Google launching $200M campaign to promote YouTube channels

Google is launching a new $200 million promotional campaign to push its original YouTube channels across the rest of its properties, the company announced yesterday.

The purpose of the campaign is to help brand YouTube as an entertainment property on par with other major media companies.

The new promotional campaign supports YouTube’s current strategy for boosting the amount of premium original videos available on its site — and making it more than just a place to watch funny cat videos and viral content. YouTube committed $100 million on channel partnerships back in October 2011 to ensure that this strategy succeeds. YouTube channel partners previously debuted a number of original shows, including news programs from Reuters, a new indie film fest channel in partnership with Ridley Scott, original sports programming from Bleacher Report.

Google made the announcement at an event for advertisers last night, which included performances by Jay-Z, Flo Rida, Neon Trees, and others as well as lots appearances by many YouTube channel partners.

It’s nice to see that Google is getting behind its push to get more original programming on YouTube. However, success is unfortunately going to come down to the channel partners. If they can’t create enough big hits, no amount of promotional money in the world will make people tune in.

Via AdAge; Photo via Korosirego /Flickr