YouTube Works Awards Southeast Asia jury commend entries that reflect full funnel approaches, deep creativity and holistic use of AI solutions on the platform

As a category that is extremely germane to how YouTube is used and what sets it apart, Long & Short was the most hotly debated, given the judges high standards and expectations.

The jury was clear that the best way to treat multiple formats was to focus on the audiences and objectives. Being a platform that aggregated audiences for both sorts of messaging gives YouTube a distinct edge. None of the entries entirely hit the mark on what the jury was looking for, but an entry from Pepsi from Vietnam won a commendation in the Long & Short category for exploring two different formats: a music video and a very emotional interview. The campaign's view through rates were also impressive. However the jury believed that agencies and brands need to do better.  They were clear that the long format should have a distinct role from that of a shorter cut. Jury lead VJ Anand from VaynerMedia cautioned against the tendency towards “matching luggage” — teardowns or shorter edits of a longer film, instead creating a unique purpose and a differentiated role for a short film.

Jury lead VJ Anand on the entry that won a commendation in The Long & Short 

How local culture and storytelling is powering a Southeast Asian creative renaissance 

Creativity on YouTube is not just nice to have but is a business imperative in a fast-paced digitally driven world where capturing attention and driving results requires bold, innovative thinking. Best Brand Story celebrated these groundbreaking creative approaches and innovations. Jury lead McCann's Valerie Madon zeroed in on entries that leveraged the power of entertainment to engage YouTube’s wide range of audiences. “Marketers should be conscious of pushing the boundaries when it comes to entertaining people,” she said. Sammakorn from Thailand ticked all these boxes and was judged the winner of Best Brand Story.

Jury lead Valerie Madon on the winning entry for Best Brand Story

Creative campaigns on YouTube are often incomplete without harnessing the prowess of people who tell stories on it for a living — YouTube creators. Unilever's Dennis Perez who led the Brands & Creators category had strong opinions about success yardsticks. Through the course of deliberations, the jurors agreed that campaigns should not merely use creators as ambassadors or influencers, but rather as an impactful creative force, amply demonstrated by category winner Nescafe CLC Espresso Roast from Thailand. 

Jury lead Dennis Perez on the winning entry for Brands & Creators

Uncorking the power of AI to achieve better effectiveness and ROI

Last year, AI-themed work was deemed too nascent for there to be a Southeast Asia level winner despite there being several national winners.  The elusive Best of Google AI trophy was awarded for the first time at a regional level to a campaign from Indonesia for Grab. The jury was clear that it wanted to go past simple media optimisation for a more holistic impact of AI across insight, content, and critically, measurement deployed across the value chain. They were also clear that the category was a “blank canvas” with benchmarks constantly being set and reset.

Jury lead Laurent Thevenet from Publicis Groupe pointed to the effectiveness of the winning campaign which impressively deployed Google AI’s full spectrum of solutions.

With multiple options for personalised messages, ability to reach specific niches within an overarching audience, and numerous opportunities for full funnel engagement,  YouTube has again underscored its position as an optimal solution in the otherwise fragmented and geographically disparate Southeast Asian media landscape. The winners are a testimony both to the resilience of the platform and the creativity and ingenuity of Southeast Asian agencies and marketers, intent on breaking new ground with every campaign. 

To see the full list of winners and view the winning case studies, please visit the YouTube Works Southeast Asia Awards website.