Google just pissed off the entire TV industry

Not content with grabbing ad dollars from TV networks across the world, Google went a step further by announcing that the adverts it serves on YouTube are better at convincing watchers to buy stuff.

In a report seen by the Guardian, Matt Brittin, Google’s head honcho in Europe will say that 80 percent of the time, YouTube ads were more effective than TV ads later this week at an advertising conference.

“We found that while TV maintains a powerful impact in the digital age, digital video is under-invested in several categories we measured in the UK, France and Germany,” said Lucien van der Hoeven, general manager EMEA at MarketShare, one of the companies hired by Google to conduct the analysis.

Brittin will go so far to suggest that advertisers should be spending six times more on YouTube if they really want to make those ad pennies go further.

Naturally the TV industry didn’t like that very much. Leading the charge in its defence is Thinkbox, a TV marketing body that has Sky, ITV and Channel 4 as its members. A spokesmen from the company said, “TV builds brands better than anything else and creates the most profit.”

The spokesperson went further by insisting that big advertisers are more interested in placing ads inside flagship shows such as Limitless on Sky as opposed to things like this, or this or even this (whatever you do, don’t click the last one).

However, long-term studies show that the crucial 16-24 year old demographic that advertisers covet are not watching TV anymore, and just so happen to love watching things like this, or this, or this.

In fact, the young now spend more time watching stuff online than watching regular scheduling programming.

So even though Google is taking the low-road when it comes to the types of ads it attracts to YouTube, its numbers are up 40 percent year-on-year. If you’re in advertising, and want to reach ‘da youf’, that’s not something to turn your nose up at.