Q2 Brand Planning: Exploring April Tentpole Moments on YouTube through Zefr’s Contextual Data

The days are getting longer, the weather is getting warmer, and anticipation for spring and summer plans are coming together for both consumers and marketers. Traveling for business and leisure has bounced back, and a number of major tentpole events are scheduled for in-person attendance after a nearly two-year hiatus, making 2022 Q2 a key marketing period to reach engaged and optimistic audiences across every vertical.

Zefr has identified key monthly themes and tentpole moments throughout April to help advertisers discover relevant cultural trends happening on the YouTube platform. Content related to Financial Literacy Month & Tax Day, Sustainability, Climate Topics, & Earth Day, and Music Festivals were analyzed through Zefr’s access to YouTube’s API.

The insights that follow can help brands determine their media targeting strategies to reach core viewers, or even to test and discover new audiences. We’ll show you the data and trends driving our recommendations, and offer customized, brand suitable solutions advertisers can activate, all backed by our patented, Cognition AI technology built to discover and understand complex video environments.

Financial Education & Betterment

Q2 kicks off with April and the countdown to Tax Day (April 14th), but all month long April is Financial Literacy Month, a time when many brands and organizations are highlighting financial responsibility, education, and resources, and when consumers are encouraged to make changes in their personal lives. On YouTube, Personal Finance video content is popular primarily as an educational resource, where Tips & Advice and Tutorials together make up more than half (57%) of all views in the overall content category which is more than 46 million views total.

Another popular video category is Business and Finance News. Between growing interest in crypto, concerns about inflation and gas prices, or confusion around NFTs, the broader economic and investment news content category captures a massive amount of attention around the hottest new topics or impactful political news, clocking in at over 1 billion total views. According to Zefr’s analysis, some top trending sub-categories within Business & Finance News tend to be Stocks & Investing, World’s Richest, and Politics News.

• Key Takeaway: For brands and advertisers in the financial services, government, or tech and software sectors, both Personal Finance and Business and Finance News represent two key content categories Zefr can help contextually align with during April’s tax season and financial literacy month, reaching audiences leaned-in to trending and educational finance and economic topics.

Season of Sustainability

As spring outdoor and nature-based activities pick back up, and with Earth Day happening on April 22nd, this month happens to be a time when sustainability efforts and calling attention to environmental causes are top of mind. It’s no secret consumers are increasingly discerning when it comes to the brands they support, and have come to expect sustainable options and efforts to go green from many of their favorite companies. Earth Day itself has become a major moment on social media for creators, brands and marketers to acknowledge and demonstrate their engagement with climate and environmental issues.

For sustainability and environmental interests, Zefr looked at all eco-friendly and sustainable living content and creator voices on YouTube to uncover the top trending formats in the space. Made up of over 387 million views across 356 different channels, the biggest content areas were Do-It-Yourself (28%), Day in the Life (17%), and Sustainable Dieting (9%) — video formats that speak to the ways viewers can make changes in their own life that reflect their values.

Another major area of interest and development in recent years has been in electric vehicles, as consumers and businesses understand the need to transition away from fossil fuel burning sources. Auto content on the YouTube platform is already significant and represents a major resource of education and entertainment for auto enthusiasts and shoppers. Within the sub-category for Hybrid & Electric vehicles, Zefr’s analysis found that EV Car Reviews and EV Showcases together made up more than 60% of the more than 1K+ total videos. Looking at EV car brands, the 2022 Hyundai Creta garnered the highest amount of uploads and discussion in comparison to other releases throughout the year.

Electric vehicle releases and conversations around zero-emission transportation will only continue to grow moving forward, making it a solid category for auto brands and other clean energy based brands to surround the latest trends and reach leaned-in audiences.

• Key Takeaway: For brands across all verticals looking to demonstrate their values and the steps they’re taking in the environmental and social good space, April’s focus around sustainability and the online conversations heating up as Earth Day approaches are perfect moments to tap into a variety of video content types, from daily lifestyle to natural world or animal advocacy, to electric vehicles and environmental politics. Zefr can support nuanced and custom strategies to reach environmentally conscious audiences during this important time.

Kicking Off Music Festival Season

Perhaps some of the most anticipated tentpole moments happening this month are the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals–two of the largest and most popular US music festivals that effectively kick-off the summer concert and festival season. Happening fully in-person for the first time in two years, headlining artists from a number of popular genres including Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, Swedish House Mafia, Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat, Carrie Underwood, Luke Combs, and many, many more will be trending on YouTube throughout the festival weeks.

Brands can tap into the festival fandom through targeting the massive scale these artists command on YouTube through their official music videos, lyric videos, interviews, past performances, and more. And the YouTube music festival community lives far beyond the event itself, offering additional engagement once the festival is over through content like music festival fashion, celeb sightings and news, and experiential festival journey vlogs that represent their own categories of content on the platform. Fans that missed out, festival goers looking to relive their favorite moments, or those looking forward to other music events all season long will be tuning in on an ongoing basis.

• Key Takeaway: Brands can surround artists, festival-goer interests, recaps and more all Spring and Summer long to stay relevant with fun, exciting, and fresh music industry content. Zefr has charted out music moments, including festivals starting in April, through the remainder of the year to help brands strategize their media plans and activate on YouTube during don’t-miss moments with significant scale and reach.

Between leaned-in financial moments, environmental interests, or the excitement around the start to the summer music festival season, Zefr can help brands across all verticals identify core audience or new content communities that make sense to align with or try testing. Zefr’s pre-bid targeting on the YouTube platform, aligned to the GARM brand safety framework, provides brand suitable activation in hyper-relevant, high quality content environments that drive full funnel performance.

Download Zefr’s April Tentpole Insights & Sample Targeting One-Sheet

Learn more abut Zefr’s pre-bid targeting and new post-bid measurement opportunities on the walled garden platforms today, and reach out to the team to learn how we can help your brand identify new opportunities.