YouTube is on the edge of glory.
The social and video sharing platform ended the 2025 TV upfront week with its annual Brandcast—and this one was especially important for the company, given that it was celebrating its 20th anniversary. For this year’s annual event, YouTube brought together creators like MrBeast, Brittany Broski, Casey Neistat, and Hot Ones host Sean Evans, while also showcasing musical performances from Alex Warren and Lady Gaga at the David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center.
Throughout the presentation, YouTube spent a lot of time going down memory lane, reminding advertisers and guests about some of the creators and videos—think Chocolate Rain, Charlie the Unicorn, Leave Britney Alone—that made an impact on the platform. In addition, the company explored how advertisers can get their message to surround cultural moments and live beyond tentpole events.
ADWEEK’s upfront postmortem chats have covered NBCUniversal, Fox, Amazon, TelevisaUnivision, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Netflix. Now, for our final postmortem, Sean Downey, president of Americas and global partners at Google, spoke to ADWEEK about how the 20th anniversary celebration came together, YouTube’s messaging to buyers while navigating uncertainty during negotiations, and why he wants brands to go gaga for their offerings.
ADWEEK: Congratulations on making it through another Brandcast. What were you most excited about and proud of?
Downey: We had a full house. Everyone was excited to be there. Everyone had a lot of energy, and we got to showcase the total YouTube experience. That was the most important thing. We always tell them—I ended this way—there’s only one YouTube, and we tried to show that. It was our 20th anniversary, so we want to celebrate that. That was a testament to the platform that’s evolved for two decades, and we wanted to showcase that. It is the epicenter of culture. You could see all the varied voices resonate.
