On 25 April, Fox ran mastheads for Wolverine across 11 different countries, the biggest masthead takeover on YouTube.
YouTube partnered with Fox, Isobar and MetrixLab to test the impact of the global campaign in the UK and Spain by asking consumers about awareness of the movie, intention to view the movie and search and sharing of related content.
The Wolverine masthead drove a 15% uplift in awareness in the UK and 19% uplift in Spain.
The masthead was able to raise expectations of the movie, with a 6% lift in those expecting the movie to be as good or better than previous X-Men films amongst the target audience in Spain.
Up to 8% more of the target audience intended to watch the movie in the cinema following exposure to the ad.
Google has been attempting to recoup some of $1.6bn it paid for YouTube by overhauling its homepage ads to draw in large advertisers who want to reach over 6m people.
In January, YouTube launched new click-to-play expandable homepage video ads, masthead and 30-second auto-roll ads costing advertisers tens of thousands of pounds for a single day.
The new ads were greeted with some negativity by agencies who felt homepage takeovers were outdated and did not offer targeted advertising opportunities.
But Google argues that ads on YouTube have higher brand impact than on TV. Research last year conducted with Motorola and its agency Mindshare, and General Motors Europe, found users to be 1.5 times more attentive on YouTube than TV.
Apple, Nike, Barclaycard and Sony are the first to have dipped a toe into homepage takeover campaigns.
.jpg)
.jpg)