One Big Online Family: ANA Alliance for Family Entertainment and YouTube Make a Content Connection

NEW YORK, May 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Association of National Advertisers' Alliance for Family Entertainment (AFE) announced today a partnership with YouTube, the world's most popular online video community, to create and support more digital family content. It is the most ambitious digital initiative to date from the consortium of leading national advertisers, who have brought to air some of the most-popular family shows on television for more than a decade.

Subway, Unilever, Verizon Wireless and Walmart are among AFE members participating in the effort under YouTube's AFE "Family Entertainment" package, which includes popular content on YouTube's education, beauty/fashion, science, sports, music, gaming, health and fitness, culinary, news and "mom interest" channels. AFE member support will help to support this next generation of creators while providing family brands with more places to advertise online.  Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"AFE's partnership with YouTube is a 'win' for everyone, but especially consumers," says Gail Tifford, AFE co-chair, Unilever senior director of media, North America and a key driver of the initiative.  "By leveraging our united strength on YouTube, a digital platform that reaches 1 billion unique visitors every month, we can increase support for more family content and respond to what our consumers tell us they want over and over again—more choices for smart, sophisticated family storytelling." 

"We understand that families consume content on all platforms—traditional and digital—and are looking for programming they can watch together as well as content that they are proud to share," concludes Ben Simon, AFE co-chair and senior director of retail development for Walmart U.S.  "This new partnership is another demonstration of our commitment to be in the forefront of our consumers' choices and keep supporting and nurturing family stories wherever and however they are seen."

For more than a decade the AFE has worked hard to provide consumers with entertainment options that multi-generational audiences can enjoy together. Its original mission of finding, supporting and developing great family TV shows brought to air such hits as Gilmore Girls, Everybody Hates Chris and Friday Night Lights. The group has since expanded its focus to include new and emerging content platforms.

It has also broken new ground in its innovative partnership with Will Smith and James Lassiter's award-winning entertainment production company Overbrook Entertainment on the "Search for America's Newest Scriptwriter" Contest, the nation's only script competition for aspiring unrepresented writers.  The winner of the 2013 contest will be announced in late June.

"More than one billion people are tuning into the content they love on YouTube each month, and we have hundreds of thousands of partners creating programming that educates, inspires and improves the world," said Jim Lecinski, vice president, sales, Google. "Our partnership with the ANA Alliance for Family Entertainment provides an ideal way for advertisers to tap into all of the family friendly content available on YouTube and form an authentic and meaningful connecting with their audience."

About the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the ANA Alliance for Family Entertainment (AFE)

Founded in 1910, the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) leads the marketing community by providing its members with insights, collaboration, and advocacy. The ANA includes over 515 companies with 10,000 brands that collectively spend over $250 billion in marketing communications and advertising. The ANA strives to communicate marketing best practices, lead industry initiatives, influence industry practices, manage industry affairs, and advance, promote, and protect all advertisers and marketers.

The Alliance for Family Entertainment is a group of national advertisers supported by the ANA that represents 37 percent of all U.S. television advertising dollars. Its mission is to find, nurture, develop, and support high-quality content the entire family can enjoy on multiple distribution platforms.

About YouTube

YouTube is the world's most-popular online video community, allowing more than a billion people to discover, watch and share the videos and channels they love. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform and inspire others across the globe and is a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small. YouTube, LLC is based in San Bruno, California, and is a subsidiary of Google Inc.

SOURCE Association of National Advertisers' Alliance for Family Entertainment