YouTube has just launched a new engagement product for YouTube Brand Channels called the YouTube Mosaic. What it does is present an image covering nearly the entire screen of a channel, and it is made up of colors and shapes from a bunch of individual videos.

"The idea is that users no longer just browse on a company’s channel, but they can also actively experience the brand in new and exciting ways, which could lead them to identify more strongly with it," Victoria Katsarou of YouTube Communications tells WebProNews.

Volkswagen is already utilizing the Mosaic on its channel. The company is just part of a growing number of advertisers from various sectors who are employing gadget on their channels to more effectively engage their audiences, Katsarou says.

"Volkswagen always pursues innovation in communication. Because of that,  social media is an important part of our brand communication strategy –we are using innovative tools and are the first to try out new formats," says Ralf Maltzen, Head of CRM and Internet Marketing at Volkswagen AG.

"As we expand creative possibilities for brand Channels, advertisers their have the option to create their own gadgets or use pre-made gadgets by YouTube, such as the popular Contest Module  or the eye-catching Mosaic," Katsarou adds.

To take advantage of the Mosaic, advertisers need only provide YouTube with an 840×411 .jpg, .png. or .gif image file, and the video information of all the videos they want to include. YouTube then creates the mosaic automatically. The channel must have a minimum of 25 videos in order for it to work. The Mosaic matches the shape and color of each thumbnail to the pixels of the target image. Videos can be:

- belonging to the brand
- related to the brand (permission from content owner required)
- submitted to a contest

When users scroll over thumbnails, they are enlarged to show the details of the video (name, length, rating). Once clicked, the user can watch video within the gadget, and scroll through videos while remaining on the channel.

The mosaic provides an interesting way to get users to explore the videos in a brand channel. YouTube maintains that it also encourages users to explore all your videos, spending more time with your brand.

The Mosaic feature is currently only available to advertisers. There are currently no plans to extend the feature for availability to all channels.