Gregg DellaRocca

YouTube – Social Media Campaign
Project developed and executed as a Senior Designer at Modicum.
Roles: Design Lead, Illustration

Client Background
YouTube allows users to upload, view, rate, share, add to favorites, report, comment on videos, and subscribe to other users. As of February 2017, there are more than 400 hours of content uploaded to YouTube each minute, and one billion hours of content are watched on YouTube every day.

A Social Celebration

To celebrate their 10th anniversary, YouTube partnered with the Webby Awards to get people to vote on their favorite online ad. They needed a series of shareable Twitter-ready graphics that were on-brand and captured both their history and the essence of their brand today.

Handmade Approach

Focusing on YouTube’s early DIY roots my plan was to mirror their handmade spirit in graphic form. While working through a 103-degree fever, I had a revelation: doodles of elements featured in the ads would make the perfect background design aesthetic, bringing an old-school feel to YouTube’s otherwise sleek and tech-savvy look. I drafted up the first concept for Friskies' featuring some cute kittens and we sent over the pitch along with some safer second options.

YouTube went for the unconventional hand-sketched approach, and I set to work on what would become over 150 unique doodles. The whole process involved scanning doodles into Illustrator, running a live trace and then incorporating all of the visuals in Photoshop. The mix of styles hit the sweet spot of both staying on and stretching their brand.

The Results

YouTube Tweeted out all 22 graphics, and the companies themselves promoted their ads on social media to over 2.6 million followers. With 140 million votes and an assist, so to speak, from both Lionel Messi and Kobe Bryant, a Turkish Airlines spot was crowned ad of the decade. Tweets fanned out across the web, and YouTube converted this unique look into an attention-grabbing email. With a signature new look, YouTube celebrated their brand and their community. Select content was taken/paraphrased from Modicum's case study, you can check it out here.