There was a second session at Google’s Grow Forum that was worth the price of admission. The title: “YouTube & Creatives.” The subtitle: unlock the full power of video, discover creative frameworks that capture attention, and drive real business impact in a multichannel world.
Put like that, it sounds like the usual invitation to “make more videos.” That is not the point. The point is something I kept turning over in my head as I walked out of the room: television is not dead. It has simply moved to YouTube. And most people producing video content still have not realized it.
The Data That Ends the Debate
Let’s start with the numbers, because they leave very little room for argument.
In January 2026, YouTube accounted for 12.7% of all television viewing time in the United States, according to Nielsen. Netflix, in second place, stood at 9%. By April, YouTube had climbed to 13.4%, compared with Netflix at 7.8%. In 2026, streaming now represents almost half of all TV viewing, and YouTube is the single most-watched service on the big screen. For many households, the YouTube app is the first thing they open when they turn on the television.
You read that correctly. We are not talking about teenagers watching videos on their phones. We are talking about the living room. The sofa. The sixty-inch television switched on at nine in the evening. YouTube has effectively become the biggest television network in the world. And streaming has already surpassed broadcast and cable combined.
So here is the question that matters. If television is now being watched on YouTube, why does your creative strategy still behave as though they were two separate worlds?
The Wall Between TV Commercials and YouTube Ads Has Collapsed
Until recently, we thought in separate categories. On one side, there was the television commercial: cinematic, expensive, designed for the big screen. On the other, digital content: fast, vertical, designed to be consumed with your thumb. Two different disciplines, two different budgets, often two different agencies.
In 2026, that distinction has evaporated. You can run high-definition cinematic creative that is also shoppable and measurable. The same ad that appears on the television in someone’s living room can be clicked, tracked, and optimized. And there is another detail that changes the equation: on the big screen, people often watch together, just as they did with traditional television. This co-viewing behavior amplifies actual reach and brand recall. Peak viewing hours, much like traditional TV, fall between seven and eleven in the evening.
Meanwhile, advertising money is moving in the same direction. Connected TV ad spending in the United States is estimated to approach $38 billion in 2026, growing by more than fourteen percent, and is expected to overtake linear television by 2028. The budget is following the eyeballs. And the eyeballs are on YouTube.
Here Is the Trap Almost Everyone Falls Into
This is where we get to the real problem, and the one the session was trying to address. If the same creative idea needs to work on a phone and in the living room, across Shorts and in-stream placements, you cannot produce one asset and simply hope it performs everywhere.
A video designed for the feed does not automatically work on the big screen. A Shorts ad lives or dies within the first one or two seconds because the person scrolling is in TikTok mode, looking for immediate entertainment or value. A skippable in-stream ad has five seconds to convince someone not to hit “Skip.” These are different mental contexts. The exact same content does not speak to both audiences in the same way.
That is what the “multichannel world” in the session subtitle really means. It does not mean “be present on more channels.” It means the same idea needs to translate effectively across different creative environments with different technical rules. Those who fail to understand this produce a single asset, distribute it everywhere, and then wonder why it does not convert.
Google’s Answer Is Called ABCD
The framework Google proposes to navigate this complexity is called ABCD. It is not simply an opinion. It is a model developed from the analysis of more than 11,000 campaigns and validated by Kantar. On average, creative assets that follow its principles generate around a 30% higher likelihood of short-term sales and a 17% greater contribution to long-term brand impact.
Four letters, four jobs your creative needs to perform.
Attention: Capture attention within the first few seconds through movement, faces, and strong framing. Static shots almost always lose.
Branding: Show the brand early, before the viewer has the opportunity to skip, without killing the story in the process.
Connection: Tell a story centered around people. Show the real benefit instead of making an abstract claim.
Direction: Finish with one specific call to action. “Start your free trial” will almost always outperform something generic like “Learn more.”
What makes ABCD interesting is that it does not flatten creativity. It does not make every ad look the same. It gives you a structure for effectiveness within which your idea can still be original and recognizable. That is almost the exact opposite of what creatives tend to fear when they hear the word “framework.”
AI Is Entering Production, but It Is Not Taking the Wheel
Then there is the chapter that cannot be ignored in 2026. Traditional video production costs thousands of euros and can take weeks, making it almost impossible to test ten different hooks. AI changes that equation.
Google has integrated Veo into Google Ads: starting from a static image, you can generate high-quality video variations, multiply your assets, and improve Ad Strength without reshooting everything from scratch. Adding vertical formats to campaigns, for example, can generate between 10% and 20% more conversions per euro spent on Shorts.
But this needs to be understood correctly. AI is useful for scaling variations, testing quickly, killing the losers, and pushing the winners. It is not there to produce the idea. For brand-critical campaigns, human creativity remains the foundation. AI is the lever for quantity, not the source of the vision.
What I Took Away From the Grow Forum
In the end, the messages from the two sessions fit together. The first said that you need to measure better in a world with fewer cookies. The second said that you need to create better in a world where television now lives inside YouTube.
And if I had to choose one sentence to remember, it would be this. In advertising, creativity has returned to being the number-one lever. As algorithms increasingly handle targeting and optimization on their own, the thing that truly remains in your hands is the content. The format changes, the screen changes, the channel changes. The discipline of capturing attention, showing the brand, creating connection, and directing the viewer does not.
Television has moved to YouTube. The question is not whether you should follow it. It is whether your creative strategy is ready for the living room and the thumb at the same time.
