Analysis 4 - Media

November 23, 2025

In this assignment, I’m analyzing YouTube as my medium because that’s where I came across the “Guerlain Aqua Allegoria” advertisement.I found it on Guerlain’s official YouTube channel. I have also seen it as an advertisement that plays before other videos, and as on tv during commercials.

Even though the advertisement is brief, it has a really classy feel. It uses natural imagery like flowers, rich greenery, clear water, and warm light, switching between those scenes and close-ups of the Aqua Allegoria bottle. The colors are soft and welcoming. The phrase “The world is our garden” connects the scent to the natural world, which helps it come across as both high-end and environmentally aware.

On YouTube, the advertisement plays in the regular screen player. When it appears before another video, it fills the screen, and a small “Skip ad” button shows up after a few seconds. When I watch it directly on Guerlain’s channel, it has a title, a description, and other recommended videos on the side. So the advertisement is not just floating on its own - it lives inside a huge video platform where people watch music, tutorials, vlogs, and reviews every day.

YouTube launched in 2005, after three former PayPal employees-Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim-decided to build a website that made it easy for anyone to upload and share videos.Back then, sharing video was hard and took a lot of time, so their goal was to build a simple website where anyone could post a short clip and send the link to friends. During the first few years of YouTube, videos were generic, like the famous “shoes" video, but they proved that everyday moments could reach people all over the world (Cooke, 2025).

Google’s $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube in 2006 gave the platform a big boost and helped it grow worldwide (Cooke, 2025). Over the years, YouTube widened its reach, launching the Partner Program to allow creators to profit from their work through advertising, and implementing a recommendation algorithm designed to keep viewers engaged. Today, YouTube ranks among the world's largest platforms, frequently stated as the second most popular search engine, trailing only Google (Cooke, 2025; Global Media Insight, 2025). No longer just a website for random videos, YouTube has evolved into a significant advertising and media platform, where brands, influencers, and everyday users all contribute content in the hopes of pursuing more views.

YouTube's influence is vast, with Global Media Insight (2025) estimating that approximately 2.7 billion individuals engage with the platform monthly, while establishing it as a leading global social media entity. The platform's user demographic includes all age demographics, however a significant percentage consists of young and middle-aged individuals. Users access YouTube to view music videos, DIYs, consumer evaluations of products, and  gamer walkthroughs, etc (Global Media Insight, 2025). YouTube's broad scale and its capacity to monitor user viewing habits and searchers provide advertisers with an abundance of opportunities to target specific audience categories effectively.

Before bed, I watch reviews and tutorials on fragrances and cosmetics videos on YouTube. Each time I click on another video, it teaches the algorithm more about my tastes, which then decides which advertisements and recommendations I get. Since I’m into fragrance content, it’s not surprising YouTube showed me a Guerlain Aqua Allegoria advertisement.

The Guerlain Aqua Allegoria advertisement popped up ahead of the beauty video I’d selected. It covered the screen, with a small timer in the bottom left and a “Skip ad” option in the bottom right. Below the advertisement, the title and thumbnail of my original video were still there, and on the right, YouTube’s recommendations were mostly other videos about makeup, perfume, and beauty.

The strategic arrangement of advertisements is vital, as it concentrates on individuals actively engaged with corresponding content. A viewer that interacts with a fragrance review or a cosmetics tutorial is statistically further inclined to appreciate a luxury perfume brand than an individual consuming sports clips or gaming videos. In this scenario, the Guerlain advertisement was shown alongside other beauty and lifestyle videos, often beauty advertisements. This means the advertisement was viewed as integrated within a "beauty zone" on my device, rather than as an arbitrary commercial interruption.

The advertisements placement capitalizes on YouTube's unique viewing habits. When a video launches, viewers are typically focused. Guerlain's advertisement utilizes this opportunity, launching with visually appealing imagery: nature, light, and the fragrance bottle. However, if a viewer skips the advertisement, the key message can still be communicated. For the viewers that are intrigued, it might lead to further viewing, viewers may go to Guerlain's channel, or a following search for the fragrance. Eventually, featuring this type of luxurious fragrance advertisement alongside beauty and lifestyle content on YouTube appears to be a clever use of the platform and its target audience capabilities. 

References:

Forestier, N., Gay, P.-A., Moore, M. H., Pavia, F., & Leboucq, V. (1998, March 2). Company-histories.com. Guerlain -- Company History. https://www.company-histories.com/Guerlain-Company-History.html

GMI Research TeamGMI’s Research Team is a panel of knowledgeable experts from various fields such as digital marketing. (2025, November 12). YouTube statistics 2025 [users by country + demographics]. Official GMI Blog. https://www.globalmediainsight.com/blog/youtube-users-statistics/ 

Cooke, A. (2025, February 16). From start-up curiosity to cultural colossus: A 20-year history of YouTube. Fstoppers. https://fstoppers.com/historical/start-curiosity-cultural-colossus-20-year-history-youtube-693060 

Guerlain. (2022, March 1). GUERLAIN | Aqua Allegoria: The World is Our Garden. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFurfWj_8YY