Our goal was to create a space reminiscent of an old Beach Club - a space that had been open for years rather than hours - to differentiate from the glossy, corporate, overproduced environments that now line the neighbouring beaches. For architectural and experience inspiration, we looked to classic Mediterranean beach clubs. Instead of beautifully finished timber we used stained, rough-sawn planks. Rather than perfect slabs of large-format print, we embraced a hand-painted graphic approach. Instead of two-storey structures, enclosed demo-spaces and huge stages we went for single-storey architecture - embracing the beach location rather than trying to hide it.

All the animated content supported the aesthetic with a simple palette of cinema-style lettering, timber cladding interspersed with content celebrating the many facets of YouTube content.

This year the area was 760 sq.m., twice as big as Google’s first beach in 2011, and constructed on top of the Gray D'Albion and Plage Royale beaches. For the duration of the festival we ran a packed schedule of technical demos, ‘lightning-talks’, and ‘sunset-social’ gigs. YouTube’s content was celebrated with performances by YouTube stars, a nightly cocktail menu, and a Yotam Ottolenghi hosted executive dinner with a performance by Nile Rodgers & Chic. We incorporated a series of private agency nights, targeting some of Google’s biggest media partners. All providing opportunities for Google to successfully communicate with their key targets in an appropriate setting.

To showcase YouTube’s investment in new technologies, we created SubSea Selfie. Guests were invited in small groups to swim to a 360º camera on the ocean floor. Back on shore they received their personal video to easily share their YouTube Beach experience with their network.

In the end, YouTube Beach had over the week 11,500+ attendees; a 17% increase in visitors from the previous year and 96% of the total festival attendees. Outcomes included 12 ‘Lightning-Talks’ for 1600 attendees, and thousands of SubSea selfies which generated content to 260,000 social users. YouTube Beach had a social media reach of 2.3 million impressions.