Earlier this month, software provider, Pixability, released a comprehensive study on the use of YouTube by leading global brands in a report called, “The Top 100 Global Brands: Key Lessons for Success on YouTube.”

Revealing a 99 percent YouTube adoption rate and 73 percent year-over-year growth, the brands driving the best results are moving beyond television-style brand awareness to much more socially-engaged, longer-form, content-rich channels.

The report analyzes the videos produced by the top 100 global brands, as ranked by Interbrand in its Best Global Brands report, and how they have made YouTube a critical part of their marketing and business strategy.

Over the past five years, the top brands have gone from just a few dozen YouTube uploads in 2005 to more than 10,000 cumulative video uploads in a single month last year. These 100 brands alone now account for 9.5 billion collective YouTube views and more than 2,200 channels containing 258,000+ videos.

“Ignoring YouTube is no longer an option for marketers,” said Bettina Hein, Founder and CEO of Pixability. “Leading brands are using YouTube to build an engaged audience and drive business results. Marketers who put the best practices unveiled in this report into action will drive more successful video and digital marketing campaigns.”

Understanding that video marketing is just as important as video production, these brands offer valuable lessons. The report pinpoints seven core best practices for brand marketers. Three of the best practices include:

1. Be a well-oiled, consistent, video content machine: The most successful brands have 50% more videos per channel compared to the least successful ones. The best-performing brands publish high volumes of content on a regular schedule. Top aggregate brands publish approximately 78 videos per month. Leading media brands produce even more: close to 500 videos per month.

2. Apply an “Always On” strategy to video marketing: The most successful brand marketers on YouTube integrate their online video strategies with their traditional, offline marketing strategies. 17 of the Top 100 Global Brands use less than 50% of their channels. Continued advertising results in sustainable channel growth and subscribers.

3. Don’t get caught in the overproduction trap; lesser quality video works well, too: The best YouTube marketers produce a broader range of video content. Videos do not need to be prime-time quality, because those with lower production value can be just as effective.

To view the full report you’ll have to download it via their website – but even a taste of it was enough for me to email my team and say, we need to talk about using more video!