YouTube is announcing a new way to buy advertising, which it’s calling YouTube Select.
The announcement — made ahead of the now-remote digital advertising NewFronts next month — doesn’t reflect a broader change in who gets to monetize their videos (something that’s been a fraught topic at the Google-owned video service), but it is part of an ongoing effort to assure marketers that they can safely advertise on YouTube.
In a blog post, YouTube advertising’s vice president of product management Vishal Sharma wrote that YouTube Select is “a reimagination and unification” of existing products for premium advertisers, including Google Preferred and prime packs.
Like Google Preferred (which is being phased out by the end of 2020), YouTube Select is meant to give advertisers access to a more curated, higher quality selection of creators and publishers. A YouTube spokesperson told me that the core content lineups will be the same as they were under Google Preferred, with categories like music, sports, gaming and technology.
However, YouTube Select is also introducing a package focused specifically on YouTube and YouTube TV content that’s streaming to TVs (something that the service has already been emphasizing). And it’s adding new lineups of up-and-coming or niche creators.
“With YouTube Select, you can be confident that your ad buys are brand-safe,” Sharma wrote. “You’ll have access to advanced brand suitability controls, as well as the option to only serve ads on videos that have been machine classified and human-verified across all lineups (lineup/market dependent).”