This is a rocket ship, and its not slowing down things we heard at YouTube Festival [Video]

From AI-powered campaigns by Cadbury and Coca-Cola to EE’s audience-led storytelling, the YouTube Festival revealed how brands can drive real results by balancing emotional engagement and cutting-edge measurement.

“No one wants to compare apples with bananas,” said Dyana Najdi, managing director, UK & Ireland partners and specialists at Google, as a Pixel Studio AI-generated image of apples under a banana tree flashed up on screen at the recent YouTube Festival.

The analogy captured the challenge marketers face today: “As absurd as that may sound, when we unpack some of the measurement practices in play today, that’s essentially what we’re seeing: differences in the definitions of basic metrics, how and when conversions are counted, how media channels are being defined and broken out, all impacting [marketers’] ability to understand true media effectiveness,” she said.

In a world of multiple platforms, shifting consumer behaviors, and a growing need for both short-term performance …