Marketing in Mexico: YouTube boasts Cable TV-Size Audience.

John Farrell – Director of Content Partnerships for Latin America / YouTube

John Farrell is responsible for developing audiences and growing Google’s video display business in Latin America. He spoke with eMarketer’s Tobi Elkin about the evolving market for online video in Mexico and YouTube’s business there.

eMarketer: What are your priorities for growing the online video market in Mexico and how would you characterize the digital video landscape there?

John Farrell: Mexicans love video and they love YouTube. Mexico is one of our most important markets in terms of audience and watch time. Mexico ranks in the top five markets for YouTube.

“Mexicans love video and they love YouTube. Mexico is one of our most important markets in terms of audience and watch time.”

In Mexico, we have established media players, traditional music players, record labels and publishers, but also the large broadcast TV players. They have large audiences, which they’re beginning to monetize on our platform. They see value in engaging with their audiences on platforms like YouTube, which ultimately brings value to their own vehicles. Working with them is a top priority for us.

We also see a new generation of YouTube content creators that really didn’t have a distribution mechanism before. We have to nurture an ecosystem where both large players and small players coexist and develop significant audiences. It’s incredible how we’ve empowered a new set of content creators that didn’t necessarily have a voice before. So I think that’s another really important trend.

We’re also seeing the birth of multichannel networks—people are starting to aggregate audiences and provide services to multiple players. Some of the global ones are already operating in the region and in Mexico, like Machinima and Fullscreen.

We also have local multichannel networks emerging that are starting to consolidate traffic. I think that’s good because it allows everyone to scale and focus on the most important piece, which is content creation.

eMarketer: What is the most popular base of consumers for YouTube in Mexico?

Farrell: We have all kinds of users—we basically touch all demographics. But we believe our sweet spot is what we call the C Generation—young men and women ages 13 to 30. The entertainment and the music content they consume are probably our most dominant categories right now. We call them the C Generation because they’re connected, they create content and they curate content.

“We believe our sweet spot is what we call the C Generation—young men and women ages 13 to 30.”

This is extremely attractive for advertisers because they need to connect with this audience and be where their consumers have decided to engage. In many cases, you have brands that want to associate specifically with music, entertainment or with comedy content.

eMarketer: What is YouTube’s strategy to monetize video content in Mexico?

Farrell: Content development is one core piece of the strategy and that’s what I’m mostly focused on.

We are educating both our advertisers and agencies about the audience shift to online video. People in Mexico are spending on average, about 30 minutes per session each day on video. Every day we have 10 million users who are spending 30 minutes on average. This is larger than most cable outlets. Our audience in Mexico has grown more than 180% year over year in terms of views and watch time.

“Every day we have 10 million users who are spending 30 minutes on average. This is larger than most cable outlets.”

eMarketer: What percentage of views are coming to YouTube through mobile devices?

Farrell: This year we’ll have anywhere between 18% to 22% of our traffic coming through mobile in Mexico. The global average is about 25% and in some markets it’s closer to 40%. I’m including mobile phones, smartphones and tablets. And if Mexico follows the trajectory we’ve seen in some of our more advanced markets, that number will approach 40% to 50%.

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