YouTube is making a play for a bigger slice of this year’s Super Bowl audience by launching its first ever Super Bowl halftime show.
Pitting some of its biggest stars against NBC’s halftime show starring Katy Perry and Lenny Kravitz, YouTube’s program will be hosted by Freddie Wong from the web series Video Game High School, and include comedy duo Rhett and Link, along with Harley Morenstein from the YouTube hit show EpicMealTime.
It will be fun afterwards to see what was Freddie Wong’s draw compared to Katy Perry and Lenny Kravitz.
According to a report on Bloomberg.com, the February 1 halftime show will include musical performances, stunts and fake Super Bowl ads created by YouTube stars.
Google’s managing director of brand solutions Suzie Reider told Bloomberg that YouTube’s halftime show will be a good place to spotlight YouTube’s celebrities, talent and creators.
“It will be fun afterwards to see what was Freddie Wong’s draw compared to Katy Perry and Lenny Kravitz,” said Reider.
According to Bloomberg’s report, viewers spent 6.3 million hours watching Super Bowl ads on YouTube last year.
Once the leader in online video, Google now must compete against sites like Facebook and Twitter for video views and advertising dollars. YouTube’s Super Bowl halftime show is a strategic move to win over a larger share of viewers who are just as interested in the Super Bowl ads as they are the game.
“The halftime show falls in nicely with this huge theme for us, which is the notion of brands as creators and the commercial as content,” said Reider.
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