouTube play button on the center of your screen or not, people were talking about it. YouTube will continue to be the #2 search engine and nobody will stop using YouTube over their ad or the location of it. People will still go to the site tomorrow and they may even pick up subscribers to their YouTube TV service. Time will tell what comes of it, but I just think that this is a huge win for YouTube and their YouTube TV service.
