Top 3 Panel Takeaways from Instagram vs. YouTube: Who Will Win the War?

On October 4, 2018, the last day of Advertising Week, MediaRadar hosted a panel to discuss the future of long-form video advertising.

In the past year, YouTube has faced significant criticism regarding brand safety. At one point, 250 brands stopped advertising on YouTube due to concerns about inventory risk. Half of advertisers still say YouTube has done a poor job managing quality. With YouTube in a vulnerable state, Instagram’s IGTV could threaten the platform’s monopoly on long-form advertising.

The panel consisted of five advertising experts:

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  Kerry Flynn (Moderator) | Media Buying & Platforms Reporter, Digiday
  Kerry Flynn is a business reporter with experience in newspapers, magazines like Forbes, and online media. She recently moved from tech reporting at Newsweek Media Group and Mashable to the advertising beat at Digiday, focusing on how digital platforms have altered brand strategies. Flynn is a graduate of Harvard University.

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  Kaydee Bridges | VP, Digital & Social Media Strategy, Goldman Sachs
  Bridges’ digital and social media work at Goldman Sachs has won several awards. Previously at JPMorgan Chase, she launched and led the firm’s first presence on Facebook: Chase Community Giving, a philanthropic program donating over $30 million to thousands of charities. Bridges holds an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BSFS in International Politics from Georgetown University.

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  Elijah Harris | VP, Head of Social Media, US, Reprise Digital
  Harris leads all paid social efforts across Mediabrands US, focusing on data-driven performance and leveraging social data and insights for informed decisions. He has nearly ten years of experience across the digital landscape. Reprise’s clients include Coca Cola, Spotify, Merck, BMW, and Accenture.

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  Todd Krizelman | Co-Founder & CEO, MediaRadar
  Krizelman co-founded MediaRadar in 2007, a comprehensive data company focused on the ad sales market. He previously co-founded one of the world’s first social media sites, theGlobe.com, and led it from inception to IPO. Krizelman is a graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Business School.

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  Noah Mallin | Managing Partner, Head of Experience, Content, Sponsorship, Wavemaker North America
  Mallin is a marketing and advertising veteran with over a dozen years of experience. He leads the Content and Experience practice for Wavemaker North America, building data-driven purchase journey approaches to marketing. Wavemaker’s clients include IKEA, L’Oreal, Danone, Church & Dwight, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, and Adobe.

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  Brittany Richter | VP, Head of Social Media, US, iProspect
  Richter specializes in social media, particularly paid social strategy and strategic activation. She has experience teaching at the college level and presenting workshops at conferences and corporate trainings. Richter is a double alumna of the University of Delaware.

The Instagram vs. YouTube panel was held at the Helen Mills event space in midtown Manhattan.

Three Takeaways

1. Instagram’s IGTV has transformed and expanded

What about Instagram’s IGTV has changed?

According to Elijah Harris, IGTV initially showed him long-form content from people he followed on Instagram, which he often didn’t want. However, the platform now offers more opportunities for exploration.

MediaRadar CEO, Todd Krizelman, noted that “IGTV is testing a lot of paid advertising and a lot of top 40 hits right now. But, it still feels more like a professional and academic interest to me than one of leisure.”

2. YouTube still wins the popular vote

As a brand, where do you go first and why – YouTube or IGTV?

Most panelists agreed that brands should start with YouTube rather than Instagram’s IGTV for several reasons. Benefits of YouTube cited included: it is “cheaper,” “long-form content like podcasts perform better on YouTube,” and it’s “better for sharing.”

Elizabeth Richter, iProspect’s Head of U.S. Social Media, disagreed. She argued that “if a brand is struggling with their messaging, then Instagram’s IGTV is best for them because they can experiment with different brand messages and see how their consumers respond.”

3. The future states of Instagram’s IGTV and YouTube

What do Instagram’s IGTV and YouTube need?

For Instagram’s IGTV, Elijah Harris of Reprise Digital said, “Depends what it wants to be. If it wants to be YouTube, it needs meta tags and better discoverability. If it wants to be Snapchat, it needs curated content and MCN (multi-channel network) participation.”

Noah Mallin added, “It also needs breakout content … Even Vine, which I’m still mourning, there was amazing content there.”

For YouTube, Mallin argued, “It needs to get more mobile. It’s still stuck in its desktop roots.”