YouTube has launched Brand Partner Program Certification, an online educational tool for agencies that promises to help them learn the tricks of YouTubes biggest stars in order to create better branded content for the video platform.

The curriculum includes tips on publishing frameworks, campaign optimisation, and how to work with YouTube content creators. The course includes advice direct from these creators, including Hannah Hart, MysteryGuitarMan and My Cupcake Addiction – apparently big names on YouTube.

The program is rolling out today on an invitational basis, and is available in 22 languages.

The launch builds on YouTubes existing Brand Partner Program, a week-long course for brands introduced three years ago, widening its reach by not requiring participants to commit time in-person.

Breaking through
At a launch event on YouTubes private beach in Cannes, CMO Danielle Tiedt talked about the difficulty of standing out amongst the “explosion of content” on YouTube. The number of videos produced in 2015 by the top 100 brands alone was up 39 per cent year-on-year, to 853,000. (You can see more of these stats in the infographic at the bottom of this post.)

“As a marketer, its a really interesting time to think how you break through – just putting up a video is no longer good enough,” Tiedt said.

Tiedt outlined three areas she has identified with successful brands on YouTube. The first is building trust and an authentic relationship with the audience, similar to the way YouTube stars do with their fans. The second is innovative storyytelling formats – Tiedt used the example of 360° videos, which YouTube is now the worlds biggest platform for.

Finally, she pointed to the importance of diversity, which Tiedt believes is more possible on YouTube than traditional media because the lower barrier to entry. “Its important that were using our influence and power to help shape the images that young people see today,” she said.

Don’t forget to enter the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards. The Early Bird deadline for submissions is 22 July. More details here.