We've just wrapped up award show season, when juries of the most respected minds in the advertising industry tell us which work is good.
I'm joshing you, of course. Awards are good to win, but any of us is perfectly capable of forming our own opinions about which ads are good. Opinions are known to be subjective, after all.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, there's also something to be said for seeing what "normal" people think of your TV spots. You know, "normal" people, as in not award show judges, not jaded writers and art directors or adcritics. Just people who watch stuff on YouTube.
You have to take YouTube comments with a grain of salt. The person commenting could be in your target. It could also be a 12-year-old boy. But hey, how often are award-show judges part of the target market either? There's just something refreshing in knowing that the person judging it is just giving their opinion. Kind of like if they were sitting in front of the TV and your ad came on. And if you do an ad that someone else likes enough to take the time to post on youtube, well, that's a decent compliment in itself.